The Treaty of Versailles -- Part 1

What is a treaty? It is the agreement between two parties. It means there will be some discussion, some deliberation, some consensus, some understanding between the two parties. If two parties happen to be on unequal footing, that is between victors and vanquished, treaty is going to be heavily biased. And better word will be will of victors over vanquished. It is one sided, and is called treaty for namesake only. The same was the case here in 'The Treaty of Versailles'. The two parties to the World War First were: Central Powers (mainly Germany, Austria-Hungry and Turkey) and Allies (mainly France, Great Britain, Japan, Russia, Italy, and the US from 1917).

Allied Forces won, and draft prepared mainly by the Heads of Great Britain, France and the US was handed over to Germany for signing. The position of Germany was such that it could do nothing except accepting and signing the humiliating document called 'The Treaty of Versailles'.

We will formally see the terms of the treaty of Versailles that contains 440 articles shortly after going through the developments that preceded the signing of treaty. It will help us in understanding Weimar Republic, how emperor/kaiser was deposed. And how the blame of defeat in the war was put on Weimar Republic. So what happened when eminent signal of Germany's defeat emerged. What was the reaction of the General and then Chancellor of German Empire. I would like to acquaint you with some important events that unfolded. It will help in understanding the rise of Hitler, and fall of Weimar Republic. Some seeds are planted only to harvest at appropriate time.

On 9 November 1918 Kaiser William II abdicated the Empire and went to exile and the last Chancellor of German Empire Prince Max of Baden also resigned after announcement of abdication of Kaiser/king.

Ebert was declared Chancellor on 9 November 1918 and Germany was declared Republic. The armistice, the formal agreement for stoppage of war, was signed on November 11, 1918 that included many conditions. The formal peace treaty was signed on June 26 1919.

 Terms of treaty to follow.



   

COMPARISON OF THE CONSTITUTION -- MODULE 3

Analysis:

The period between 1871-1914 saw mainly William-I and William-II as Emperor or Kaiser of Germany. The Emperor/Kaiser appointed the Chancellor. The Chancellor and Council of ministers were responsible to the Emperor/Kaiser. In a way the Emperor's will always prevailed. Such was the deliberate composition/structure of the empire.

Reichstag was the National Parliament, and the members were elected by universal suffrage. It was great achievement at that time for people. But Reichstag had limited power. It couldn't initiate legislation on its own, though the very purpose of Parliament is to legislate. But the parliament had power to veto Kaiser and his ministers proposal.  

After the end of the First World War, Weimar Republic (1919-1933) came into being and with that real Democracy for people of Germany. This time Reichstag or National Parliament had genuine power befitting to its name. The members of Reichstag were elected by universal suffrage for four years tenure. The Chancellor and Cabinet were responsible to Reichstag.

Further, President was elected separately by universal suffrage with term of seven years. President chose/appointed the Chancellor from the most powerful party in Reichstag.

Power vested to the President under Article 48 to impose emergency proved fatal for this nascent democracy. This article was misused by less competent and more ambitious Hitler to strangulate the Republic.

Thus the two period under study saw Reichstag evolving in terms of power to people. The power reached to ordinary people post war though for limited period.

COMPARISON OF THE CONSTITUTION OF GERMANY: BEFORE WORLD WAR –I (1871-1914) AND AFTER THE WORLD WAR (1919-1933)

Module-II

Comparison of Constitution of Germany: 

Comparison is self explanatory. But finer points will be discussed in Module-III for the sake of completeness.

Constitution of German Empire (1871-1914)	Constitution of Weimar Republic (1919-1933)
Federal Empire 25 states and one Imperial territory	Republic
Emperor/Kaiser Extensive authority over the army and navy Foreign relations General enactment and execution of imperial laws Authority to declare war	President: Elected by universal suffrage Term was 7 years Power: Head of the armed forces Chose the Chancellor Legal right to dismiss Chancellor Article 48, power to impose emergency
Federal Chancellor: Appointed by Emperor and responsible to him	Chancellor: from Reichstag appointed by President, and responsible to Reichstag
Bundesrat (Federal Council/upper house): represented the princes of Germany and not the people Each state had a number of representatives on the Bundesrat who were nominated by princes and who voted according to their instructions	Reichsrat: Second Parliamentary house Represented component states Limited authority Couldn’t propose legislation Right to reject legislation by Reichstag
Reichstag (National Parliament/National assembly): Elected by universal suffrage Any legislation passed by Reichstag had to be approved by the Bundesrat Couldn’t initiate legislation on its own Could veto proposal of emperor	Reichstag: Main legislative body Elected by universal suffrage through proportional representation every 4 years Reichstag debated issues and voted on proposed legislation Chancellor: Leader of the most powerful political party appointed Chancellor by President Chancellor could choose his own Cabinet Chancellor and Cabinet responsible to Reichstag

COMPARISON OF THE CONSTITUTION OF GERMANY: BEFORE WORLD WAR –I (1871-1914) AND AFTER (1918-1933)

Module-I

History can be understood in many ways. The golden way is narration in the form of story with timeline and context. Straddling from one point of history to the other, and then coming back to the original point, connecting threads, allowing the thread to move freely and wrapping the reel of thread suddenly as in the game of kite-running. Surprises, astonishment, and then all known territory. Thus moving in different zone of timeline, story-teller prepares audience for the next journey. So the art of story-telling is the preferred vehicle to discuss events of history.

Events have contexts, and contexts have wings and aspirations to melt and fuse. Thus an event turns into history. But layers can be peeled in certain cases depending upon the process of melting and fusion, and exact causes of unfolding of the events can be churned out. This art of deciphering the fusion process is critical analysis of past events. Thus history is very obvious in some cases and very complex on many occasions.

So it is important to segregate period before the occurrence of an event and after the conclusion of the event. On some cases real conclusion of event is not possible to define, so quasi-conclusion stage is defined. The purpose is to magnify the canvas on the said timeframe so as to get better view of the event. Thus bringing clarity on changing pattern of event and its ramification to the observer.       

Another approach may be to transmit event frame-by-frame in real time of yesteryear interspersed with well intentioned commentary. This task is a bit mechanical except live commentary part. But at times it is essential to move in this way. Always peeling layers to unearth something dramatic is not desirable. Some historical events and their ramifications may be straightforward. So accepting these and moving forward is normal and appreciable.

So I will follow both approach depending upon event, time, context and necessity.

For understanding the First World War, I would like to make a bridge, though it may be bumpy at times. This will give us glimpse from different frames of reference. And the best bridge we can make is that of the Constitution of Germany. So we will see the structure of the German Empire before the First World War (1871-1914) and Weimar Republic, after the war (1918-1933).  The edifice of time tested German empire under the Emperor /Kaiser crumbles, and new Democratic order takes its place eventually to meltdown making room for some bigger catastrophe. But it is the way history shapes its path leaving aside some lessons for coming generation. But the same mistake is repeated many times as we don’t want to grow. Or we prefer to write new chapter in history making more illustrations and examples. Anyway we will straight away go to the Constitutional change in the next module.  

ARCHIMEDES' PRINCIPLE MODULE - 2 VIDEO

Archimedes' Principle

                              

This video explains the two approaches of solving problems related to Archimedes' principle along with the examples taken from NCERT class-9 science textbook exercise. 

ARCHIMEDES' PRINCIPLE MODULE 1 - VIDEO

ARCHIMEDES' PRINCIPLE

                         


                              
This video explains the Archimedes' principle and buoyancy with emphasis on The Archimedes' challenge of finding the purity of the king's gold crown. Further the basic formula of the principle:

has been explained. The video also gives step-by-step approach to tackle numerical problems.