Assignment 8 The Weimer Republic

Assignment: I am providing a link to the actual text of the Weimar Constitution. Please choose TWO sections, one from the first part on the structure of government, and a second from the section on rights. Please write out the passages, interpret the meaning of them and explain why you chose these passages.

Article 48If a state (8) does not fulfil the obligations laid upon it by the Reich constitution or the Reich laws, the Reich President may use armed force to cause it to oblige.
In case public safety is seriously threatened or disturbed, the Reich President may take the measures necessary to reestablish law and order, if necessary using armed force. In the pursuit of this aim he may suspend the civil rights described in articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 154, partially or entirely.
The Reich President has to inform Reichstag immediately about all measures undertaken which are based on paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article. The measures have to be suspended immediately if Reichstag demands so.
If danger is imminent, the state government may, for their specific territory, implement steps as described in paragraph 2. These steps have to be suspended if so demanded by the Reich President or the Reichstag. Further details are provided by Reich law.
Article 51 (9)In case the Reich President is unavailable, he is briefly substituted by the Reich Chancellor. Is it a presumably longer lasting situation, his substitution has to be regulated by a Reich law.
The same applies in case a presidency ends prematurely, until the next election is held
Article 114The rights of the individual are inviolable. Limitation or deprivation of individual liberty is admissible only if based on laws.
Persons deprived of their liberty have to be notified, at the next day on the latest, by which authority and based on which reasons the deprivation of their liberty has been ordered; immediately they have to be given the opportunity to protest against the deprivation of liberty.

            Throughout my life I have always heard over and over again of the fact that there was World War 2, but I was never fully informed of the ground work and the environment that made world war possible, In other words brought Hitler to power. But after reading the essay by Rose Luxemburg “The Junius Pamphlet” and The Weimer Republic Constitution I can understand exactly how it was possible for Hitler to come to power.

            The Constitution itself as a whole was a well designed and compressive Constitution as stated by the professor. There a lot of similarities between the US Constitution and the Weimer Republic Constitution. For example, the government is divided in to Federal (Reich) and State (States) government and their relationship to the courts are similar. The senate (Reichstag), the President (Reich President) and the House of Representative (Reichsrat) are set up very similar way in both Constitutions.

            So the three passages that I chose are Article 48, 51, 114. Article 48 is the most interesting Article from the constitution because It allows the president to peaty much throw the construction in the trash in time where if feel that the state is not following the law and at time when it feel its citizens are in danger. And when those situations are president all the rights of citizens are lost and as the teacher explained the country is in a “state of Emergency” and the president could do whatever it wants. Now going on to Article 51, this is basically stating that in case the president is not able or not there to attend to his office the next person in line to take the role of president is the Chancellor. The last Article as I mention is Article 114. This and some other article after this article are basically giving rights and then saying, you have that right until the federal government take if away in certain situations.

            The reason I chose these articles are because they are the loop holes that Hitler used to come in to power and do what he was able to do. He came to power because the president at that time Died and Hitler was the chancellor and he end up becoming the president. Going back to the main theme of the class Nihilism, we can relate the fact that the currents party of that time did not do anything to use its power as stated in the Constitution to over throw the government by a 2/3 of a vote to replace the Chancellor.

            So I want to end by saying that, I guess it does not matter how good of a constitution you construct, if there are people elected that are bad, they will twist the constitution is a bad way and used it for the wrong reasons.     

Assignment 7 The German Revolution of 1918-1919

Assignment 7 The German Revolution of 1918-1919

“The world war today is demonstrably not only murder on a grand scale; it is also suicide of the working classes of Europe. The soldiers of socialism, the proletarians of England, France, Germany, Russia, and Belgium have for months been killing one another at the behest of capital”

            The passage above means that the World War (the first one) is only destroying the “Proletarians” (or the working class). It does not matter who win or loses the war, the real losers are the working class. The author Rosa Luxemburg goes on to explain that it is just the not proletarian of Germany that are losing, but all the Proletarian form all the countries are losing and the winner of the war are the bourgeoisie (the rich class or the class with power). The author blames that money, capital and imperialist values for the bourgeoisies are what the World War came to be, and the defense of the people of the each country as they expressed.

                The reason that I choose this passage is because this states the main point of the author. The author starts of with blaming the SPD (Social Democratic Party) for the reason Germany was able to engage in the world war. Then the author explains how the SPD had betrayed the working class, because they were supposed to be standing representing the working class. But instead they kept the working class in the dark, by not telling the real situation and voting for the war credit and persuaded the working class that they are being attacked and they must defend their father land.

                One thing that surprised me was that Marx had prophesized about the world War and event with that prophesize the working class was not able to doge the bullet. Another thing that surprise is that in essence they all knew that there would be a world war because they had been building their armies and navy and they the (both sides) did not do anything major to stop the war or restrict the built up of the armies and navy, so that there would not be such a loose of human life.