Paste you“The main influence on the development of Germany 1890-1991 was its relationship with Russia” Discuss.
The relationship between Russia and Germany over the 100 year period, between 1890-1991 was a complicated one that had a huge effect on the development of Germany. In this essay I will be focusing on three main ar-eas; Territory,Economics and Ideology. However other factors are also im-portant in assessing Germanys’s development, such as it relationship with the West in terms of recovery with the Dawes Plan and improved relation-ship with Britain and France through the Locarno Treaty.
In the following analysis we see how territorial issues play an in important role in the development of Germany. In the start of the period there was stability, there was no territorial issue between Germany and Russia. The states of Germany and Russia had shared borders in an area where many Poles lived and were concerned that any border disputes could be exploited by the Poles, this forced better relations and cooperations be-tween them. During Bismarck's final years, his policy was defensive and not expansionist,Relations between Germany and Russia started to dete-riorate towards the start of the First World War as a result of the end of the Reinsurance treaty.Though this did not seem to affect territorial develop-ments.
Towards the end of WWI Germany had achieved enormous success in the East, especially in Russia as the German army had conquered Western Russia. This surprise victory inspired the idea of Siegfriede:a victory peace which would establish Germanys supremacy in Europe Germany wanted to keep the land which it had conquered from Russia. This led to the sign-ing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which Russia agreed that the areas of Poland ,Ukraine and the Baltic states were under German control.
The mindset of expansionism set in from the idea of Siegfriede was re-vived when the Nazis came to power. Hitler was obsessed with Lebens-raum into Russia all the way to the Ural Mountains , it could be argued that if not for Siegfriede there would not be an idea of lebensraum to the East.
Although during the period of the Nazi-Soviet pact there was territorial ex-pansion, but it in compliance with the Soviet Union rather than in the earlier periods where expansion was against the Soviet Union: “The Nazi-Soviet pact included a ‘secret protocol’ which promised to divide the spoils of any Nazi expansion into eastern Europe between Germany and Russia” .
Following the defeat of Germany in the Second World war, we see that Germany from an expansionist country under Hitler, goes to a country los-ing land, Stalin took land from Germany to create Poland and expand The USSR. This gives rise to the problem of territory and division of Germany into two different states,the FDR and the DDR and the Berlin Wall.
When Gorbachev came to power, he changed his foreign policy towards Satellite states, most especially The DDR which would allow the final unifi-cation of Germany following the Treaty of Final Settlements with respects to Germany. But there was acceptance that lands lost in 1945 to Poland and The USSR had gone forever.
Now we see how Economics between these two states affected the de-velopment of Germany. At the start, the economic relationship between these two countries stands out because they were an economic fit, Ger-many was heavily industrialised while Russia was rich in raw materials and both economies needed what the other had. In the period after 1890 good economic relations start to deteriorate. The end of the Reinsurance Treaty meant France and Russia formed an alliance which was seen to bring economic benefits to Russia to replace the need for German trade“French financial assistance helped smooth out relations” The Rapallo Treaty also was evidence of Russia's impact on German development as it ensured economic trade for Germany, as both states were isolated by the Treaty of Versailles “Russia offered Germany a new export market” .
Though we observe that following Hitlers rise to power it could be seen that Nazi Germany didn't want economic trade with communist USSR thus inspiring Hitlers desire to make Germany self sufficient without relying on trade with the USSR .
In spite of Hitlers hatred for communism we can see relations becoming better in 1939,with the establishment of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. He went back to thinking that Russia is an economic fit with Germany. The Pact re-established trading links with Russia. This provided sufficient resources for German victory over France in June 22nd 1940. Indeed the trade relations started to become of more benefit to the Germans than Russians“The de-livery of machinery and weapons to the Soviet Union agreed upon in the Pact were slow and irregular. In sharp contrast with the scrupulous provi-sions by the Soviet side of raw material and food” .
With the invasion of the USSR, it was clear that trade relations were fin-ished. However Hitler here tried to get Soviet raw materials through con-quest rather than trade
After the war Germany was to be occupied by all the Allies, Russia wanted Germany to remain poor and concentrate on light industry and agriculture, with the hopes that this would stop Germany from having the industrial base to become a great military power. But the West wanted believed that if Germany was kept poor it might turn to communism, this instigated the Marshall Plan. “In 1947, the USA and Britain linked their zones together in an effort to restore German economy. The Marshall Plan provided enough injection of capital” This shifted economics ties from the USSR to the west. Germany was able to develop “Industrial production rose 125 per-cent economically relations and the West German economic miracle was under way”
Then we have a period of better economic relations with The Soviet Union with the creation of Ostpolitik which reconciled West German trading with the DDR,Soviet Union and Eastern European countries under communist control.
In terms of Ideology all through the beginning period of 1890 to 1917 ,there was no conflict about this, as both co-existed naturally.This was because they both had similar political systems. Even after The Russian Revolution ,The Treaty of Rapallo, showed that they could come to terms on issues especially trade. However Nazi rule, was very anti communist. The Nazi government was anti-semitic and Hitler believed Jews were behind communism . Hitler also had a mind set that Germans were superior over Slavs, he believed that Germany shouldn't come to terms with the USSR rather conquer it and take over it vast resources thus we see Hitlers claims of “Lebensraum” .
Following this we can see the development of Germany into an anti-Soviet country and “Expansion into Russia would also serve the added bonus of destroying the centre of communism” ,During the Nazi Soviet pact in the period 1939-41, ideology of both states didn't seem to matter which led to successful co-operation between them. Even so, Hitler moved back quickly to the old Nazi attitude of anti-communism and followed up with the attack of The Soviet Union in 1941-42.
After the end of WWII we find two Germanys: the FDR which was capital-ist and fully supported by the Western allies and The DDR which was communist and backed by the USSR, this created hostile attitudes toward DDR over ideology as well as territory and The USSR as the FDR become resentful of the Soviet Union and rejected the division of Germany into two states. This attitude of the FDR was followed with the Hallstein Doctrine , the FDR’s involvement in the creation of EEC and joining of NATO. From this we see that the FDR has a Western facing policy and develops in an Anti-communist ideology during the period of 1949-1972. Then under the government of Willy Brandt a moderate socialist government, it wanted better relations with the DDR and USSR “Brandt had already demonstrated his readiness to negotiate with East Germany in return to practical bene-fits.” The move toward Ostpolitik here could be seen as the FDR’s ac-ceptance of communism and developing friendlier relationship with the DDR and Soviet Union.
Then we have the period of final unification of the German states and The USSR, changing its ideological support for the DDR and accepting a Western facing Unified Germany under NATO. “ This included acceptance by the USSR that Germany could continue as a member of NATO.”
However, It can be argued that German Development was not totally reli-ant on its relationship with Russia, rather some German development was the outcome of it relationship with The Western Allies. In 1890-1914 Ger-many was more concerned with its rivalry with France over territory (Alsace Lorraine) and with Britain over colonies in Asia and Africa and naval supe-riority between both countries.Thus it could be argued that bad relations with Russia was not the main cause of Germany entering into WWI.
After the end of the war, it can be seen that Germany was still concerned with its relationship with the West rather than with Russia , especially eco-nomically as Germany was weak after WWI. This is seen in Stresemans policy which leads to the Dawes Plan and the establishment of Locarno and better relations with the West and his lack of concern with the Rapallo relationship with Russia “it was of no good focusing on relations with Rus-sia; co-operation and support of the West was equally, if not more, cru-cial.” . The Locarno Treaty saw that the Rhineland zone would be evacu-ated by France before the end of 1925. This area in Germany was the centre of industrialisation and the evacuation of this area meant that Ger-many could develop economically.This is an example how relations with the West rather than Russia were important in the development of Germa-ny.
After the division of Germany following WWII , there were other reasons other than bad relations with The USSR, why West Germany had a West-ern facing policy, the creation of the EEC was a major part of the influence on Western facing policy because it established a good relationship with France. The creation of the EEC saw Germany establish stronger links with other western countries e.g England and France.
The view that the division of Germany was mainly a Soviet policy has been criticised in the book “We Now Know” ,“ Stalin met with the leaders of the German communist party(KPD) as early as 4 June 1945 to lay put plans for incorporating a reunified Germany” . It was argued that it was Britain and France who wanted a divided Germany “consensus among all the Western allies, including the French, in support of Bevin’s view that a truncated and rehabilitated Germany would be less dangerous than a uni-fied state that might come under Soviet control.” From this we perceive the view that the division of Germany was not the brainchild of Stalin but rather of the West because of the fear of Germany turning on the com-munist side, which the West thought would be avoided by dividing up Germany.
I believe that the development of Germany was strongly influenced by it’s fluctuating relationship with Russia and the USSR. With supporting evi-dence from my reading we see that Russia had helped with the develop-ment through strong economic ties especially the Rapallo Treaty, Nazi- Soviet Pact and Ostpolitik. Development through the disagreement be-tween them, were due to ideological differences, when Germany was un-der Nazi rule and under the FDR’s capitalist government which conflicted with Russian communism at the period. However there were other key in-fluence in the development of Germany such as its relationship with the Western Allies through aid and economic assistance (Marshall Plan, Dawes Plan, Treaty of Locarno).
Bibliography
• Richard Overy: “Russia’s Wars”
• An Introduction to Modern-European History, Alan Farmer
• Germany 1858-1990 Hope,Terror and Revival, Alison Kitson
• From Kaiser to Fuhrer 1900-1945, Geoff Layton
• We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, John Lewis Gaddis
• From Kaiser to Fuhrer 1900-1945, Geoff Layton
• Germany since 1945, Lothar Kettenacker
• Nazism 1919-45 Noakes and Pridham
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