1914 - 'Reminder - The Killing Fields' - 'Carl Menger [1840-1921] .. saw .. all civilizations rushing toward the abyss.'
Posted by ProjectC
'Carl Menger [1840-1921] .. His keen intellect had recognized in which direction Austria, Europe, and the world were pointed; he saw this greatest and highest of all civilizations rushing toward the abyss. He had anticipated the atrocities..'
- Ludwig von Mises (Context: (Global) - To Heal (to prevent, to cushion) - '..Second World War possible, though not inevitable..')
<center>Europe 1914
</center>
'..the war that erupted across Europe in the summer of 1914 could hardly have been more senseless .. The war became all-encompassing by 1916. In Germany, France and Austria-Hungary, about 80 percent of men fit for military service were sent to the front or to sea. An entire generation was shaped by the experiences on the battlefield. It included Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, Ludwig Erhard, Adolf Hitler and, after the United States had entered the war, Harry Truman, the later president and founder of NATO.'
'..Historians are not exonerating Kaiser Wilhelm II, who alternated between public bluster and anxious restraint. But they also stress the failures of Russia (US historian Sean McMeekin), France (German historian Stefan Schmidt), Austria-Hungary (Rauchensteiner) or all the major powers combined (Australian author Christopher Clark).
..
The Kaiser's blank check transformed a local crisis into a European conflict. It was the German Reich's decisive contribution to the "seminal catastrophe" of the 20th century.
..
On July 29, the Austro-Hungarian Danube flotilla opened fire on Belgrade. A day later, Czar Nicholas II ordered the general mobilization of the Russian army.
From then on, the logic of the so-called Schlieffen Plan shaped the fate of Europe. Germany feared a war on two fronts, and because the Russian army required months to fully mobilize its troops, the German General Staff in Berlin wanted to use the time to score a quick victory over France. The German army would then march eastward.
..
..Schlieffen's plan did not envision a diplomatic approach to managing the crisis.
..
One domino after another was falling, and yet there was no recognizable benefit. There had been countless wars in human history, wars motivated by the desire for freedom or revenge, or for economic reasons. But the war that erupted across Europe in the summer of 1914 could hardly have been more senseless.
..
..On Aug. 4, SPD Chairman Hugo Haase declared in the Reichstag: "We will not desert our fatherland in its hour of need."
After that, SPD lawmakers approved the war credits, without which the war could not have been funded. According to the minutes of the Reichstag session, there was "repeated fierce applause and clapping." Today its approval of the war credits is seen as the darkest hour in the long history of the SPD.
..
..European societies, writes Berlin historian Christoph Nübel, were "militarized societies," in contrast to present-day Europe.
..
..duty, order and Volksgemeinschaft against individualism, democracy and human rights.
..
..To this day, Aug. 22, 1914 is the bloodiest day in French military history. Some 27,000 soldiers died on that day. By the end of 1914, Germans and Belgians had lost about half of their field armies, and the number of dead, wounded and captured soldiers exceeded the one-million mark in the armies of Russia and Austria-Hungary.
..
Instead of searching for compromises, the leaders on both sides added to their wish lists in the event of victory. Bethmann Hollweg aimed to annex substantial portions of France and Belgium, along with Luxembourg, control Central Europe and set up bases on the Faroe and Cape Verde Islands -- such claims were even considered moderate in Berlin.
French President Poincaré would have preferred to divide up the German Reich into individual states. He demanded Alsace and Lorraine, which had been part of the Reich since 1871, as well as the Saarland and territories west of the Rhine. He even wanted to dominate Belgium.
The czar's list and that of some of his advisers included Constantinople, the Dardanelles, large parts of Eastern and Central Europe and even southern Silesia and East Prussia.
Only the British exercised restraint. In their view, no one was to dominate continental Europe, including the Allies. London wanted to preserve the option of assuming the lucrative role of conflict arbitrator.
..
The war became all-encompassing by 1916. In Germany, France and Austria-Hungary, about 80 percent of men fit for military service were sent to the front or to sea. An entire generation was shaped by the experiences on the battlefield. It included Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, Ludwig Erhard, Adolf Hitler and, after the United States had entered the war, Harry Truman, the later president and founder of NATO.
..
The survivors of World War I included Franz Warremann, a journeyman bricklayer from the northeastern German city of Rostock, whose grandson, Joachim Gauck, is Germany's president today. Warremann brought home a helmet from the front that had been dented when it was grazed by a bullet just above his left temple. He had apparently been extremely lucky.
The dented helmet has since been lost, says Gauck in his office at Bellevue Palace in Berlin, but the sight of it created such a strong impression on him that he could "still draw it" today.
When his grandfather got together with other veterans in the evening and they talked about the war, young Joachim was always surprised at how exuberant they seemed. How could they be so happy after those harrowing experiences?
Only much later did he understand that the men treasured spending time with fellow soldiers who had also looked death in the eye in the trenches. Only they could understand what it meant.
And that was why they were celebrating life.'
- Klaus Wiegrefe, Disaster Centennial: The Disturbing Relevance of World War I January 08, 2014
Context 'Reminder - The Killing Fields'
Europe plunges into War
Europe after World War I
Continent at War: The Front Lines of WWI
World War I
'..we should find a new way of understanding what happened between 1914 and 1918.'
'..the world in 2013 looks a bit discomfitingly like that of 1913.'
How the Years Between the World Wars Created the Modern World
- Ludwig von Mises (Context: (Global) - To Heal (to prevent, to cushion) - '..Second World War possible, though not inevitable..')
<center>Europe 1914
</center>'..the war that erupted across Europe in the summer of 1914 could hardly have been more senseless .. The war became all-encompassing by 1916. In Germany, France and Austria-Hungary, about 80 percent of men fit for military service were sent to the front or to sea. An entire generation was shaped by the experiences on the battlefield. It included Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, Ludwig Erhard, Adolf Hitler and, after the United States had entered the war, Harry Truman, the later president and founder of NATO.'
'..Historians are not exonerating Kaiser Wilhelm II, who alternated between public bluster and anxious restraint. But they also stress the failures of Russia (US historian Sean McMeekin), France (German historian Stefan Schmidt), Austria-Hungary (Rauchensteiner) or all the major powers combined (Australian author Christopher Clark).
..
The Kaiser's blank check transformed a local crisis into a European conflict. It was the German Reich's decisive contribution to the "seminal catastrophe" of the 20th century.
..
On July 29, the Austro-Hungarian Danube flotilla opened fire on Belgrade. A day later, Czar Nicholas II ordered the general mobilization of the Russian army.
From then on, the logic of the so-called Schlieffen Plan shaped the fate of Europe. Germany feared a war on two fronts, and because the Russian army required months to fully mobilize its troops, the German General Staff in Berlin wanted to use the time to score a quick victory over France. The German army would then march eastward.
..
..Schlieffen's plan did not envision a diplomatic approach to managing the crisis.
..
One domino after another was falling, and yet there was no recognizable benefit. There had been countless wars in human history, wars motivated by the desire for freedom or revenge, or for economic reasons. But the war that erupted across Europe in the summer of 1914 could hardly have been more senseless.
..
..On Aug. 4, SPD Chairman Hugo Haase declared in the Reichstag: "We will not desert our fatherland in its hour of need."
After that, SPD lawmakers approved the war credits, without which the war could not have been funded. According to the minutes of the Reichstag session, there was "repeated fierce applause and clapping." Today its approval of the war credits is seen as the darkest hour in the long history of the SPD.
..
..European societies, writes Berlin historian Christoph Nübel, were "militarized societies," in contrast to present-day Europe.
..
..duty, order and Volksgemeinschaft against individualism, democracy and human rights.
..
..To this day, Aug. 22, 1914 is the bloodiest day in French military history. Some 27,000 soldiers died on that day. By the end of 1914, Germans and Belgians had lost about half of their field armies, and the number of dead, wounded and captured soldiers exceeded the one-million mark in the armies of Russia and Austria-Hungary.
..
Instead of searching for compromises, the leaders on both sides added to their wish lists in the event of victory. Bethmann Hollweg aimed to annex substantial portions of France and Belgium, along with Luxembourg, control Central Europe and set up bases on the Faroe and Cape Verde Islands -- such claims were even considered moderate in Berlin.
French President Poincaré would have preferred to divide up the German Reich into individual states. He demanded Alsace and Lorraine, which had been part of the Reich since 1871, as well as the Saarland and territories west of the Rhine. He even wanted to dominate Belgium.
The czar's list and that of some of his advisers included Constantinople, the Dardanelles, large parts of Eastern and Central Europe and even southern Silesia and East Prussia.
Only the British exercised restraint. In their view, no one was to dominate continental Europe, including the Allies. London wanted to preserve the option of assuming the lucrative role of conflict arbitrator.
..
The war became all-encompassing by 1916. In Germany, France and Austria-Hungary, about 80 percent of men fit for military service were sent to the front or to sea. An entire generation was shaped by the experiences on the battlefield. It included Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, Ludwig Erhard, Adolf Hitler and, after the United States had entered the war, Harry Truman, the later president and founder of NATO.
..
The survivors of World War I included Franz Warremann, a journeyman bricklayer from the northeastern German city of Rostock, whose grandson, Joachim Gauck, is Germany's president today. Warremann brought home a helmet from the front that had been dented when it was grazed by a bullet just above his left temple. He had apparently been extremely lucky.
The dented helmet has since been lost, says Gauck in his office at Bellevue Palace in Berlin, but the sight of it created such a strong impression on him that he could "still draw it" today.
When his grandfather got together with other veterans in the evening and they talked about the war, young Joachim was always surprised at how exuberant they seemed. How could they be so happy after those harrowing experiences?
Only much later did he understand that the men treasured spending time with fellow soldiers who had also looked death in the eye in the trenches. Only they could understand what it meant.
And that was why they were celebrating life.'
- Klaus Wiegrefe, Disaster Centennial: The Disturbing Relevance of World War I January 08, 2014
Context 'Reminder - The Killing Fields'
Europe plunges into War
Europe after World War I
Continent at War: The Front Lines of WWI
World War I
'..we should find a new way of understanding what happened between 1914 and 1918.'
'..the world in 2013 looks a bit discomfitingly like that of 1913.'
How the Years Between the World Wars Created the Modern World