Comparative Governments of Europe - Germany

Comparative Government of Europe- Germany

1 ) German history is characterized by an autocratic as well as an undemocratic tradition . These autocratic and undemocratic events in German history shaped the German political culture

The territory which later called the Federal Republic of Germany has a number of different states ruled by kings , archbishops , dukes and princes . These leaderships varied in terms of territorial extent military powers and economic wealth . During the 18th century , the most powerful kingdom among these states is the Kingdom of Prussia headed by Napoleon who welded together several

Germanic states within a Rhenish League . Such grouping of states formed a German confederation created by the Congress of Vienna . In 1834 , the custom union was established to facilitate the trade among German states and at the same time there were various national manifestations conducted by nationalist in a form of rallies and radicals . When the revolution spread throughout Europe , the German nationalist sees it as an opportunity to press for the establishment of German Unification . The issues of unifying Germany was discussed in the Frankfurt Parliament . The Parliament promulgated a constitution for Germany on March 27 , 1849 , stating that the leadership will be under the power of an emperor . To fulfill the objective of electing an emperor , the King of Prussia , Frederick William IV , was elected as an emperor but he refused to accept this crown of an imperial Germany . The struggle for supremacy in Germany between Prussia and Austria continued reaching its climax in the defeat of Austria in the Seven Weeks War and formation of the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation . The architect of this new German unity was Otto von Bismarck , a conservative , monarchist , and militaristic Prussian prime minister . He unified all of Germany in a series of three wars . On Jan 18 , 1871 , King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed German emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles . The North German Confederation was abolished , and the Second German Reich , consisting of the North and South German states , was born . With a powerful army , an efficient bureaucracy , and a loyal bourgeoisie , Chancellor Bismarck consolidated a powerful centralized state . Wilhelm II dismissed Bismarck in 1890 and embarked upon a New Course ' stressing an intensified colonialism and a powerful navy . His chaotic foreign policy culminated in the diplomatic isolation of Germany and the disastrous defeat in World War I (1914-1918 . The Second German Empire collapsed following the defeat of the German armies in 1918 , the naval mutiny at Kiel , and the flight of the kaiser to the Netherlands . The Social Democrats , led by Friedrich Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann , crushed the Communists and established a moderate state , known as the Weimar Republic , with Ebert as president President Ebert died on Feb . 28 , 1925 , and on April 26 , Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg was elected president . The mass of Germans regarded the Weimar Republic as a child of defeat , imposed on a Germany whose legitimate aspirations to world leadership had been thwarted by a worldwide conspiracy . Added to this...