Germanys role in World War I was to defeat the alliance of French and Russia. This plan was known as the Schlieffen plan. After they had defeated France, they had enemies on both east (Russia) and the west (USA). Eventually being pinned, they signed an armistice in 1918 ending the fight. The country was deeply hurt economically after the loss due to the amount of money they were forced to spend because of the loss.

The country was in a critical depression with inflation skyrocketing.

After the treaty of Versailles, Germany’s military was restricted of having only one hundred thousand men in the Army, and fifteen thousand in the Navy. Along with other restrictions on amount of ships, and cruisers.

The vulnerable state the country was in led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, starting the second World War. Germany’s high point was in 1941/1942 having covered France to Russia, and from Norway to parts of Egypt. Much of this was due to the tactic of “blitzkrieg” which was fast and straight forward.

Germany had eventually lost after much bombing in 1945. The country was split East and West under control of the Soviet Union, and USA.

Germany in the 18^th century: The Rise of Prussia

Elector Fredrick III crowned himself the King of Prussia in 1701. The country had now been known as Prussia. Followed by Fredrick II “The Great” becoming king in 1740. Fredrick II is known for the large army he had created and was a successful war general. It took only a year after he was crowned king to invade Austria. He had eventually won after a four year battle, enlarging his territory. After that Prussia had invaded Saxony. Russia played a role allying with Saxony which was troublesome for Prussia until Elizabeth of Russia had died and her son made peace. Eventually they had worked together to invade Poland and split up the territory.

Summary: After King Fredrick III had crowned himself King of Prussia, the land had been known formally as Prussia, leading to Fredrick II “The Great” who had made his name out of his successful armies and battles against Austria, Saxony, and Poland.

                                                                Fredrick III "The Great"

Germany in the 19^th Century. The rise and fall of Napoleon. Creating German states.

France had defeated Austria, and some German states had allied with Napoleon. In 1806 Napoleon created the confederation of the Rhine, making up of 16 German states. Not long after, Prussia had gone to war with France, resulting in a defeat. But, in 1813 Prussia had joined with Russia along with Austria, defeating the French in 1815. The Congress of Vienna came together to decide the fate of Europe. A German confederation was made to create a new Holy Roman Empire. It had consisted of 38 states. The German states

began to industrialize in 1830, creating railways throughout Germany. German states and Prussia came together creating a union. In later years, in 1845, series of bad harvests had put them in a vulnerable state with high unemployment and a recession. France had created a revolution that struck throughout Europe causing Prussian and German rulers to make reforms. In 1848 an assembly representing Germany had met up looking for German unity. The revolutionists offered Prussian King to become King of Germany and he declined. European rulers had begun to crack down on the revolting groups. Not long after, the old order returned. Fast forward 30 years, southern German empire had came together of an agreement with Prussia and united under the rule of Prussian King William I.

Summary: When Napoleon created France to be a strong nation, German states had joined a confederation under his ruling. After the fall of Napoleon, German states were given the chance to remake the Holy Roman Empire since Napoleon had ended it. Riots and revolutionist groups had broken out throughout Europe in need of a new system which rulers had agreed to temporarily, only to deny the demands and hunted out the groups. Germany eventually combined with Prussia under command of King William I.

                                                      William I

In regard to the video Berlin Calling, I saw it as in a way a dark, but real film. It was eye opening of how drugs can become such a huge part of your life. To him, his music was his religion and drugs were a way to come closer to his God. In a way, it was similar to his communion like Catholics. Cocaine seemed to be the drug of choice and also MDMT. That did not really surprise me because raves have been known for MDMT and cocaine. The stimulant creates an effect with the music they listen to increasing their high. Imagine a religion where it involved drugs to become holy. The average believers would only have such an effect, but the upper members would be the mostly affected. Which is a good analogy for Ickarus being a priest for his religion, putting him into a psychotic state.
It was very surprising that the producer gave Ickarus another chance after he had demolished her room. In comparison to my life, if something like that were to happen that person would never get another chance no matter how good they are at what they do. I do not know if that was depicted as German culture is more forgiving, but in a way that is what I saw out of it.
A movie this reminds me of is Blow with Johnny Depp as a small town Midwesterner who moves to California and becomes extremely involved in the drug game and changes his life as a whole. It does not remind me just because of the drugs, but because both of the main characters become so manipulated into that lifestyle that it takes over their life and changes them completely.
What I liked about the movie is that it was much different from American Hollywood films. Many viewers in America would not be happy with the ending because it leaves so many unanswered question. But, I think that it gives it a mysterious feeling of you do not know if Ickarus will get better or not. It is up to you to decide.

Healthy body= Healthy mind= Healthy Work force= Healthy Nation

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn was a German man in the Prussian military with a very strong nationalistic side to him. He was  a controversial gymnastics teacher due to the involvement of politics in his work. What drove him was the war against Napoleon and he felt that the nation needed to become stronger to be the dominant figure in that war. He was the first to open an open-air gymnasium, which became popular to the youth and was found almost religiously to Jahn. Although all of that sounds to be positive things for a country, he is seen as some to be the spiritual founder of Nazism, but there is no evidence of him being influential to the Nazi movement. He once wrote "Poles, French, Priests, Aristocrats, and Jews are Germanys misfortune."After Friedrich was imprisoned and banished 10 miles away from Berlin, Johann Guts Muth, in a way, took over where he had left off. Not the political stand point that Jahn had, but the physical endeavor for his country was replaced by Johann. He combined Gymnastics and physicality in his education as a teacher which was quite unheard of at that time. The main goal between these two men was to achieve top notch of what the human body can produce and involve it into the community to create a healthy Nation. Below are two monuments to Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, and Johann Guts Muth.

Cites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Ludwig_Jahn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Christoph_Friedrich_GutsMuths

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cj_cRU1E4LFxbao1PsIo0MKPYW43Wm-YU5BFkx1PvOY/edit#slide=id.g48f35cc05_060

presentation of ch. 2

The Hansa, or Hanseatic League, was a group of merchants from the 13th-17th century that dominated European trade from the Baltic to the North Sea. The group was basically a functional government without the title as a government. They created laws in the Hanseatic cities, and provided protection since trade was a very dangerous occupation at that time. Throughout the span of 5 centuries, the Hansa was a very flourishing organization for Northern Germany. An industry they had excelled in was selling ships. They sold to some of the biggest countries in Europe including Italy. That helped them dramatically because ships were a huge factor for merchants. They provided access into Scandanavia, which was important because Scandanavia had controlled most routes through the Baltic. The league was successful in creating trading posts in Norway, Flanders, and England. But by the 16th century the Swedish Empire had began to control trade in the Baltic leading to the Northern Sevens Year War. Even after the fall, some cities still represent themselves as a city of Hanseatic League. Basically styling their economy after the League.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League

In the powerpoint that my group and I have made, I talked about the economical success in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. After explaining the success in Bavaria I saw a large help in industries from the sports in Bavaria so I then made a slide for the professional sports there. When explaining about Baden-Württemberg, I saw a relationship of industries with the educational programs there. Which is why I then made a slide about the education there. The link is here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1V7Zu_0v0SeeGKI-Y9NTHN-NFx4DY9WNFgI4B3vygtQk/edit?usp=sharing