In his autobiography (written in prison), Hitler reviews all aspects of German life, the World War I defeat, collapse of the
Second Reich, 'the mask of Federalism', 'propaganda and organisation', 'German post-War policy of alliances', and Germany's policy in Eastern Europe'.
Even the New York Times noted, "he said that Israel should not be a Jewish state, that its law of return granting citizenship to any Jew should be radically altered, that Israeli Arabs were like German Jews during the
Second Reich and that the entire society felt eerily like Germany just before the rise of Hitler." Burg supports a boycott of all products from the settlements, says the law of return is similar to Nazi rule, and says that Israel dismantle the memorial of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem.
Germany's Defeat in the First World War: The Lost Battles and Reckless Gambles That Brought Down the
Second ReichPrevious to the Peace Treaty of Versailles the size of the "
Second Reich" (which is often called "altes Reich") was 540 000 sq.
The
second Reich of the Soviet Union can be seen to have begun.
And again on the theme of differentiation: Thomas Mergel gives a terse eleven-page summary of our knowledge of German emigration, immigration, and internal migration, complicating any homogenizing attempts to generalize about the demography of the
Second Reich.
For example, Kaiser Wilhelm II dismissed Otto von Bismarck as chancellor in 1890, less than 20 years after the formation of the
Second Reich, and began to destroy Bismarck's carefully crafted alliance network.
During the
Second Reich, a younger generation of political, social, and economic leaders grew increasingly vocal in pursuing colonial expansion to resolve problems of internal fragmentation and Bismarck's "incomplete" unification.
Studying Protestants in Strasbourg also exposes the cutting issues of identity that were so much a part of the
Second Reich.
The scene is 1908 Germany, with the
Second Reich at the peak of its power, ruled by a Kaiser who is almost always decked out in a splendid military uniform.
STANDING BEFORE the Siegessaule, the Victory Column that commemorates Prussia's triumphs over Denmark, Austria, and France in the wars that birthed the
Second Reich, Barack Obama declared himself a "citizen of the world" and spoke of "a world that stands as one."
Bismarck and the creation of the
Second Reich. (reprint, 1948; new intro.)