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The Weimar Republic And The Uprising Of Power Of Hitler

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Kohut through 1939 Living in Germany during the Weimar Republic and then having to deal with the uprising of power of Hitler, was an experience that changed many lives of everyday German citizens. Thomas Kohut’s book, A German Generation, analyzes a group of interviewees that grew up and lived during this time period. After World War I, Germany was in a state of heartbreak, but for many of the children going through the war, they recall it as, “not as a time of anxiety and hardship but as an idyllic period in their lives” (Kohut 39). However, the Weimar Republic was certainly a time of disorder and chaos for Germany. The older groups recall memories they have of the defeat they faced and the revolution in Germany as, “vivid and …show more content…

Kohut points out that, “the fact that these adolescents sought to recover feelings associated with an idealized past helps account for the centrality of singing in the youth movement, the activity mentioned repeatedly in interview after interview as having been its single most important and attractive aspect” (Kohut 65). This group found unity with these youth groups and it led to something much bigger. Another important factor that happened during this time was the bankruptcy of the older generations. This is what caused many people to turn against the Weimar Republic. Kohut notes that, “young people adapted better than their elders to the inflation, a time that rewarded impulsiveness and the ability to grasp quickly changing circumstances” (Kohut 73-4). Many were starting to see the decline in patriarchal authority and with that came the need to find something to replace what should have been a “father figure” role. As a result, this, “helped to forge a powerful generational consciousness on the part of bourgeois Germans the age of the interviews” (Kohut 75). Therefore, the Nazis will start to appeal to this younger generation. Since this group had a starving need for something different to happen, and there to be an authoritative figure in charge, they were more receptive to change than ever before. Many even, “greeted the advent of the Third Reich in January 1933 with

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