Summary of Benjamin Carter Hett's The Death of Democracy

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Weimar Republic was extremely fragile, and could have easily fallen apart after World War I. However, the German people were extremely patriotic, and the government used this to their advantage to sell the public on the idea of continuing the war.

#2 The German government promised its people that victory would bring a new kind of imperial grandeur. Germany would become the dominant power in Europe, annexing territory from Belgium and France, and more from the western lands of the Russian Empire.

#3 The German Army was pushed to its limits by the war, and in September 1918, the generals told the Kaiser that they wanted to negotiate an armistice with the western powers. However, democratic leaders from the Reichstag negotiated the armistice instead.

#4 In the autumn of 1918, Germany was shaken by revolution. The country’s new leader, Friedrich Ebert, wanted Germany to become a parliamentary democracy along Western lines. However, some wanted Germany to become a social revolution like Russia had experienced.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822546462

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Insights on Benjamin Carter Hett's The Death of Democracy

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Weimar Republic was extremely fragile, and could have easily fallen apart after World War I. However, the German people were extremely patriotic, and the government used this to their advantage to sell the public on the idea of continuing the war.

#2

The German government promised its people that victory would bring a new kind of imperial grandeur. Germany would become the dominant power in Europe, annexing territory from Belgium and France, and more from the western lands of the Russian Empire.

#3

The German Army was pushed to its limits by the war, and in September 1918, the generals told the Kaiser that they wanted to negotiate an armistice with the western powers. However, democratic leaders from the Reichstag negotiated the armistice instead.

#4

In the autumn of 1918, Germany was shaken by revolution. The country’s new leader, Friedrich Ebert, wanted Germany to become a parliamentary democracy along Western lines. However, some wanted Germany to become a social revolution like Russia had experienced.

#5

Between early February and August 1919, the German national assembly drafted a state-of-the-art constitution for a modern democracy. The main architect of the Weimar Constitution was a law professor named Hugo Preuss.

#6

The Weimar Republic was based on the German Constitution of 1919, which was highly innovative and drew from many different German history sources. It created a parliament that was proportional, and it created a president separate from the chancellor.

#7

The president was the head of state, and the constitution outlined his general duties to dedicate his whole strength to the welfare of the German people. He was responsible for representing the country internationally.

#8

Germany was not a democracy in 1914, but it had become one of the most liberal