A Study On The German Students In The Weimar Republic

In the german history between 19th and 20th Century,the german students had played a significant role in a series of occurrences. It was said, that the german students had already overturned a republic before nationalsozialismus. This study lay emphasis on the social predicament,educational problems, jobs crisis and the ideology undulation, in order to find the reason, why they finally dived to nationalsozialismus. According to the history development of the weimar republic, this study reviews the students’ movement in the age from 19th century to World War I at first. Then it analyses the students of "front young generation", "relatively stable generation" and "swinging to Nationalsozialismus generation"First of all, the students were easily impacted by nationalsozialismus because of their economic problems,especilly facing the serious overcrowding in the learned professions and universities. Althoug german universities and colleges were more open to the lower masses along with the political progress, the economy of the the weimar republic was very problematic. So the market of learned professions shrinked day after day and could not aborb the increasing students. From 1924 to 1929, the rate of unemployment remain at a high level. Academic Prolectariat became a catchword. Intellectuals were depreciating. In 1929 the Great Depression lead to more severe disorder. And the german intellectuals lost their traditional status. At the same time, the hopeless waiting for a learned professions and decreasing income gave so much pressure to the students, so they blamed the incapable democratic republic. Theses feelings also distorted their perspectives on the temporal economic and social phenomenons.At the second place, the defects of german higer ecucation deteriorate. At that time, the middle calss could not band their education and possession and became the leading calss of society in tradional ways. They lost their tangible asset and intangible wealth partly or totaly. Therefore the educational foundation of traditional intellectual elites brake up. If the academic researches in 1920s was side effect of the german bourgeois education, then the students in the weimar republic were unable to avoid the consequence. As a matter of fact, education is a kind of capital,which contains saving,investment and final return. The educated Germans hope for a rational profit, if not,they would appeal to politics. The educated Germans had no sense of security betewwn 1918 and 1933, for the threat to educational fortune was same as violation to sacred private property. In prevail conception, a learned man was also morally nobel. But proletarization seemed to be a failure of advance thought and intrinsic value. In another word, the conventional academic worth was destroyed. It became a sacrificial lamb of degraded materialism and the true intellectual life disappeared.At last, the students had a crisis of ideology from the beginning of the weimar republic. Their ideology from the age of Kaiser WilhelmⅡcollided with the present reality and they had to chage the elite concept, which shattered them. In the early days after the first world war, the elder students from front studied together with the new generation of students. The former were more mature than the latter, both psychologically and politically. However, in the middle of 1920s, the front students graduated and left the camp, as a result, the right-extremism of the students lost a constraint strength. In a collective feeling of unsafety, they got close to nationalsozialismus gradually. They eventually found the stuff to make up the social and spiritual vacuum. At the beginning of 1930s, the connatural contradictions were unable to conciliate each other under the great depression. After Hitler seized power, the students thought that their suffering came to an end, because a new active premier was the guarantee of the future of the german folk. He would accomplished the social reform, which meant the students could live in a elite political,economic and social environment as before.In view of short time history,the weimar republic provide a social condition for the students’ political wake-up. They practised their political skills in the weimar republic and gave Nazi the key to open students’ political door. Nationalsozilismus just took advantage of the students’ corporations,which were vital political strength in the society, to achieve the political hegemony.In view of long time history, the reason why the german students tended towards nationalsozilismus was rooted in the german long history. It was just the german ethos and special culture that made the german nationalism explode on the young people in the Nazi-times.Despite aboved, it was not right to assert that the students had prepared for nationalsozialismus in 1920s. There were various reasons and variables.