| "All the research on the history of the Weimar Republic must be subject to investigation on the dominant cause of the Republic’crash", why the Weimar democracy fell, why Hitler came to power? Kurt von Schlericher was the only one defense minister-turned Prime Minister,who had "recalled" two Defense Ministers, three former Chancellors, walking to the centre of power. The Research on von Schleicher can also become a suitable perspective which is concerned about the anti-Siwei Weimar Republic destruction reasons. The thesis intends to elaborate and analyze Kurt von Schleicher’s initiatives during the Weimar Republic to reveal the relationship between von Schleicher and the fall of Weimar democracy.Aside from the introduction and conclusion, the main part of the thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter combs and discusses the military and political activities of Kurt von Schleicher before he became the last prime minister of the Weimar Republic. Firstly, it detailedly combs von Schleicher’s fortune in the Ministry of Defense, showing the rising process from an ordinary officer to the throne of the Prime Minster of the Weimar Republic, in order to understand von Schleicher’s army background and the motivation lying behind his subsequent political activities. Secondly, it discusses what role von Schleicher had played in the process of institutional transition ——scorning the parliamentary democracy and advocating the "presidential system cabinet".The Second chapter analyzes the political activities in the tenure as Chancellor. Papen government rules bypass the Congress, and only depends on the presidential "emergency decree",makes the presidential cabinet in trouble because of lacking of the mass base which the "presidential cabinet" must posses in an already highly mass mobilization and political mobilization of Weimar society. von Schleicher seizes the initiative and intends to broad the social base including the bourgeois parties,trade unions and so on, naming "Querfront Strategy", in order to break the impasse which the presidential cabinet was in. This chapter shows the process of the political alliances’ formation, and makes it clear that the possibility of realizing and the inevitability of failure which von Schleicher’s bold political vision, and reveals the various interest groups’ "self-interest" first in Weimar crisisThe third chapter discusses the anti-recession measures which Schleicher government took. The deflation during Brunning government was proven unable to save the German economy in distress, resulting the severe repression of the effective social demand, deepened the economy’s recession. Papen forewent deflation, and tried to stimulate private economic to promote economic revival by state aid. Owing to the resistance from socialist parties and trade unions, Papen government consumed with the political crisis. Schleicher government proposed "work creation", aiming to promote the lower classes’ direct employment, to achieve the purpose of anti-depression. The familiar between Schleicher’s and Papen’s policies is that they are both examples of inflation. They differ in the objects of class differences.The fourth chapter describes the ins and outs of von Schleicher’s resign and Hitler’s seizing power, which results from the departure from the right-wing. It shows that the failure of Schleicher is actually the right-wing conservative forces’historic failure in the battle with the Nazis.The conclusion part mainly show the role which von Schleicher, belonging to the Reichswher which upheld the "transcend political parties" principle in Weimar Republic whose political system is a more modern and advanced republic system, had played in the tragedy of the Weimar Republic’s destruction and Hitler’s coming to power, and analyzes the reasons. |
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