Weimar, GermanyWhen examining the great social and cultural changes in the modern West, many specific events come to mind: the Renaissance and Reformation, the “discovery” of the Americas, industrialization and World War Two. One such event, often overlooked, is the “Great War,” 1914-1918. Like any people affected by the scale of this war, the Germans were profoundly affected and changed forever. As a social, cultural and psychological reaction to World War I, the German people created the Weimar Republic, leading to a drastic change in German society and culture. To better understand these changes, a comprehensive analysis of the First World War, before, during and after, is needed. What was Germany before the First World War? Before World War I, Germany was a great power on the brink of social revolution, like many other European nations. The relatively new empire was grappling with the new working class and the growing workers' rights movement (Gilbert and Large, 15-19). Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany at the outbreak of World War I, was shifting his empire toward expansive imperialism and militarism. The political, social and cultural structure of Germany before the First World War was relatively new, but almost immediately strong and powerful. The political structure of Germany, born out of the German attempt at solid unification, was rapidly becoming obsolete in the face of the labor movement and the precarious balance of power in Europe, and would soon be undermined by the First World War. The Bundesrat, like the contemporary House of Lords in the British parliament, was manipulated by the landowning class. The Reichstag, created to balance the weight of the Bundesrat, was extremely limited: it could not in any way interfere with the armies of individual states, limiting itself to legislation on foreign and naval affairs, as well as other related minutiae such as customs and mail (Gilbert and Large, 71). Despite Germany's authoritarian government system, some indicators of social progress were evident. Members of the Reichstag were elected, and eligible voters included all men over the age of 25. Germany was also ahead of its time in terms of workers' rights (although no nation was timely enough to satisfy the rapidly growing working class). For the most part, however, Germany was the symbol of authoritarianism. The Kaiser himself was an important symbol of this path... middle of paper... continued to show what suffering in the trenches meant. They hadn't turned into heroes. By the end of the war they weren't even able to function in society...much of the population didn't like having to deal with these war cripples. They didn't want to be constantly reminded of what war was really like.” (Gay, 90; emphasis mine) From such devastation came Weimar. The Germans embraced their new freedom as a republic, feeling freed from those old constraints that, in their opinion, led their country to ruin. Weimar culture symbolized German contempt for the “old ways” of authoritarianism and monarchy. Weimar was modern, new and, as far as the Germans knew, not destined to fall victim to another all-out war. Weimar was the hope of the people. The Germans, who felt that their entire way of life had been made evil by the world and had been annihilated in the war, reinvented themselves and, like the Germans they are, did the job to the hilt. World War I gave birth to this new republic. It was, if nothing else, a cultural and psychological reaction, which led to a drastic change that would shape the..