learntoquestion ltq discussions

Questions to Consider:

1. Does history in fact rhyme? Do events from the past have similarities to the present, even if they are not exactly the same?

2. Where specifically, if at all, are there rhymes between the Weimar Republic and our present day, either within the United States or elsewhere? If there are no similarities, what accounts for the others attempting to make the direct correlation between society today and Germany between 1919 and 1933?

Word Count Requirement: 350-500 words

Work to Reference:

Please refer to the ideas, either using a quote or paraphrasing, from both your own visual essay and the work of others. Provide attribution to any quotes or ideas that you use from both your own work or the work of others.

Helpful but NOT required reading:

The ghosts of Weimar: is Weimar Germany a warning from history?

Warnings from Weimar

Weimar America?

Why People Should Stop Comparing the U.S. to Weimar Germany

Rubric to Review:

LTQ Rubric

I think history absolutely “rhymes”. There are countless examples of past situations in history that have become visible years after the fact. Notably, in the 1950s in Guatemala, a sort of neo-feudalism appeared when the United Fruit Company (UFCO) owned a substantial portion of Guatemala’s land, controlled nearly all of its labor forces, owned many of its utilities, and was a major contributor to the country’s economy. Similar to feudalism in Medieval Europe, the richest minority population owned the majority of the land. There was a strict social hierarchy, with indigenous Mayan Guatemalans essentially reduced to serfdom on UFCO’s land. Although this is just one example of history “rhyming with itself” in the future, I personally believe that this phenomenon has been appearing at an increasing rate.

Currently, I do believe that the United States has rhymes with Germany’s Weimar Republic. To start, the rise of extreme authoritarian figures bears resemblance to Hitler’s rise in Germany. In The Guardian’s article “The Reich Stuff”, it is stated that “Hitler blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in the first world war; Trump launched his 2015 campaign demonising immigrants from Mexico and continues to put border security front and centre”. Both of these authoritarian figures, Trump and Hitler, search for a scapegoat to blame the nation’s troubles on. These echoing troubles, in turn, demonstrate rhymes between the U.S. and Weimar Germany. According to ResearchGate’s study, and many others, the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar has significantly declined since 2000, nearly halving in value. This bears resemblance to the decreasing value of the German Mark during the Weimar era seen in its drastic hyperinflation. Though not nearly as severe, the economic situations in both nations still called for a scapegoat - as shown above.

Additionally, political polarization has grown to extremes, as was visible between the leftist Spartacist and the far-right Freikorps in Weimar Germany. These two polar opposites of the political spectrum had severe confrontations with the other, and vehemently denounced each other’s political viewpoints. In my website, I stated that this competition “fractured Germany's political stability and encouraged paramilitary groups”, demonstrating the repercussions that can arise from polarization and a lack of cooperation. Similarly, In the United States, the left-right division of political parties is growing wider every day, and causing more and more political and social fragmentation. This is highly evident in the current government shutdown. In order to end the shutdown, Democrats and Republicans in Congress will need to agree on a spending bill to pass. They are at the moment unable to do so, which is leading our nation further and further downhill.

As Santayana famously stated, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Clearly, the United States has not fully remembered it, as we are indeed rhyming with the past.

Theodor Reik’s statement that “history does not repeat itself, it merely rhymes” suggests that while the past may not return in identical form, its patterns often echo in new contexts. History “rhymes” reflects on human behavior and fears, and how many tend to merge during times of crisis. Although the events of the Weimar Republic and today’s world are not the same, they do mirror one another through their similarities and differences. It demonstrates how fragile democracy can become when there’s no trust in the government. During the Weimar Republic, which was post-World War 1, Germany faced economic instability, was analyzed by fellow nations, and experienced widespread disillusionment. These conditions paved the way for extremist movements, which promised to restore order and bring pride to the country once again. Dreams were sold to unknowing citizens. In my visual essay, I focused on how democracy went to despair, and the seeds of Nazis, which shows how ordinary people’s frustrations can become directed towards scapegoats rather than the issue itself, which is the system. Viewing the work of others only exemplified that there was a sense of fear and misinformation spread throughout the country, which led to its eventual collapse. One person's project focused on the fragility of Germany, which mirrored how easily citizens were manipulated during this time, and how easy it was for false narratives to shape collective thinking.

When looking at today’s world, there are undeniable rhymes. For example, in the United States and other nations, misinformation is a huge issue that directly attacks democratic institutions and has become more and more widespread and normalized. Economic stress and social division also help to fuel populist leaders who give out promises and dreams and make it seem like there is a simple solution to complex problems, much like what occurred in Weimar Germany. Social media also plays a big role in this issue, just like Weimar’s printed propaganda, which only made citizens madder and madder and amplified distrust rather than encouraging healthy and informed conversations about the issue at hand. However, unlike in the 1930s, many democratic institutions today are a lot more stable and are aware of how misinformation can negatively affect the views of citizens. This may prevent history from repeating itself.

Those who compare the present to the Weimar era are not exactly saying that the two are exactly alike, but instead are warning that the same human tendencies can repeat and still remain. Reik’s idea reminds us that ignoring the rhymes of history allows them to grow louder. Recognizing the echoes of the Weimar Republic helps us stay alert to the fragility of democracy and the consequences of apathy. The lesson is not that we are doomed at the end of the day, but instead understanding that we are human and mistakes can repeat themselves if we are informed and careful.

I believe that history does in fact rhyme as there have been so many similarities from past events to present events. Although there may be no events that have happened that will exactly mirror another there are certainly similarities. War has almost always been a constant and so has conflict within society. People have also been discontent with their government which has only ever led to violence and corruption. As seen within the Weimar republic, the broken society that filled it only fed its dysfunction and ultimate demise. The members of the republic were so broken from the war and this feeling of hurt was only intensified by the Republic’s policies. This was the first world war meaning that there were multiple countries who were in weak political states and facing the same internal problems that led them to the war. The nature of the war had become so brutal that they were forced into a war of attrition. All of the countries who participated in the war became desperate meaning that although their internal problems may have not been identical, they all had serious enough problems that led them into a war of attrition.

Call it pedantry, but I would like to point out that “history repeats itself” nigh always refers to human history, as opposed to that of any other species or process. And if we limit our scope to human history, I do believe this is true: there are certain aspects of human nature that lend themselves to repetition. Perhaps the greatest is a hope for stability: a stable income, social life, and living situation, for example, have easily been among those things most cherished by people the world over, no matter time, geography, nor culture. And while some seek the thrill of adventure, even these do not underestimate the value of a safety net: a place, even a people, to fall back upon when the going gets tough is a gift, not a hindrance. Therefore, it becomes obvious that a quest comfort is always in motion—but such may be argued of all species. How, then, does a desire for stability uphold human history as uniquely cyclic?

I would posit that human notions of ‘comfort’ tend to be more extravagant than those of all other species. Whereas a squirrel is (imaginably) content in its tree-den, perhaps with some acorns to stay its hunger, a person seeks a variable diet, or a colorful wardrobe, or holds fast to some memento, or looks to collect a quarter from each U.S. state. Now, one may assert that we have crossed some line between ‘comfort’ and ‘stability,’ but that is exactly the point—where humanity is concerned, these two words have often coincided, thus elevating what ‘comfort’ means to people above what it means to members of other species. Thus, paying mind to such raised standards, it (perhaps) becomes intuitive that humans would face conflicts of interest more than any other species on Earth: the more extravagant a standard for ‘comfort,’ the more likely it is to encroach upon another’s comfort or standard for comfort. Overall, it is the ubiquity of these ‘conflicts of interest’ that largely explain human history’s tendency to rhyme or repeat.

Rhymes between the Weimar Republic and our present day are many, with a throughline being that people have always sought out stability. Just as extremist groups at once arose in the republic, “as many were turning away from the government system of the Weimar Republic [to seek] hope and stability in other political groups” (S.M.), United States politics have likewise become increasingly polarized, with people on both ends of the traditional political spectrum seeking ‘hope of stability’ from their respective sides. Moreover, just as antisemitism grew in Weimar Germany after “much of German society had designated Jewish people as being responsible for their ills,” (K.D.) the U.S. has, undoubtedly and likewise, witnessed its own scores of racist communities blame people of color for any number of issues.

Yes i believe that history does in fact rhyme and that patterns from the past return in new ways, even if they arent exactly the same. When we study historical tragedies like the Amernian Genocide during World War One its visible how similar attitudes and actions reappear in different times and places. The Armenians were treated as second class citizens in the Ottoman Empire by the Young turks, stripped of their rights, and blamed for the empire’s problems. The turkish government use propaganda to spread fear and hate in attempt to convince citizens that the Armenians were the enemies. Only a few decades later and the same type of scenario happened in Europe. After World War One, Germany suffered political and economic damage and Adolf Hitler used this to target Jewish people, blaming them for the failures and problems of Germany. Just as Turkey used propaganda to justify ethnic violence, Nazi Germany used posters, films, and speeches to turn citizens against Jews. These two historical events though diffrent in time and place still come from the same pattern thats used to justify violence against a specific group of people. This still continues in modern day as in Sudan, genocides and ethnic cleansing campaigns have been ongoing for years with the death toll over 300,000 to 500,000 deaths. The reason behind this violence is control over land and ethnic differences. Its ideas are scary similiar to the Armenian and Jewish genocides that the belief that one group is superior and deserves to dominate another. Even though the world is more connected and aware through technology and media these patterns still happen. Yeah, history may not repeat word for word or the exact same but it surely does rhyme through the same human emotions of greed and the desire to control and dominate. Its really unfortunate that we still have violence like this going on in places in the world where human life isn’t valued that much and children are forced to be in the military at the early age of 10. What's happening in Sudan is truly a tragedy and it goes unnoticed and not talked about that much even though the death toll is reaching an all time high. Bodies and stained blood could be seen from satellites and it is tragic.

History does “rhyme,” never repeating itself exactly, but instead continuing a cycle of repeating events as time progresses, as explained by Theodor Reik. Events from the past certainly do have similarities to the present, and we have learned this to be true even from the beginning of our Facing History course. For example, the Armenian genocide can be partially attributed to empirical issues which the Ottomans faced, like the fact that it was one of the “Dying Men of Europe” at a time when industrial strength of other European powers was growing rapidly. The Young Turks were quick to place blame and concentrate national hate on the Armenian population of the Ottomans because they were a religious minority, and this, among other factors like the cover of war, led to the Armenian genocide. In the process of creating websites, we learned about pre-WWII Germany and the Weimar republic. The Weimar republic was the government in place before the rise of the Nazi party and the Holocaust. Firstly, a similar pattern we can observe between these two genocides is that they happened under the cover of war. Then, from a peer’s website, I learned that the Treaty of Versailles resulted in extreme hyperinflation, followed by national poverty, in Germany. From my own website, I know that art in the decades before WWII depicted feelings of hopelessness and disillusionment. Just as the Ottoman empire was declining, Germany was in a state of turmoil before the Holocaust. Also, the Jews in Germany were targeted because they were a religious minority, just like the Armenians were in the Ottoman empire. In addition to our past, we can connect the events that occurred in the Weimar republic to present day, and could conclude that democracy in America is falling into a less dramatic, but similar pattern to Germany post WWI. The websites emphasize the financial struggles which the Weimar republic era Germans faced, and this can connect to income inequality that Americans face today, with laws being passed currently to take financial aid away from Americans that are not as wealthy as others. This is creating national discourse, just like the fighting present during the times of Weimar Germany. To conclude, Reik was right in concluding that history does rhyme, because throughout history we can observe patterns among similar issues in modern society and how humans naturally respond to them.

I think that history does rhyme in many ways. I think that a lot of events from the past do have similarities to what we see in the present, but of course the circumstances will be different as we evolve. I think if you look at what happened in Weimar Germany, you can definitely see the patterns that led up to the fascist leadership that took over. The fragility seen within their post WWI society is something that could have predicted what was to come. We saw in the visual essays that the war caused extreme economic problems in Germany, and created a country filled with unemployment and poverty. The people distrusted the government, and were looking for any sort of strong leadership they could grasp onto to bring Germany back to what it was. This pattern has been seen a lot in history, where struggling countries or empires look for any sort of strong authoritarian figure to take control. I think there are a lot of similarities between Weimar Germany and America today. I think when there are any sort of problems that cause harm in society, people start to blame and distrust the government, and I think that Trump is an example of a lot of people looking for a strong leadership figure to take a strong control over the country. I think that the want of that from the people allows that leader more leeway to get what they want and enact their rules as they wish. One thing where I think that the situation in America isn’t quite as close to the extreme in Germany is that the situation in Germany was considerably worse before the rise of the Nazi party. There was so much more unemployment and poverty, the situation in America wasn’t close to the same extreme. Overall what is happening in America is probably a less extreme rhyme of Weimar Germany. History definitely rhymes a lot, but hopefully as time goes on those rhymes of the faults from the past get less and less extreme. So many of the things that happened in the past should never happen again, and hopefully we eventually get to a point where nothing of the kind ever happens again.

I think that history almost always rhymes. As humans I think that we all often repeat the same mistakes at least a couple times in our lives, and so of course our predecessors would have similar mistakes to us. Obviously not every event is a mirror of another event but I do think that many behaviors that lead to these events are the same. The kinds of societies that facilitate them, like the unstable society of the Weimar Republic, or the mob mentality that facilitated the Nazi uprising, are seen today. It is hard to directly say one event is the exact same as another but it is helpful to recognize similarities to avoid in the future. Additionally, when there is a lack of education in the past we cannot learn from our mistakes. That is why it is so important that we should strive to teach deeply immersive history classes that also comment on the present in regards to past events. In these lessons we can highlight similarities through photographic evidence or video evidence to show rhymes but also show that it is not just a story. By seeing these images and memories, we can find even stronger connections to the past. We must highlight that these events, while they might have happened years before, are not just a story, but a lesson on right and wrong. For example, the current president, Trump, often tells lies in his speeches to gain support and the military leaders of Germany during the Weimar Republic pushed for the false theory that the government had stabbed its people in the back. The idea that Germany was winning the war, but the new liberal government intentionally made them loose was a key factor in the movement against the Weimar government. Similarly, the government today, especially Donald Trump, uses false information to rally support and help his own agenda. But as said in the Times article on “Why Should Stop Comparing the U.S. to Weimar Germany”, America is in a far better position than the Weimar republic was. Because we have many different parties recognizing what is wrong with Trump and the government, people questioning instead of staying dormant, we have a chance to avoid this scary repetition of history.