Germany And The French Revolution

The French Revolution, which began in 1789, is considered as the opening of the modern political era. It was a popular uprising that succeeded in overthrowing and guillotining the Bourbon king and queen, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The ultimate result of the revolution was unexpected, the rise of Napoleon as the prototype of the modern dictator. Although he had nothing to do with initiating the revolution or executing the king and queen. Napoleon's conquests spread the ideals of the French Revolution across Europe.

There has been two major repetitions of the French Revolution and many minor ones. The two major repetitions were the October Revolution, of 1917 in Russia, and the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Neighboring countries to France have had their own version of the revolution but have arranged it's pieces in different ways. We saw this recently with regard to Spain and Italy. Let's have a look at how the pieces of the French Revolution were arranged in Germany.

At the time of the French Revolution, Germany would not exist as a united nation for another 82 years. The German-speaking principalities across central Europe were precluded from uniting by being divided between Protestants and Catholics. The catalyst for uniting Germany was actually victory against Napoleon's nephew, Louis Napoleon or Napoleon III, in the Franco-Prussian War. Napoleon III himself was captured and the new German Empire was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors, in the Palace of Versailles, in 1871. This is, ironically, the same palace that was the home of the House of Bourbon prior to the French Revolution, the splendor of which is considered as having sparked the revolution. 

The new nation of Germany was a monarchy, led by the Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm I. It had been proclaimed in France, in the Palace of Versailles, and it was brought about by the defeat of Napoleon's nephew. It was almost like monarchy making a comeback against Napoleon. 

Germany, led by Kaiser Wilhelm II, was later at war with Russia and the western Allies, in the First World War. The German High Command was aware of the unpopularity of the Russian monarch, Tsar Nicholas I, and of the class tension in Russia. There was a Communist agitator in exile in Switzerland, named Vladimir Lenin, and the idea arose of bringing him to his native Russia to set off a class revolution that would incapacitate Russia's ability to continue the war. The plan worked brilliantly and brought about the first major reenactment of the French Revolution, the October Revolution of 1917. The Romanov family was overthrown and later executed, just as the French House of Bourbon had been. 

The trouble was that the plan worked too well. The population of Germany was undergoing many of the same hardships as the Russians and the revolution spread to Germany, incapacitating it's ability to continue the war. Just as the Russian revolution began with sailors in St. Petersburg the German revolution began with sailors in Kiel. The German monarchy of the Kaisers, which had been proclaimed in the palace that had been the home of the Bourbons, had been brought to a close by the spread to Germany of the first major reenactment of the French Revolution.

The objective of the French Revolution, which ended the monarchy, was to create a republic. But ultimately it was Napoleon, a great conqueror and the prototype of the modern dictator, that emerged from it. So it would be with Germany. The Weimar Republic followed the end of the Kaisers. But it was fatally damaged by the economic crash of 1929, which began in New York. A party called the Nazis emerged with a way out of the economic depression. Unemployment would be absorbed by drastically increasing the armed forces and then factories would be brought back to full production making military equipment for them.

But this repetition of the French Revolution required it to culminate in a napoleonic figure. The leader of the Nazis was Adolf Hitler and he would be the next Napoleon. He made a point of visiting Napoleon's Tomb and his field of conquest would be nearly identical to that of Napoleon. When Nazi soldiers marched under Napoleon's Arc De Triomphe it was to show that Hitler was picking up where Napoleon had left off. 

This explains the coldness the Nazis displayed toward the old Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was still alive in exile in the Netherlands when they came to power. The Kaiser sent a message to Hitler, requesting restoration of the monarchy, but was ignored. The Kaiser was a monarch while Hitler was a Napoleon.

It also explains how Marshal Philippe Petain, France's great hero of the First World War, could turn into the great collaborator of the Second World War. Marshal Petain was a napoleonic figure, dressed in a military uniform. In the First World War he was right in his element, fighting against the Kaiser who was a monarch. But in the Second World War he was up against Hitler, who had succeeded in passing himself off as the new Napoleon. 

But yet, like the other copies and reenactments of the French Revolution, Germany did not present an exact copy but rearranged the pieces in it's own way. First, much unlike the French Revolution, the German revolution near the end of the First World War was not bloody and is not well-known today. Second, Napoleon was a heir of the Roman Empire while Hitler was a heir of the Holy Roman Empire.

I see the history of major European powers as alternating between heirs of the Roman Empire and of the Holy Roman Empire, with neither able to gain lasting dominance over the other. Napoleon had declared himself as a Roman Emperor. The Nazis called themselves "The Third Reich". The Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne, which lasted for a thousand years before being ended by the conquests of Napoleon, was the First Reich and the Empire of the Kaisers was the Second Reich.

For more see the book-length compound posting "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris", December 2015. 

The heritage of the Roman Empire against the Holy Roman Empire is described in the compound posting "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy", October 2016, section 6) THE IRON AND THE CLAY IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 

There is also "The Far-Reaching Legacy Of The Holy Roman Empire", April 2016.