Is it overall viewed positively, negatively or mixed? How much did the interwar policies have an impact on the subsequent WWII?

28 comments

  1. While there are some positive aspects (end of the monarchy and becoming a republic, vote for women, freedom of the press, separation of powers etc) that came with the Weimar constitution, the time is mainly seen negatively.

    WWI had devastated the country, whole generations died or were traumatised at the front, people were starving, the country lost a lot of land and was demoralised for having to take the whole blame of the war. The economy was ruined and there was the hyper inflation. Politically the country was very polarised and monarchists, communists and fascists hated and fought the young democracy.

    After a brief economic upswing the the late 20s the great depression hit Germany hard and was the nail in the coffin for the the first democracy.

    1933 was cut. Afterwards it only got negative.

    However the post war constitution of the Federal Republic was inspired by the good aspects of the Weimar constitution and included some improvents as “lessons learnt” from the failures of Weimar.

  2. Honestly, the 1920s is largely forgotten about other than maybe a few stereotyped ideas about flappers and jazz or whatever. Which is a shame because some extremely important historical events took place that would shape the next century.

    For one thing, the United Kingdom as it’s currently conceived was created with the partition of Ireland in 1921. Most Brits probably wouldn’t be able to tell you when that happened.

    For another, the British Empire was at its greatest geographical extent in the early 1920s. Again, most Brits associate this type of colonialism with the mid-late Victorian era.

    Alongside that, there was the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924, the general strike in 1926, and the equal right to vote for women in 1928.

    The 1930s is viewed pretty negatively, I’d say. Not only was there the Great Depression and the scandal surrounding the abdication of King Edward VIII, there was of course the lead-up to WWII and, in particular, the policy of appeasement, most notoriously associated with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

    While I think the truth about appeasement is more complicated than a lot of people give it credit for, the general view among the public is that it was a huge mistake that made war inevitable.

    Of course, how you view it really depends who you are. The upper and middle classes were quite prosperous in the era, at least until the Wall Street Crash, while for most industrial workers it was a time of strife and unemployment.

    Of course, when thinking back to these eras, most people imagine that they’d be in the upper classes. So there’s a lot of nostalgia around the kind of Agatha Christie/P.G. Wodehouse/Downton Abbey presentation of this time.

    But most people didn’t live like that. Reading George Orwell’s 1937 book *The Road to Wigan Pier* really opened my eyes to how grim life was in the northern industrial towns at that time.

  3. Very positively (gained independence, 7th strongest economy in the world, democracy, prosperity etc.) Only through 1935 to 1938 unrest and problems began, because of germans and germany

  4. Disgraced by france (Versailles treaty),

    Unstable governments,

    Hyperflation,

    fights between communists, fascists and others.

    Since 33 the dark ages started, because the fascists won.

    (Germany)

  6. It was our War of Independence, Civil War and the foundation of the state, eventually culminating in the constitution of 1937.

    Two weeks in 1916 and the period 1918-1923 is probably the most heavily covered and well-known bit of our whole history

  7. 1918-1922: the period of political violence and social turmoil, with the “biennio rosso”, the Fiume endeavor, the rise of fascism and the overall dissatisfaction with the “mutilated victory”.

    1922-1939: the fascist era, divided in:
    -the first years (1922-1926) that saw the new leadership trying to legitimize its power with the creation of reforms in various fields and the rebuilding of the society, while also getting rid of its opposition through various means (especially violent);
    -and the second (1926-1939) that instead saw the liberticidal measures baing taken in place, and the full transformation of the fascist government into a dictatorship with the following events of the intervention in the Spanish civil war, the war in Ethiopia, the emanation of other liberticidal laws and the promulgation of the racial laws and the alliance with Germany.

  8. Triumph of socialism and pacifism, rise of the far right leagues and their coup attempt in 1924, people shocked by the horror of war and the symbolism of the “gueules cassées” ( broken faces ) aka the survivors of the frontline who have been mutilated or badly injured.

    Overall it’s a positive chaos. The third Republic was very unstable and plagued by scandals but the jingoism died and the socialists ministers gave the pillars of our welfare state, lots of rights and strengthen the Republic as a regime in an era where royalism was still a big challenger with popular thinkers and lots of militants

  11. It’s often reminisced about as a sort of golden age of freedom and prosperity. The reality was a bit less rosy – there was a lot of economic/political instability in the 20s and an authoritarian regime in the 30s (though a relatively mild one, compared to many other countries at the time) – but of course some growing pains are to be expected when trying to establish an independent nation-state after centuries of foreign rule; and just about anything would look like a paradise compared to the horrors of WWII and the Soviet occupation after that. Overall, the good outweighs the bad.

  12. First half very positively (first republic), second half not so much. Civil war, austrofascism, then Nazis.

  13. It’s considered the period leading to (and including) the civil war. It’s very well known, especially from 1930 to 1939.

  16. We didn’t care much about WWII although WWI involved Ireland, but we had much bigger fish to fry

  18. Mainly filled with political problems. In high school I don’t even think we talked about it and the general idea would probably be “It wasn’t the best time”. That is if people even know what the Interbellum is.

  19. Spain didn’t take part in world wars, so the period is not shaped so much by them. It is generally it is seen as a inestable period.

    * 1918-1923: This was a period of crisis within the previous political system (Canovas Monarchic restauration with two parties: liberal and conservatives) collapsing after some decades of relative stability.

    * 1923-1930: Primo de Rivera militar distatorship. This was stable for some years with economic development but it didn’t last long as a lot of people was tired of the monarchy and lack of rights.

    * 1931-1936: Second Republic. A very progressive constitution with things like divorce and women rights. But society was very polarized in two sides at this point so…

    * 1936-1939: Spanish civil war. One of the worst wars in Europe and the prelude to WW2.

  20. the divide of the finnish civil war cut deep. The proletariat and the bourgeoise both had their own sports teams, caffés, libraries, bars and more. Finland in the early 1920 was comparable to the lowest of third world countries today. In fact, there has been recently discovered evidence that Tampere in the twenties was more dangerous than Chicago during the same time period!

    Things did start to get better in the thirties, as the number of cars rose from 2000 to 47000 and more and more households got electricity. The Imatran vesivoimala -dam was the largest water-based power plant in Europe, and the economy made an overall recovery.

  21. We don’t care that much tbh, effects of ww2 is minimal to us so it is no different than other parts of post-republic history

  22. Like any other new democracy. Unstable, politically divided and recovering from a bloody civil war.

  23. it’s divided in two periods:

    – the end of the 1st Republic, which was more unstable than Italian governments;

    – the beginning of the 2nd Republic, which started with a military coup and would see the rise of Salazar, that would lead the country until the late 60s

  24. We were riding high on a postwar economic boom until the Greta Depression hit. Oh, and once that happened we couldn’t even drink our pain away, since Prohibition banned all beverages above 0.5% ABV

  25. Civil war, famines, purges, collectivization. NEP was a brief, but welcome respite from Soviet experiments. Industrialization is also viewed as a mixed bag: on one hand, it boosted Soviet industrial capacity that likely helped the Union resist Germany, but it was extremely expensive and inefficient on the other.

  26. Got out of WW1 without fighting, but with bassically embargoes from both sides, which got us in economic missery. Also a lot of Belgian refugees went back to Belgium. So not great but also not terrible.

    Then the 20s which were pretty good and stable. A lot of big projects like the [Afsluitdijk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsluitdijk), and the beginning of the craetion of [Flevoland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flevoland#History).

    Also companies on the rise before WW1 just got back to growing. Also trading got better, but feeling a lot of competition from the US.

    1929 wasn’t really a bad year as the Great Depression only really hit in the 1930’s here. Basically other countries went in a deep crisis and the Netherlands got pulled down with them.

    The 30s were economically not great but got better by 1935/6. Due to having Hitler as your neighbour, which is not great to say the least, a lot of Jews fled to the Netherlands only to be murdered in WW2.

    Some unrest in the Dutch East Indies after Japan said ‘Asia for the Asians’. Won’t go further into the topic due to the great controversy surrounding the Dutch East Indies.

    The rise of the NSB (Nationaal Socialistische Beweging/National Socialist Movement/Dutch Nazi’s) although they werenot big, they were seen a lot. And laughed at.

    Then the came 1939. A lot of people were not worried that Germany would invade. We were neutral in WW1, it wasn’t great. But we didn’t suffer like Belgium did. Surely they would respect the Dutch neutrality, the nazi’s said that themselves.

    I know this should only go to 1939, but I will go on. 1940 there is a general mobilisation. Then the Gerams invade on the 10th of May and we surrender on the 15th.

  27. It’s generally seen as a sort of “golden age” of Lithuanian culture and advancement. In those ~20 years we had [transformed our country](https://youtu.be/C2FL_xd8cS8) from a largely illiterate rural society into a “western” urbanized one.

    In reality it wasn’t quite all rainbows and sunshine though. We were under a [nationalist-military dictatorship](https://youtu.be/4xqCNzpIyGE) from 1926 all the way to 1940, the economy and the political situation were obviously not that great due to excessive spending on the military due to said dictatorship. We also effectively [had our own version of gulags](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varniai_concentration_camp) where political prisoners were sent to do slave labor. Not something to be proud of.

  28. The public opinion and general feeling after WW1 was very bitter in Hungary. Even if Hungarians hadn’t behaved very fair towards small nationalities like Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Romanians etc., basically everybody considered the disintegration of the old Kingdom of Hungary as a tragic event and a betrayal from the peoples with whom they’ve been living together for a millenium.

    Self-reflection never has been the strength of Hungarians. So, naturally, scapegoats had to be found: the proletariat and Jewish people. Antisemitism and far-right ideology became dominant. After the chaotic events of the revolution and the Hungarian Soviet Republic, a kingless kingdom was established. The main goal became for the new government: revision of the treaty of Trianon.

    A slow consolidation began in the second part of the 20s, the economy and the political system began to stabilize, but then the great depression happened which didn’t affect Hungary as badly as other countries, but the economy was still very vulnerable. A slow, fascist turn began with prime minister Gyula Gömbös. At the end of the decade, Hitler gave some territories back to Hungary (it is _very_ ironic and tragic that the justest borders for Hungary were established by the worst murder-dictator of human history); and he expected Hungary to be his loyal ally. In the first years of WW2, Hungary tried to remain officially neutral, but then joined the war on the side of the Axis.

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