German110TimOs14: February 2014

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

All Quiet on the Western Front Review

In All Quiet on the Western Front, the theme of the Lost Generation was the most apparent. This book’s characters are ripped apart by the fighting on the Front in the war. They hadn’t even finished ‘high school’ and they were being trained to fight and kill. This reality was propagated by the very people who are instrumental in their learning, the Teacher, Kantorek. He spoke of honor and patriotism that would come to the boys who would become men fighting for their country. That honor and patriotism would only come about for those men who didn’t die to begin with. People who survived such as Paul, the narrator would have to live in agony from the horrors of war. He would come to see his friends he served with die. Along the way their innocents was lost. The men would frequently joke of death and be dehumanized by the experience. Muller for example desired Kemmerich’s boots even before he died. He was almost immune to the fact his longtime friend was going to die; he was understandingly, worried for himself in that instance. The horrors of war for this Lost Generation are also illustrated when Paul returns home on leave. Despite the praise given to him, he feels disturbed. He receives numerous gifts from curious citizens who haven’t experienced the war like he has. The most significant part of the innocents of Paul being robbed can be seen when he speaks to Kemmerich’s mother. She pleads to hear how her son died. The story plagues Paul by picturing Kemmerich’s final death throes. Paul cannot bring himself to tell Kemmerich’s mother the truth. It is something he cannot bare to do. Paul knows Kemmerich’s mother cannot possibly imagine how her son died. He saves the burden of truth from her to protect her, he pities her deeply. Throughout his interactions with citizens on leave Paul hides the horrors of war, as to not distress those around him who still retain their innocence.

All Quet on the Western Front: Chapter 7

Part 1: [Pages 137-161] Kristine Avant

Main Characters: Paul, Leer, Kropp, Paul's mother

Plot:

Himmelstoss tries to make up with them - giving them more food and getting them easy jobs

Paul, Leer, and Kropp meet the three French women when they are swimming - later that night they take food and swim across the canal to meet with them; they obviously have a good time even with the language barrier

Paul gets seventeen days of leave. When he goes home he finds out his mother has cancer and the people there are starving. He lies to his mom about how "bad" it was out there.

Themes/Analysis:

We learned earlier in the book that all of Paul's, and most of the other men's, sexual experiences were in the brothels - by being with the French woman he is trying to gain back some of his youth/innocence (first time type of thing). He also realizes she would find him more interesting if he were going to the front - more betrayal, as she doesn't see him as a human being like he wants her to.

Part 2: [Pages 162-185] Tim Olson

Main Characters: Paul, Paul's mother, Kantorek, Mittelstaedt, Kemmerick's mother

Plot:

Immediately as Paul returns to his hometown he is greeted by a woman serving coffee, she exclaims how happy she is to give a soldier a coffee, Paul is disgusted by this notion and it sets the tone for the homecoming section of this chapter.

Paul makes it to his house where he has an awkward experience returning home, he has sensory overload and doesn't know how to react when he hears his sister's voice, he says he is home but, "a sense of strangeness will not leave me."

Paul's mother briefly questions him about what happened at the front, he dismisses the accusations of gas attacks and sieges, saying it's 'only talk.'

Paul has a run in with a Major who shames him for not saluting him, Paul is forced to march and vows to not wear his uniform while he is on leave. Despite this concealment, he is strangely humbled by the gestures of the townsfolk who offer him cigars while questioning him about the front.

Paul visits Mittelstaedt at the barracks, where he finds he is a training officer. Mittelstaedt is training Kantorek (their old school teacher), Mittelstaedt has a sense of satisfaction out of the role reversal, reciting orders once barked at him by his former teacher. Paul criticizes Mittelstaedt's pride, referencing Behm's death in war following his reluctance to fight in the war.

Paul puts off visiting Kemmerick's mother till the end of his leave. He lies to her saying Kemmerick's death was a result of a shot to the chest, which killed him immediately without pain. His mother has her doubts and tries to hear the truth from Paul. Paul defends his lie which results in Kemmerick's mother accepting it as truthful. Paul pities her and hides the truth because he feels she cannot ever know the pain he went through.

On Paul's last night his mother and him share a moment, where they pity each other. Paul's mother worries for him on the front, and he worries for her and her declining health. Paul wishes he could put his head in her lap and weep like a child.

Themes/Analysis:

The second half of the chapter continues the theme of Paul's youth and innocence. Paul and his friends joined the military together and left behind their childhood. They had no choice but to adapt to the conditions of the Front. Paul's homecoming in the second half of this chapter deals with his anguish of the war. Paul moved from a stressful environment of the front, returning to a place where he was innocent. He's become suspicious living in a hostile environment, the home he returned to doesn't feel like the home it once was. There is a metaphor in this chapter where he goes through his old things, books, insects, and other objects around his room seem foreign to him much like the overall surroundings he is in. Coupled with the stress of returning to war, and the conflict at home, the chapter ends with Paul biting into his pillow, wishing he had never come home.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Group 3 - CDU

Christian Democratic Union

Presentation

Party Platform

From Wikipedia

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) applies the principles of Christian democracy and emphasizes the “Christian understanding of humans and their responsibility toward God.” Members of the party are do not have to belong to a certain religion or be religious at all. Its policies are derived from Political Catholicism, Catholic school teachings, and political Protestantism. The CDU supports European integration and a strong relation with the US. They do not want to allow Turkey to enter the European Union but want a privileged partnership. They cited Turkey for numerous human rights violations and they believe that because Turkey is unwilling to recognize Cyprus as an independent, sovereign state, Turkey is contradicting the EU policy that its member must recognize the existence of one another. The CDU supports stronger punishments of crime and involvement on the part of the Bundeswehr (armed forces) in cases of domestic anti-terrorism offensives. The CDU believes that Germany should integrate immigrants through language courses and wants to further control of immigration. They also believe that dual citizenship should only be allowed in exceptional cases.

Opponents/Supporters

Opponents of the CDU include the SPD, The Left party, and The Greens. The CDU has governed two Grand Coalitions with the SPD and various coalitions with The Greens. A preferred partner of the CDU is the FDP, who has similar attitudes towards fiscal policy.

States that support the CDU are concentrated in rural and Catholic regions such as Eifel, Sauerland, Thuringia Eichsfeld as well as areas in Saxony, Vorpommern, and Nordfriesland. There is less support in Bremen, Brandenburg, and East Berlin.

Similar Parties

The party most similar to the CDU would be our Republican Party. Both parties advocate for fiscal conservatism and support the use of armed forces for anti-terrorism offensives. The Republican Party and the CDU have affiliations with the International Democratic Union. The IDU allows political parties with similar views to come together and exchange views on matters of policy and organizational interest.

Views

They are currently focussed on weathering the financial troubles of the last few years.It is among their goals to keep the economy competitive, and taxes low. They have been going by the slogan “Germany’s future: in good hands.” They also stand for protection and promotion of the family. Most recently, the party has put its efforts on phasing out nuclear power.

History

Following the collapse of the Third Reich and the end of WWII. Germany began restricting its government. This brought about the Christian Democratic Union. The CDU aimed to establish a union, and as such a party of German people, something the likes of the Weimar Republic failed to achieve. The CDU was founded in Berlin on the 26th of June 1945, 49 days after VE-Day. The party spread out to Westphalia and Rhineland after its formation. The first Chancellor of Germany since WW2 was Konrad Adenauer (serving 1949-1963) of the CDU. Adenauer was imprisoned twice during the Nazi years, under the accusation of ‘Opponent to the Regime.’ Adenauer and his colleagues were successful in taking power because of their views of; economic flexibility, and oppositional to the Nazis, two attributes favored by the United States and Britain. The CDU would lose their grasp when Adenauer was replaced. Moving forward, the next successful leader was Helmut Kohl (serving 1982-1998). Kohl was the longest running chancellor since Otto Von Bismarck. Kohl was seen a main architect for the reunification of Germany, and the creation of the EU in 1993. Today, the current Chancellor of Germany is Angela Merkel. She, a Research Chemist and Politician started as an opposition leader in 1998 versus the SPD. Merkel became chancellor in 2005 and remains chancellor today. She is currently ranked 5th on Forbes.com’s most important people list, the highest achieved position of a woman.

Members

The Christian Democratic Union has roughly 485,000 members, as of May 2012. Each German state had a series of members, and a chairperson. North Rhine-Westphalia had the most members of any state in Germany, with more than 165,000 members. The chairperson of North Rhine-Westphalia, representing the CDU, is Armin Laschet. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, is the chairperson of the CDU party.

The average age of members in the party is 59. Less than 6% of members are under the age of 30. 75% of the party’s members are male, and the remaining 25% are female members. Therefore, this party has a strong population of middle aged adults and seniors.

Sources

Thoughts

This group project was very fun. I thought it was interesting to learn about the political process in Germany. Specifically I tried to handle most of the history for our group. I think it's interesting how this party, which is very old (by Germany's standards) seems to be the conservative party, similar to the United States' Republican party. I think it's interesting to note how this party was favored by the United States and Britain because of it's economic focus in the early days. They've remained true to this stance trying to keep taxes low as well as weathering the financial crises.

I was happy that this fit well into a group project. I wouldn't change much about the criteria for this project. We had a specific topic to learn about and we didn't have to cover a lot of different topics in one presentation. I thought the pitch idea was good to introduce the topic, however it may have been better to know more about the 'pitch' idea ahead of time. I would suggest that in the future presentations would go before people choose to join, that way they know they are or are not being subjected to sensationalism to get them to join a specific party, such as the tactic I tried to use in our pitch.