Past and Present... and Future?: Heinrich Bruning's austerity measures for the Weimar Republic and Greece's economic crisis

For several years now, Greece's economy has been in turmoil after its budget deficit spiralled out of control. The country is in recession, have high unemployment and are struggling to economically recover. The Greek government therefore have decided to slowly use austerity measures which involves increasing taxes and cut government spending. Although these economic measures are necessary to keep Greece alive, the people of Greece will certainly not be happy.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Greek_debt_and_EU_average.png

The struggling economy of Greece has caused disastrous problems to the country with the unemployment rate at 27.2% (and still increasing) of the entire workforce in January 2013. In order to help the economy and pay off debts, the cabinet of the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, has decided to impose austerity measures which increases taxes and decreases government spending. All of this might seem a negative for Greece in the short run, however many argue that these measures are needed, and suffering must occur, in order to save the nation. But the Greek people have opposed this and a several anti-austerity general strike have been created to attempt to end austerity. This would cause disruptions to public services such as transport and hospitals and cause even greater trouble to the country.

The economic crisis of Greece is very similar to the Weimar Republic, the form of government in Germany from 1919 to 1933, where the country went into disaster following the Wall Street Crash in October 1929 and the resulting Great Depression in the world. The terrible economic crisis led to 30% of the German workforce to be unemployed in 1932. The President of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg, therefore appointed Heinrich Brüning as Chancellor to solve the situation. Brüning's solution was austerity measures and he increased taxes, reduced government spending, imposed high tariffs on foreign products and cutbacks in salaries and unemployment insurance benefits and continued to pay reparations from the Treaty of Versailles. Chancellor Brüning believed in pain now for prosperity later and his long-term decisions may have been the right decisions to save the Republic. However, people don't want to suffer the pain and look long term. Many of the unemployed belived that the policy was callous and ineffective. Support for the Weimar Republic therefore dramatically decreased, strikes were formed, and support went to more extreme parties such as the Communists and the Nationalists.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Bundesarchiv_Bild_119-2600%2C_Heinrich_Brüning.jpg

The result of the austerity measures by the Weimar Republic was loss in support and increase in support for the Nazis, Hitler's party. The Nazis promised the opposite, with successful propaganda orchestrated by Josef Goebbels, such as tackling unemployment through job creation schemes, subsidies for peasants, and law and order as well as naming scapegoats as the reason for Germany's problems. This obviously appealed to the Germans more than Brüning's austerity measures. The Nazis who only had less than 2.6% of seats in the elections of 1928, before the Wall Street Crash, now had 37.27% of seats in the July 1932 and were the largest party in Germany. Later on, Hitler became more influential and took power over Germany with him as a dictator. The rest is history.

And this is what can be potentially worrying about Greece's future. Clearly, the Greek people want an alternative to austerity measures. Therefore, any extremist parties such as the Communists and Nationalists have a great opportunity to increase their support by saving the country. With their increase in support, they can then get rid of the current government and take control of the country. These parties may initially be good at first, but can also turn to be disastrous for the country as seen with the Communist party in the Soviet Union with Stalin in charge and the Nationalist party in Nazi Germany with Hitler in charge. History has proven us that governments like the Communist party in Russia and the Nazi party in Germany have failed and therefore should not be repeated it again. But then again, the fact that Greece's politicians have caused their country to go into economic crisis in the first place shows that people do not learn from history after all.





http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22362757
http://alphahistory.com/weimargermany/great-depression/
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/heinrich_bruning.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/82225/Heinrich-Bruning
http://lancasteronline.com/blogs/smartremarks/2011/11/17/a-brief-bloody-history-of-austerity/
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/greece/unemployment-rate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13798000
Gauci, Joe. IB History Route 2:Origins and Development of Authoritarian and Single-Party States. Oxford, UK: OSC IB Revision Guides, 2010. Print.

Past and Present... and Future?: Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbour and North Korea's nuclear threat

North Korea's threats to send nuclear attacks to South Korea seem to have subsidised, possibly thankfully. After several talks with John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, the incident with North Korea has become less worrying and we do not hear much about it on the news anymore. However, how can we ever be sure about what they are thinking?

http://media.salon.com/2013/04/north_korea2.jpg

Recently, North Korea has had peace discussions with the United States so that conflict could be avoided. So far, the threat from North Korea seems to have decreased and therefore perhaps Kim Jong-Un has opted not attack after all. Some expected an incident to occur on April 15, Kim Il-Sung's, first leader of North Korea and Kim Jong-Un's grandfather, birthday. However, no attacks have happened yet and what we see on the news is tragic attack in Boston. Luckily, maybe there won't be any conflict or war in the end.

Or maybe this was all planned anyway. I've heard from other sources that Kim Jong-Un's main reason for his threat was not because he wanted to attack the U.S.A but to actually consolidate his power. They claim that he's smart enough to know that the U.S.A are too large to risk going to war against and therefore is only looking to get the support of his own people. Since the media in North Korea has been heavily censored since the Korean War in the 1950's, where North Korea went to war with the United States, public opinion on America has always been very negative because they are unable to see how the world is like outside their country. Therefore, Kim Jong-Un is supposedly threatening the United States to increase the support from his own people but deciding to not attack in the end so that he can tell his people that he scared off the Americans and stopped them from war. This would be a fantastic propaganda attempt and would help him seem like the true hero of North Korea. But who knows? He may be a complete madman after all.

Anyway, the time in history which I would like to compare this incident is again Japan in 1941, right before they went to war with the United States. In fact, only about a week before the incident of Pearl Harbour, where the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the American naval fleet in Hawaii and resulting in war in the Pacific between Japan and the U.S., Shigenori Togo, Japan's foreign minister, was trying to make negotiations with the United States prevent war even on 29 November, just over a week before the attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December Japan time (8 December Hawaii time). What this shows is that peace negotiations were still being held and war did not seem to occur anytime soon, but shockingly, the Japanese air force unexpectedly attacked and stunned the whole world and defining parts of World War II. It was a complete surprise. For example, Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German foreign minister, was angry about the situation because he thought that the press department fell for a propaganda trick by Germany's enemies.

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2013/04/16/1226621/836420-north-korea-koreas-tension.jpg

What makes this event in history similar to today is how although risk of conflict seems to be subsidising, we never know what the North Koreans are up to. Just like the Japanese, they might think that war with the United States is inevitable because of the sanctions she is posing on the country. Just like Japan, the country might be smaller in military than the United States, also definitely smaller than Japan in 1941, but still might end up shockingly attacking them. Of course, there are many different suggestions of what Kim Jong-Un is planning to do, but a surprise attack by the North Koreans cannot be ruled out especially when the official news agency, KCNA, stated that they won't warn South Korea before attacking them. To conclude, although hopefully the reduction in threats by North Korea is a sign of peace, do not be surprised if Kim Jong-Un does fulfill his words about sending nuclear weapons.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/16/world/asia/koreas-tensions/index.html

Kershaw, Ian. Fateful choices: ten decisions that changed the world, 1940-1941. New York: Penguin Press, 2007. Print.

Overlooked History: Lamination Paper

Lamination is when multiple layers of a material covers another material or an object in order to improve its appearance, strength and resistance. Lamination paper is a type of paper which is used as a laminate. Lamination paper is often used on common copy paper in order to prevent the content of the paper being ruined by getting ripped or getting wet. Lamination paper is also used on furniture, decoration panels and flooring.

http://www.atcomaart.com/Upload%20Image/Product%20Image/UploadImages/UNV62126_1_12.JPG

Apparently, the first proper use of laminating paper may have dated back to the mid 1800s where damaged documents where repaired with translucent paper. Lamination paper was first widely used in the 1930s in order to strength copy paper. Lamination did actually exist before that as an insulator for industrial products. As more uses of plastic lamination was discovered, the product became more popular in the 30's, especially after discovering that it could be used as decoration since looks are all that matters. Lamination paper also proved to be cost-effective for protecting large quantities of important documents.

The use of lamination paper particularly boomed after the lamination projects from the 1930s to 1940s created by large organisations such as the National Archives and the Library of Congress. Although initially lamination was only used for important historical documents, it soon became used for literally anything. 

http://www.visualphotos.com/photo/2x4001666/laminated_paper_42-19599949.jpg

Placing lamination paper between documents was produced by discarding the acid on a document, layering it between thin sheets of plastic and fusing it all together in heat. This method however was altered by many different scientists in order to simplify it because the high pressure and heat on the document would sometimes cause the layers to be permanently stuck on the document or even damage the paper. For example, the use of a plastic, cellulose acetate, decreased the temperature needed to fuse the document or the use of a Japanese tissue on top of the cellulose acetate helped increase the strength of the paper and lose its shiny appearance. 

Today, many important documents and unnecessary school papers have been laminated in order to protect them. Although we do not generally appreciate much about lamination paper, it has greatly improved education by conserving historical information which could have potentially damaged and lost forever.

http://anthropology.si.edu/conservation/lamination/

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Decorative-Plastic-Laminate.html#b

http://cool.conservation-us.org/byauth/roggia/barrow/chap05.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamination_paper