In the aftermath of the Great War, the German people experienced a political and social upheaval which transformed Germany from an authoritarian monarchy to a liberal democracy. This change brought with it the potential for a new era for Germany in which militarism and territorial expansion were left in the past. In actuality, less than one generation had passed before the spectre of German aggression plunged Europe into a Second World War. The defeat of the Third Reich in 1945, again, created the possibility for a new beginning for Germany and the Germans. This potential for a new German nation in the post-war world has been referred to as "Stunde Null," or the "zero hour." The victorious Allies intended this "Stunde Null" to be the point at which "Germany and the Germans were to be severed from their aberrant past and linked to a common future with their victors." (O'Brien 18) Indeed, both the democratic Federal Republic of Germany (BRD) in the West and the Soviet supported German Democratic Republic (DDR) in the East maintained close ties with their respective occupying power. Moreover, neither the BRD nor the DDR resumed the practice of militaristic territorial expansion in the name of Germany. Therefore, Germany and the Germans did, indeed, experience a "Stunde Null" after the Second World War as a result of the deterioration of the influence of the former elites, the establishment of a stable and lasting democratic political structure in the West, and the harsh realities of the Cold War.

Germany's defeat in the Great War facilitated the transformation the German political structure from the Prussian authoritarianism of the Wilhelmine Reich to the liberal democracy of the Weimar Republic. However, many of the elites from the Hohenzollern Empire, including the pillars of the Prussian state, the military and bureaucracy, remained in place. An important aspect of the exchange of power in November of 1918 was the Ebert-Groener Pact between Friedrich Ebert, who had been handed power amidst the chaos of the end of the War, and Quartermaster General, and Head of the Reichswehr, Wilhelm Groener. (Herwig 218) This agreement meant that the Reichswehr would return to German soil and defend the fledgling Democracy, under the condition that the Democratic leaders would recognize the autonomy of the Prussian Officer corps. The chaos in the streets made the army's support of the Republic an enticing offer for Ebert. For the erstwhile conservative officer corps, "much more important for them than fealty to the monarchy was the preservation of the officers' corps and the army as the potential instruments of a renewed and revived nationalist Germany." (Pinson 371) Additionally, the military restrictions in the Treaty of Versailles, by limiting the number of soldiers and officers, eliminating conscription, and mandating a lengthy minimum enlistment period for each individual soldier, subsequently created a skilled and dedicated cadre of officers and soldiers in which the traditional Prussian militaristic tradition would continue throughout the Weimar period. (Beyerchen) In addition to the continuity in the military from the Imperial into the Weimar periods, many civil servants, including most teachers and the judiciary, were allowed to remain in position. This served to fatally undermine the ability of the fledgling Republic to create a liberal democratic tradition which is necessary for a democratic government to function. (O'Brien 2) The end of the First World War did not result in a "Stunde Null." The continuity of the military and civil service from the Imperial to the Weimar period facilitated the return to the nationalistic ways. This was not the case in 1945.

The Allies in World War II had learned many lessons from the experience in World War I. Germany would be conquered and occupied, rather than allowed to sign an Armistice which had allowed the myth of a "Dolchstoss," or stab in the back, to facilitate the rise of a new nationalist regime. A concerted effort would be made to prevent the "old" elites, individuals and organizations that held sway in the Third Reich, from being allowed influence in post-war Germany. Over the course of the "Thousand Year Reich," the Prussian military elite had been eliminated as an independent elite organization. Those members of the Officer corps who opposed the National Socialists, including Groener, were removed from their positions during the early years of the Third Reich. The failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in 1944 exposed much of the underground opposition to the Regime. These conspirators, many of who were of the old Prussian military caste, were executed by the National Socialists, thus eliminating them as a potential postwar influential elite. (Beyerchen) The historic Prussian state, itself, was eliminated from the map by the victorious Allies because "since time immemorial [it] has been the pillar of militarism and reaction in Germany." (Herwig 355) The individual politicians who were to form the backbones of both the BRD and the DDR, had been excluded from the National Socialist regime and were, therefore, not a part of the "old" elite. Kurt Schumacher of the SPD had spent the Third Reich in concentration camps. Willy Brandt of the SPD served in the Norwegian underground, and thus had a spotless anti-Nationalist past. Ernst Reuter of the SPD and Walter Ulbricht of the KPD and "Socialist Unity Party," or SED, had spent the Third Reich in exile. Konrad Adenauer, the first Chancellor of the BRD, despite having served as Lord High Mayor of Köln before 1933, represented a discontinuity with the immediate past because of his years of "forced retirement" in Germany during the Third Reich. Indeed, Adenauer represented a continuity dating back to the Imperial period (Beyerchen), however his dedication to democracy and to the Western tradition both in Weimar and after the War proved that he was not associated with the nationalist former elites in Germany, and therefore, not a threat to the democratic order. Those individuals who had served in positions of influence during the Third Reich faced the process of "De-Nazification," under which many NSDAP members were stripped of their rights to vote or to hold office. (Allen 294) Thus, unlike the post-war Germany of 1918-19, the post-war Germany of 1945 was allowed to pursue a new path at "Stunde Null" unfettered by the nationalistic, militaristic, and expansionist tendencies of the former elites.

The liberal democracy that was formed in Germany at Weimar in 1919 would prove unable to withstand the pressure from its opponents, and thus facilitated the resurgence of German aggressive nationalism in the form of National Socialism. "As Hitler’s rise to power attested, Weimar did not have enough citizens who truly believed in liberal principles to fend off attacks on democracy." (O'Brien 31) In contrast, the Federal Republic of Germany, formed out of the American, British, and French occupation zones in western Germany after World War II, has proven to be a lasting and stable democracy. One major factor that facilitated the downfall of the Weimar system was the constant splintering of political parties. The smaller parties were unable to find consensus amongst each other, resulting in massive political deadlock. (Beyerchen) The Basic Law of 1949 required that a party must reach a 5% threshold of the vote or command at least three single-member constituencies in order to receive representation in the Bundestag. This was designed to counter the splintering of parties. Similarly, to stave off political deadlock, an opposition could only initiate a "constructive" vote of no confidence once a new cabinet had been agreed upon. (Herwig 370) The Weimar Republic had been ultimately dismantled by parties that were hostile to the Republic, itself. The BRD outlawed parties hostile to the democratic system, including various Neo-Nazi parties and the KPD, or Communist Party of Germany. (Beyerchen) Additionally, the parties of the BRD, themselves, unlike their predecessors from the Weimar and Imperial eras, changed such that "conservatives and Socialists... learned to accept each other as legitimate..." as German society had changed such that "...nowadays there isn't all that much to distinguish between them." (Allen 294) Another key difference between the the Weimar Republic and the Federal Republic was the role of the judiciary. The judiciary during the Weimar era, apart from being comprised of Imperial judges, did not operate in such a way as to give the judiciary, itself, a stake in the stability of the Weimar Republic. The judiciary of the Federal Republic, however, as best exemplified by the Federal Constitutional Court, now functioned, in a manner similar to the United States Supreme Court, as the interpreters of the Basic Law. (Beyerchen) The judiciary now had a clear stake in the democracy and would not serve as a vehicle for the protection of nationalist criminals as it had during the Weimar era. Thus, through the structure of the basic law, the BRD was able to establish a lasting democratic governing system. However, as the German experience with the Weimar Republic testifies, the mere trappings of democracy are not enough to ensure a lasting democratic tradition, the social structure, itself, must change.

The Potsdam Protocol of 1945 for the rebuilding of Germany after the war stipulated that the Germans would need to be re-educated in a manner designed to supplant the nationalistic, or what Fritz Stern describes as "illiberal," inclinations of the past. Allied re-education efforts included pro-democracy radio broadcasts, the replacement of Nazi publications with Allied-supported pro-democratic periodicals, and particularly the establishment of pro-democratic curricula in German schools. (O'Brien 20-21) Additionally, Germany was to be reconstructed so that the Germans could have a stake in the post-war era. To this end, Adenauer and the Western Allies endeavored to "[anchor] the Federal Republic in Western waters," (O'Brien 35) as did Ulbricht and the Soviet Union endeavor to tie the DDR to the East, thus breaking with the tradition of Germany as being oriented neither towards the West or the East. The establishment of the stable democratic order of the BRD coupled with the efforts of the Western Allies and BRD leaders to re-educate and reconstruct the BRD in a manner which favored both democracy and close ties with the West is clear indication of a break with the past and, therefore, a "Stunde Null" for the BRD after World War II. The DDR, unlike the BRD, maintained a totalitarian system, albeit Communist rather than National Socialist. In this sense, one could argue, that the Germans of the DDR never made the break with the past that the Germans in the BRD were able to. The government of the DDR, however, made a distinct break with the past through the establishment of a socialist party-state, under which was created a stable dictatorship, devoid of influence by the former elites, re-educated and reconstructed to favor the new regime, and oriented towards the Soviet Union. In this sense, the DDR and the BRD both experienced a "Stunde Null" for many of the same reasons.

Perhaps the most poignant reason to describe Germany in 1945 as facing a "Stunde Null" was the harsh reality of the subsequent Cold War. In 1919, despite the polarization between Bolshevik Russia and the capitalist West, as characterized by the Russian Civil War, Germany had been left to its own devices. In 1945, the burgeoning Cold War left Germany at the epicenter of the conflict between East and West. By 1949, the frontier between the BRD and the DDR represented not merely the line dividing Germany, but the very boundary between rival camps in the Cold War. As a result of this, NATO and Soviet troops were permanently stationed on either side of the ideological front that ran through the heart of the German lands. Not only were the German people divided, but the whole of Germany was occupied by foreign troops. The military potential of Germany, too, was divided between East and West. "Militarily, commencing with the formation of NATO in 1948... and ending in the Federal Republic's inclusion in NATO in 1954, West Germany obtained a secure military apparatus absent of the politically and socially powerful officer corps common to the past." (O'Brien 33) Likewise, the inclusion of the DDR in the Warsaw Pact in 1955 oriented the East German military with the Soviet Union. (Herwig 366) This ideological and military division of Germany after the Second World War, most directly, prevented the Germans from pursuing their own military agenda, thus precluding any possibility for German territorial expansion. This dramatic break from the past, as illustrated by the post-war order in which both the BRD and DDR faced similar patterns of military occupation and treaty obligations, demonstrates how the German nation, as a whole, had experienced a "Stunde Null" after the Second World War.

The post-World War II experience for the Germans can, indeed, be described as the "zero hour," or "Stunde Null." Germany had experienced a break with the past that would allow for the formation of a new order, independent from the old elites of the Prussian tradition who had prevented the "revolution" of 1918-19 from resulting in a lasting democracy. The formation of the stable Federal Republic and DDR helped to preclude any reemergence of the German expansionist past. Finally, the division of Germany along Cold War lines eliminated any possibility for the German nation to resume a nationalistic militaristic and expansionist agenda. Germany was now a part of the new world order in which German nationalism was supplanted by the newfound political traditions of democracy in the West and socialism in the East. The year 1945 represents for the Germans the "Stunde Null," a point in time that signifies a new beginning for a nation with a troubled past.

Allen, William Sheridan. The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1925. New York: Franklin Watts., Inc. 1984.

Bessel, Richard, ed. Life in the Third Reich. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1987.

Beyerchen, Alan. In-class lectures and handouts. The Ohio State University. Columbus: January-March 1998.

Browning, Christopher R. Ordinary Men: Reseve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. 1993.

Herwig, Holger H. Hammer or Anvil? Modern Germany 1648-Present. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Company. 1994.

Kaiser, Georg. Gas I. Trans. Herman Scheffauer. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company. 1989.

Moeller, Robert G. Protecting Motherhood: Women and the Family in the Politics of Postwar West Germany. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

O'Brien, Peter. Beyond the Swastika. London: Routledge, 1996.

Pinson, Koppel S. Modern Germany: It's History and Civilization. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.

Stern, Fritz. Dreams and Delusions: National Socialism in the Drama of the German Past. New York: Vintage Books. 1989.

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