Army, Industry and Labour in Germany, 1914-1918

Gerald Feldman Professor of History,University of California, Berkeley

• Introduction: the sociopolitical background; "burgfrieden" and law of siege. Part 1 The old regime and the dilemmas of total war: the production, manpower, and social policies of the Prussian War Ministry, 1914-1916 - the War Ministry and its leaders, the KRA, production policy and procurement, the battle for manpower, the conflict over social policy; the army and the internal crisis, 1914-1916 - image and reality - the food problem, bureaucracy, army and the social consequences of the war, the new supreme command. Part 2 Total mobilization and interest-group politics: Hindenburg program and war office - the triumph of heavy industry - the Hindenburg program, military reorganization and civilian mobilization, the war office; the auxilliary service bill and the triumph of labour - the struggle with the bureaucracy, the demands of the interest groups, the budget committee transforms the bill, the Reichstag debate. Part 3 The war office under the leadership of General Groener: the war office and the problems of production and organization, December 1916-August 1917 - the transportation and coal crises, the failure of the Hindenburg program, the shutting down and consolidation of industries, the war office and the food problem, organizational problems and competing bureaucracies; the war office and the social problem 1 - the failure of the auxilliary service law and the first major strikes - the labour problem, the dilemmas of paragraph 9, the war office and the unions, war office conflicts with industry and the OHL, the April strikes; the war office and the social problem 2 - the great crisis and the dismissal of Groener, May-August 1917 - the intensification of social conflict, the army and the great crisis, the attack upon Groener, the fall of Groener. Part 4 The failure of the army: the Ludendorff "dictatorship", August 1917-February 1918 - attempts to reform the auxilliary service law, Koeth's triumph, the uncertain dictatorship, the OHL and the great strikes; Germany in the concluding months of the war - the defeat and the search for a scapegoat - the social consequences of the war, army and society, a final demand for total mobilization, "stab in the back" and "revolution from above".