Question

describe the main effect of the first world war over in germany

Answer 1

It affected Germany in every conceivable way. There are great answers about the political and geographical losses, the ramifications of reparations and the loss of place in the scheme of world affairs. The effects upon all of Europe were almost equally disastrous.

After early setbacks in the East, the Germans were finally able to defeat the Russians enough times to allow for a peace settlement - this guaranteed security at the eastern side of the Reich, but still left Germany’s ally, Austria-Hungary, in the quagmire that they created. Since the war started because everyone was honoring their alliances, now that the war with Russia was over, the French alliance with the Russians had become moot, especially since Germany hadn’t conquered Russia. Thus, the actual cause of the war had become somewhat moot.

The war was supposed to have been “about” Serbia, and the Russian mobilization against Germany - now it seemed, the war was about the Allies defeating Germany - this had to have had a profound effect on the German psyche.

Russia fully mobilized their army on July 31, Germany demanded that they stop - this is virtually impossible. Mobilization means war. On August 1, Germany declares war on Russia, France and Belgium begin to mobilize, in accordance with their treaty obligations.

Ergo, with Russia now out of the war, and not occupied by Germany - what were people fighting for? Certainly, Germany attacked Belgium and France, but in response to their mobilizations. The Germans attacked westward first because they figured (incorrectly) that it would take the Russians a very long time to mobilize. The Germans, indeed, threw the first punch, and then didn’t follow their own plan that might have ended the war quite quickly. That would have been good for everyone - not in the geopolitical sense, but it would have avoided the bloodbath - and, naturally, Round 2 which was even worse.

Communism: It’s important to remember that Germany already had many social support systems in place prior to the war; however, in the latter parts of the war, some German cities were becoming virtually ungovernable - the fleet had been affected by sailor’s soviets, and there was discontent generally, especially in the cities. This may be an indication as to why the Nazis were so suspicious of cities.

Governance: It was pretty obvious to anyone in Germany that fighting such a war to (in theory, at least) support the Hapsburg dynasty wasn’t such a great idea. If we remember the domino effect of the start of the thing, it shows how it got out of hand quite quickly. Problems in the Balkans were still going on in the latter part of the 20th Century. Germany didn’t need to be involved in any of this, and if any nation would lose due to a war, it was Germany, no matter the outcome.

The German army was not defeated in the field, and didn’t surrender - the government sued for an armistice. However, that didn’t matter, Germany, but more importantly, the Germans, were going to suffer greatly just as a result of being involved.
However, the whole thing did illustrate that having absolute power in one person and that this person might be taking advice from people with their own hidden agendas, and then giving carte blanche to a doddering old fool like Franz Josef, indicated that some pretty radical changes were required.
However, those radical changes were, inevitably, going to be changes for the worse. Germany had a very high standard of living in 1914 and no matter what, it was going to be worse at war’s end.
War Objectives: The Germans also failed to realize that they were fighting old fashioned imperialists - while it seems that the Germans were fighting a battle to maintain status quo ante bellum, the Allies were spending their time figuring out how their empires would grow as a result of their victories. This meant that Germany was fighting a global conflict that it couldn’t possibly support - its fleet was bottled up in harbor, and the only major fleet engagement of the War, Jutland, amounted to a loss for the Germans, even though they came off better. Had all the German ships been sunk, the effect on the war would have been the same.
The German people had been told for years that their glorious fleet was insurance against domination by the British - that fleet did worse than nothing for the war effort. This seriously undermined belief in government. People had to be asking each other if we built this giant fleet, why can the British blockade us, causing widespread starvation? It’s to be remembered that the blockade stayed in place after the war was over, resulting in the death of many Germans.
7st friend, and the Kaiser was Queen Victoria’s oldest grandson. Like all wars, it was stupid and mindless, but this left an impression on the German people that the Western Allies had provoked the war only to steal from Germany. That probably affected the German people most greatly.