Vertigo - The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany. Chapter 10: The Work Runs Out

第十章深入探讨了1929年纽约证券交易所崩盘引发的德国大萧条的严峻现实。最初德国媒体对此轻描淡写，但美国的金融危机很快蔓延成一场全球性的经济灾难，由于其岌岌可危的债务状况，德国受到的冲击尤为严重。德国陷入了一个循环：从美国借款以支付战争赔款，这些赔款又资助了盟国偿还对美国的战争债务。当美国银行开始撤回资金时，整个纸牌屋轰然倒塌。 本章鲜明地对比了德国此前令人陶醉的繁荣时期与突如其来的、毁灭性的逆转。“查尔斯顿年代”的特点是无节制的消费主义，受到美国信贷的推动，各个城市竞相建造豪华的文化地标，尽管外交部长施特雷泽曼担心表现得过于繁荣会导致降低赔款的要求。这种鲁莽的支出导致了德国对美元的依赖，最终将其拖入了经济漩涡。 随着美国银行收回贷款，企业和个人失去了流动资产，导致失业率飙升。失业救济金严重不足，导致了总理赫尔曼·穆勒领导的社会民主党内阁的垮台。兴登堡总统任命保守派中间派海因里希·勃鲁宁为总理，开启了一个通过总统令实施严厉的紧缩措施的时期，绕过了议会多数席位。勃鲁宁的“饥饿总理”政策，旨在迫使盟国在赔款问题上让步，却加剧了经济危机，削减了工资和社会福利，但失业率仍然飙升。 本章强调了大规模失业造成的社会解体。绝望的人们排在街头，沦为乞讨，做任何可以获得的工作。棚屋出现在分配地里，把它们变成了被称为“施腾普尔利多”的贫民窟。失业者在绝望、冷漠和失去社会结构中挣扎。尽管共产党努力组织抗议活动，但他们的努力大多是徒劳的，因为失业者与其说是革命，不如说是逆来顺受。 叙述揭露了由媒体大亨阿尔弗雷德·胡根贝格领导的民族主义煽动者如何利用恐惧和怨恨，将经济危机归咎于赔款和民主党派的“绥靖政策”。随着失业人数的增加，这种说法越来越受欢迎，引起了对社会衰落感到恐惧的中产阶级的共鸣。 本章还强调了纳粹党的崛起，这归功于经济危机和社会衰落的恐惧。纳粹党通过提供一个清晰的，虽然是简化的解释，成功地利用了经济焦虑：德国人民受到犹太金融家的“奴役”以及民主党派的“叛国政治”。犹太人被描绘成寄生和剥削的，与正直的“福克工人”形成鲜明对比。这种深深植根于传统反犹刻板印象的叙事，为经济危机提供了一个替罪羊，并为幻灭的群众提供了一种使命感。 随着失业率的飞速上升，传统政党声名扫地，人们的幻灭感日益增强。这使纳粹的替罪羊策略变得成熟。 本章以一个严峻的提醒结尾，即全球经济危机如何对德国的职业道德造成了深深的伤害，以及纳粹如何利用这种深深的创伤来操纵公众舆论。

Chapter 10 delves into the grim realities of the Great Depression in Germany, triggered by the 1929 New York Stock Exchange crash. Initially downplayed by the German press, the American financial crisis soon metastasized into a global economic catastrophe, hitting Germany particularly hard due to its precarious debt situation. The country was caught in a cycle of borrowing from the US to pay war reparations, which then funded Allied war debts to America. When American banks began withdrawing funds, the house of cards collapsed. The chapter paints a stark contrast between the preceding era of intoxicating boom in Germany and the sudden, devastating reversal. The "Charleston years" were marked by unrestrained consumerism, fueled by American credit, with cities vying to construct opulent cultural landmarks, despite Foreign Minister Striesemann's concerns about appearing too prosperous to demand reduced reparations. This reckless spending contributed to Germany's dependence on American dollars, ultimately dragging it into the economic maelstrom. As American banks called in their loans, businesses and individuals lost their liquid assets, resulting in soaring unemployment. Unemployment insurance was woefully inadequate, leading to the collapse of Chancellor Hermann Müller's Social Democrat-led cabinet. President Hindenburg appointed Heinrich Brüning, a conservative centrist, as Chancellor, ushering in a period of severe austerity measures implemented through presidential decree, bypassing parliamentary majority. Brüning's "hunger chancellor" policies, intended to force Allied powers to concede on reparations, only exacerbated the economic crisis, slashing wages and social welfare, yet unemployment soared. The chapter highlights the social disintegration caused by mass unemployment. Desperate individuals lined the streets, reduced to begging and taking any available work. Shacks appeared in allotments, turning them into slums known as "Stemple Lido." The unemployed struggled with despair, apathy, and loss of their social structure. Despite communist efforts to organize protests, their efforts were largely ineffective, as the jobless were more resigned than revolutionary. The narrative exposes the exploitation of fear and resentment by nationalist agitators, led by media mogul Alfred Hugenberg, who blamed the economic crisis on reparations and the democratic parties' "politics of appeasement." This narrative gained traction as unemployment figures rose, resonating with a middle class terrified of social decline. The chapter also highlights the rise of the Nazi party, fueled by the economic crisis and the fear of social decline. The Nazis successfully exploited economic anxieties by offering a clear, albeit simplistic, explanation: the "enslavement" of the German people by Jewish financiers and the "treasonable politics" of democratic parties. The Jews were portrayed as parasitic and exploitative, contrasting sharply with the virtuous "Fokish worker." This narrative, deeply rooted in traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes, offered a scapegoat for the economic crisis and a sense of purpose to the disillusioned masses. As the unemployment rate skyrocketed, and the traditional parties were discredited, there was a growing sense of disillusionment. It became ripe for the Nazi's scapegoating. The chapter closes with a stark reminder of how the global economic crisis dealt a deep wound to the German work ethic and how the Nazis exploited a deep wound to manipulate public opinion.