3/21 The Weimer Republic

Article 43 “The term of office of the Reich President lasts seven years. Reelection is permitted. The Reich President can be deposed by plebiscite, which has to be suggested by the Reichstag. This Reichstag decision requires a majority of two thirds of the votes. Such a decision bars the Reich President from continued exercise of his office. A rejection of the deposition is regarded as a reelection and results in the dissolution of the Reichstag. The Reich President can not be persecuted in a penal matter without the approval of Reichstag.” What this passage is saying is that the person that has all the power, the president, has a duration of 7 years governing the country. Not only that but after the 7 year term a re-election is permitted under the constitution giving the total sum of 14 years. I chose this passage because its ironic to me that here you have what can possibly be one of the best constitutions at the time for a democratic civilization and here they are giving total control to 1 person for what can possibly be 14 years. This seems like a seed for dictatorship. I cant seem to not think that if Hitler would not have come into the picture there would be someone else regardless. This just sets a perfect scenario for total control. Who know if Hitler would not have been in the picture they could have faced a bigger problem. What’s not to say that the person in control for 14 years cant just change the constitution to his favor and just keep getting re-elected. Wouldn’t they have all the time in the world to change the policies to favor them in that decisions?

Article 109 All Germans are equal in front of the law. In principle, men and women have the same rights and obligations. Legal privileges or disadvantages based on birth or social standing are to be abolished. Noble titles form part of the name only; noble titles may not be granted any more. Titles may only be granted, if they indicate an office or occupation; academic degrees are not affected by this regulation. The state may no more bestow orders and medals. No German may accept titles or orders from a foreign government.

This passage was interesting to me being that before Germany Uniting it was a whole lot of kingdoms next to each other. Being that there were kingdoms I assume there were a lot of noble names with high status. I wonder how they felt after they found out that there names “legally” would not benefit them in anyway. That they were just as equal as the regular joe schmo. 

Ms. Luxemberg

Only the working class, through its own activity, can make the word flesh. The workers can achieve control over production, and ultimately real power, by means of tenacious struggle with capital, hand-to-hand, in every shop, with direct mass pressure, with strikes and with the creation of its own permanent representative organs.

In this passage we see that Ms. Luxemberg is trying to explain that the working body is what holds all the power, she states that worker can achieve control over production, and ultimately real power. This essentially will cut out the middle man, the highest revolutionary authorities. Ms. Luxemberg is trying to make us understand that society should be ran by the people not just a selected few. Ms. Luxerberg is against having leaders that are permanent because it causes imbalance in power. This in turn would just lead them to another financial ruin. 

March 14

The scene That I would like to speak about is the very beginning where the children singing “just you wait a little while, The nasty man in black will come” and the lady yells over the balcony for them to stop singing that awful song. A short while later the girls start singing again. It becomes apparent that “the black man” was real and he was a murdered, we see this in the later seen where the lady complains to her neighbor that she can’t get the kids to stop singing about the murderer.  I interpret this scene as “kids being kids” they live life be curiously and don’t have a worry in the world. They find an amusement to anything. We can see this on the next scene where the girl is bouncing a ball on the bounty letter for “the murderer”. To me the bounty represented a something evil and bad, but the girl bouncing the ball expressed a sense of innocent even when the girl told the man who we could only see in shadows her name. I could only keep telling myself throughout this seen “haven’t your parents told you not to speak to strangers”.