WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.259 I want you to imagine something for a second. 00:00:03.299 --> 00:00:07.379 Imagine a military force so massive and so highly 00:00:07.379 --> 00:00:10.199 organized that it didn't just defend a nation. 00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:13.259 It actually became a kind of state within a state. 00:00:13.339 --> 00:00:16.120 Yeah, a total juggernaut. Exactly. A machine 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:19.179 so overwhelmingly powerful that it eventually 00:00:19.179 --> 00:00:22.079 started making its own foreign policy, basically 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:24.620 just ignoring its own government leaders and 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:26.539 setting the course for the entire world. Which 00:00:26.539 --> 00:00:28.719 is terrifying when you think about it. It really 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:31.850 is. Welcome to the Deep Dive. I am so glad you're 00:00:31.850 --> 00:00:34.369 here with us today because we are looking at 00:00:34.369 --> 00:00:37.310 something truly wild. We really are. Our source 00:00:37.310 --> 00:00:40.289 material today is an extensive historical overview 00:00:40.289 --> 00:00:43.729 from Wikipedia on the Imperial German Army. And 00:00:43.729 --> 00:00:46.789 this existed from 1871 to 1919. That's right. 00:00:46.969 --> 00:00:49.149 At our mission for this deep dive, we are going 00:00:49.149 --> 00:00:51.950 to explore exactly how a patchwork of independent 00:00:51.950 --> 00:00:54.469 kingdoms managed to merge together to create 00:00:54.469 --> 00:00:57.509 this unprecedented military machine. Right, because 00:00:57.509 --> 00:00:59.850 it wasn't always just one big unified force. 00:01:00.250 --> 00:01:03.500 No, not at all. We're going to extract the most 00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:06.359 fascinating aha moments about its structure, 00:01:07.019 --> 00:01:10.180 its immense power, and ultimately its staggering 00:01:10.180 --> 00:01:12.879 overreach. It is an incredibly layered subject. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:16.719 And to really set the stage for you here, we 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:19.459 have to look at the historical backdrop. This 00:01:19.459 --> 00:01:22.319 force didn't just appear out of nowhere. Right, 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:25.519 there was a catalyst. Exactly. It was born right 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:27.680 out of the unification of Germany under Prussian 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:30.180 leadership. This was immediately following their 00:01:30.180 --> 00:01:32.939 victory in the Franco -Prussian War in 1871. 00:01:33.099 --> 00:01:36.040 Which was a massive deal at the time. Huge. That 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:39.340 war proved that a highly organized, rapidly mobilizing 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:42.099 force could just crush a traditional European 00:01:42.099 --> 00:01:44.609 power. Yeah. And while the story of this army 00:01:44.609 --> 00:01:46.590 officially ends with the dissolution of the German 00:01:46.590 --> 00:01:49.250 Empire after World War I, understanding the Imperial 00:01:49.250 --> 00:01:51.810 German Army isn't just, you know, a history lesson 00:01:51.810 --> 00:01:53.870 about a bygone era. Right, it's bigger than that. 00:01:54.129 --> 00:01:56.469 It is absolutely crucial for understanding the 00:01:56.469 --> 00:01:58.849 very blueprint of modern warfare and statecraft. 00:01:58.930 --> 00:02:00.849 Okay, let's unpack this, because the formation 00:02:00.849 --> 00:02:03.189 of this army is not at all what you might expect. 00:02:03.250 --> 00:02:05.799 Not even close. When you hear Imperial German 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:10.080 Army, you probably picture this perfectly uniform, 00:02:10.699 --> 00:02:12.699 monolithic force. Yeah, everyone marching in 00:02:12.699 --> 00:02:15.719 perfect lockstep from day one. Exactly. But the 00:02:15.719 --> 00:02:18.460 text tells us that the newly formed German Empire 00:02:18.460 --> 00:02:22.219 was actually made up of 38 distinct duchies and 00:02:22.219 --> 00:02:25.340 kingdoms. Thirty eight. The logistical nightmare. 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:28.719 Right. So. To put this in perspective, imagine 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:32.340 a massive corporate merger. You've got this one 00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:34.879 dominant company absorbing dozens of smaller 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:38.020 ones, but some of those absorbed companies absolutely 00:02:38.020 --> 00:02:40.240 refuse to give up their old logo. Oh, their old 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:42.240 management style. Right, and their fierce local 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.500 pride. How did they even begin to organize that? 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:46.659 Well, the dominant company in this scenario was 00:02:46.659 --> 00:02:49.810 Prussia. and they handled it by asserting operational 00:02:49.810 --> 00:02:52.610 dominance, but they allowed for some intense 00:02:52.610 --> 00:02:55.629 regional flair. Intense regional flair, I like 00:02:55.629 --> 00:02:58.250 that. It's true. The Prussian Army stepped in 00:02:58.250 --> 00:03:00.530 and assumed almost total control over the training, 00:03:00.990 --> 00:03:03.370 the military doctrine, and the equipment for 00:03:03.370 --> 00:03:05.849 the vast majority of these 38 states. They were 00:03:05.849 --> 00:03:08.919 the gold standard. They were. But kingdoms like 00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:11.900 Bavaria, Saxony, and Wurttemberg didn't just 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:14.300 hand over the keys to their militaries. No, they 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:17.300 wanted to keep their autonomy. Right. They negotiated 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:20.060 treaties that allowed them to remain semi -autonomous 00:03:20.060 --> 00:03:22.680 national contingents within the broader army 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:24.979 structure. And the source mentions they actually 00:03:24.979 --> 00:03:27.960 kept their own separate ministries of war, which 00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:29.939 just seems like... I mean, how does that even 00:03:29.939 --> 00:03:32.259 work? It caused severe administrative headaches, 00:03:32.259 --> 00:03:34.159 I can tell you that. They were even publishing 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:37.139 their own rank lists for officers and numbering 00:03:37.139 --> 00:03:40.020 their regiments independently. How did that actually 00:03:40.020 --> 00:03:42.819 work in practice without causing complete chaos 00:03:42.819 --> 00:03:46.159 on paper? Oh, it definitely caused chaos. Because 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:48.719 they were so protective of their specific state 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:52.080 identities, you ended up with completely overlapping 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:54.800 designations. Like what? Well, you literally 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:57.780 had a Bavarian 1st Infantry Regiment and a completely 00:03:57.780 --> 00:04:00.580 separate Wurttemberger 1st Infantry Regiment 00:04:00.580 --> 00:04:03.099 coexisting at the exact same time. In the exact 00:04:03.099 --> 00:04:06.099 same Imperial Army. Yes. So if you were a logistics 00:04:06.099 --> 00:04:08.819 officer trying to route supplies to the 1st Infantry, 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:12.419 you had to be incredibly specific about which 00:04:12.419 --> 00:04:15.159 kingdom's 1st Infantry you actually meant. That 00:04:15.159 --> 00:04:17.699 sounds exhausting. And it wasn't just on paper, 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:20.899 right? You could literally see this fierce regional 00:04:20.899 --> 00:04:23.779 pride on the soldiers themselves. Yeah, what's 00:04:23.779 --> 00:04:26.160 fascinating here is how they physically manifested 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:28.740 these divisions on their uniforms to appease 00:04:28.740 --> 00:04:31.699 everyone. The hats. Exactly. They wore these 00:04:31.699 --> 00:04:34.420 little circular badges on their hats called cockades. 00:04:34.519 --> 00:04:38.220 OK. To show their dual loyalties, a soldier would 00:04:38.220 --> 00:04:41.139 wear the Imperial German cockade representing 00:04:41.139 --> 00:04:44.360 the unified empire positioned above their specific 00:04:44.170 --> 00:04:48.189 So, whether that was Bavarian, Prussian, or Saxon. 00:04:48.329 --> 00:04:49.970 Right. They were literally wearing their dual 00:04:49.970 --> 00:04:52.389 loyalties right on their heads. That is so wild. 00:04:52.550 --> 00:04:54.670 But yet, despite all of these intense administrative 00:04:54.670 --> 00:04:57.370 divisions and local rivalries, they engineered 00:04:57.370 --> 00:04:59.810 a system that worked when it counted. Because 00:04:59.810 --> 00:05:02.550 they had a foundational agreement. Yes. In times 00:05:02.550 --> 00:05:05.370 of war, all of these separate proud contingents 00:05:05.370 --> 00:05:07.810 would uniformly pledge their absolute allegiance 00:05:07.810 --> 00:05:10.389 to the Kaiser and the German nation. It's the 00:05:10.389 --> 00:05:13.449 ultimate We can bicker among ourselves, but nobody 00:05:13.449 --> 00:05:16.649 else can mess with us. Mentality. Spot on. And 00:05:16.649 --> 00:05:18.490 when they all came together under the Kaiser, 00:05:19.089 --> 00:05:21.269 the sheer scale of what they built is almost 00:05:21.269 --> 00:05:23.550 hard to wrap your mind around. Let's look at 00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:26.620 the size of this machine. The numbers are staggering. 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:30.480 The source notes that by 1914, just the peacetime 00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:33.040 army, meaning before any war had even been declared, 00:05:33.459 --> 00:05:36.399 just the baseline standing force had hundreds 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:38.759 of regiments. Hundreds? We are talking about 00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:43.279 217 infantry regiments and 110 cavalry regiments 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:45.980 constantly at the ready. And achieving that massive 00:05:45.980 --> 00:05:48.560 scale wasn't an accident of population growth. 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:52.139 It was the direct result of a highly calculated, 00:05:52.680 --> 00:05:55.040 deeply ingrained Prussian conscription system. 00:05:55.300 --> 00:05:57.660 The draft machine. Exactly. This was a draft 00:05:57.660 --> 00:05:59.939 machine unlike anything Europe had ever seen. 00:06:00.459 --> 00:06:02.600 The system fundamentally dictated that every 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:04.779 young man was drafted into the military machinery 00:06:04.779 --> 00:06:08.420 at age 18. 18. Just a kid. Right. And it was 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:10.339 in just a brief stint to learn how to shoot a 00:06:10.339 --> 00:06:13.240 rifle. It was a decades long commitment divided 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:16.519 into highly structured mandatory phases. Yeah. 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:20.000 First, A recruit served two to three years of 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:22.500 active duty service, living in the barracks and 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:24.740 training constantly. But after those three years, 00:06:24.899 --> 00:06:27.100 you didn't just go back to civilian life and 00:06:27.100 --> 00:06:29.860 forget about it. Not at all. After active duty, 00:06:30.259 --> 00:06:32.600 you spent four to five years in the reserve, 00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:35.240 subject to immediate recall. OK, so you're still 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:38.819 on the hook. Very much so. Then you were moved 00:06:38.819 --> 00:06:41.279 into the first and second levies of the landfare. 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.800 And the Landwehr is sort of like a National Guard, 00:06:44.939 --> 00:06:47.100 right? Yeah, you can think of it like a secondary 00:06:47.100 --> 00:06:49.379 National Guard meant primarily for home defense 00:06:49.379 --> 00:06:52.319 in case of an invasion. And you stayed in that 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:55.060 system until your 40th birthday. 40th. And it 00:06:55.060 --> 00:06:57.259 doesn't end there. Finally, you were placed in 00:06:57.259 --> 00:06:59.899 the Landsturm, which was essentially a last resort 00:06:59.899 --> 00:07:03.939 militia, until you turned 46. I want you to really 00:07:03.939 --> 00:07:06.279 put yourself in those shoes for a second. Imagine 00:07:06.279 --> 00:07:09.060 being an 18 -year -old kid. And knowing that 00:07:09.060 --> 00:07:12.000 your life is geographically and temporally mapped 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.899 out by the military until your late 40s. It's 00:07:14.899 --> 00:07:17.560 a huge portion of your life. For nearly 30 years, 00:07:17.899 --> 00:07:20.980 you belong in some capacity to the Army. Your 00:07:20.980 --> 00:07:23.839 address, your availability, your physical fitness. 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:27.500 It's all tracked. It was a true nation in arms. 00:07:27.899 --> 00:07:30.139 But the text also mentions this really interesting 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:33.629 loophole. For the wealthy, right? The one -year 00:07:33.629 --> 00:07:36.730 volunteers. Ah, yes. The one -year volunteer 00:07:36.730 --> 00:07:39.230 system is a fascinating look into the social 00:07:39.230 --> 00:07:41.709 class structures of the time. How did that work? 00:07:42.170 --> 00:07:44.509 If you had the money and you had achieved a certain 00:07:44.509 --> 00:07:47.250 level of high school education, you could opt 00:07:47.250 --> 00:07:50.149 to serve for just one year on active duty. Instead 00:07:50.149 --> 00:07:52.589 of the two to three years. Right. But the massive 00:07:52.589 --> 00:07:54.949 catch was that you had to buy all of your own 00:07:54.949 --> 00:07:58.230 gear your own uniform, your own food, and financially 00:07:58.230 --> 00:08:00.529 support yourself entirely during that year without 00:08:00.529 --> 00:08:03.350 army pay. Wow. So you're basically paying your 00:08:03.350 --> 00:08:06.050 way through. Exactly. In exchange for relieving 00:08:06.050 --> 00:08:08.230 the state of your financial burden, you got a 00:08:08.230 --> 00:08:10.069 shorter active service time and you'd eventually 00:08:10.069 --> 00:08:12.329 be trained up to become a reserve officer. Which 00:08:12.329 --> 00:08:15.110 I imagine was a big deal. Oh, it carried immense 00:08:15.110 --> 00:08:18.000 social prestige in German society. It's essentially 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.560 paying out of pocket to fast track your way through 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:23.899 the draft and buy social status. Precisely. So 00:08:23.899 --> 00:08:27.439 we have this massive socially stratified decades 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:30.399 long conscription pipeline. How did the rest 00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:32.740 of the world look at this? Did other countries 00:08:32.740 --> 00:08:35.600 see this 30 year draft commitment and think we 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:38.940 need to do that too? Well, it provoked very different 00:08:38.940 --> 00:08:41.399 reactions depending on a nation's geography and 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:44.509 culture. OK, for instance. The British, for example, 00:08:44.889 --> 00:08:47.450 surveyed the major European forces in the 1860s 00:08:47.450 --> 00:08:50.149 and 1870s. They looked at this Prussian model 00:08:50.149 --> 00:08:52.769 and openly acknowledged it was incredibly efficient 00:08:52.769 --> 00:08:56.110 at generating manpower. Good! But they fundamentally 00:08:56.110 --> 00:08:59.200 hated the idea of peacetime conscription. As 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:02.139 an island nation heavily reliant on a navy, they 00:09:02.139 --> 00:09:04.279 didn't want the cultural shift or the economic 00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:07.200 drain of a massive standing citizen army, so 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.139 they rejected it. That makes sense for an island, 00:09:09.220 --> 00:09:11.059 but then you have a country like Japan operating 00:09:11.059 --> 00:09:13.679 in a completely different context. Exactly. The 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:15.419 Japanese military planners were in the midst 00:09:15.419 --> 00:09:17.960 of rapid modernization and they observed this 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:20.059 exact same German system. And they liked what 00:09:20.059 --> 00:09:23.549 they saw. They loved it. They saw how it rapidly 00:09:23.549 --> 00:09:26.970 produced a huge cadre of highly trained reserves 00:09:26.970 --> 00:09:30.190 without the exorbitant cost of keeping every 00:09:30.190 --> 00:09:32.809 single man on active duty forever. So they just 00:09:32.809 --> 00:09:34.950 copied it. They decided to copy the Prussian 00:09:34.950 --> 00:09:37.789 model almost exactly. It became the literal blueprint 00:09:37.789 --> 00:09:40.750 for building their own modern nation in arms. 00:09:40.850 --> 00:09:43.450 Proving just how exportable and mechanically 00:09:43.450 --> 00:09:45.750 sound the German system was. Without a doubt. 00:09:45.909 --> 00:09:47.909 It really was the gold standard for building 00:09:47.909 --> 00:09:50.720 an army. But here's where it gets interesting 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:54.279 because when you build a machine that big, that 00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:56.679 efficient, and that deeply ingrained into the 00:09:56.679 --> 00:09:59.059 fabric of a nation, it starts to take on a life 00:09:59.059 --> 00:10:01.519 of its own. It absolutely does. Let's pivot from 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:04.340 how the army was structured to the intense political 00:10:04.340 --> 00:10:08.100 drama it caused. To manage this massive overlapping 00:10:08.100 --> 00:10:11.399 force, they developed the Prussian, later German 00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:13.559 general, stack. The brains of the operation. 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:16.039 Right. And the source describes this not just 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:18.519 as a group of old generals moving pieces on a 00:10:18.519 --> 00:10:21.919 map, but as a highly rigorous, almost academic 00:10:21.919 --> 00:10:24.559 body. Calling it academic is the perfect way 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:27.269 to frame it. They weren't just relying on the 00:10:27.269 --> 00:10:30.690 traditional romanticized bravery of the nobility 00:10:30.690 --> 00:10:32.990 charging into battle on horseback anymore. They 00:10:32.990 --> 00:10:35.129 needed more than just brave guys with swords. 00:10:35.389 --> 00:10:38.470 Exactly. They realized that managing millions 00:10:38.470 --> 00:10:42.090 of men and modern trains required intense intellectual 00:10:42.090 --> 00:10:45.460 rigor. So what did they do? They actively identified 00:10:45.460 --> 00:10:48.240 brilliant analytical talent at the lower officer 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:50.960 levels and ran them through a highly competitive 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:54.019 war academy. Like a university for war. Very 00:10:54.019 --> 00:10:57.179 much so. This general staff became the senior 00:10:57.179 --> 00:10:59.960 planning body. They handled complex logistics, 00:11:00.460 --> 00:11:03.279 railway timetables, strategy and mobilization 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:05.940 in both peace and war. And because they were 00:11:05.940 --> 00:11:09.000 so intensely trained and objectively efficient, 00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:11.399 they began to view themselves as the ultimate 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:13.440 guardians of the state. And because they saw 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:15.259 themselves as the ultimate guardians, they didn't 00:11:15.259 --> 00:11:17.360 just keep to military logistics, they started 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:19.759 bleeding over into international diplomacy. Which 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:22.139 is supposed to be a purely civilian job. Right. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:25.299 The text explains how the military used attaches 00:11:25.299 --> 00:11:28.720 in diplomatic locations around the world. Normally, 00:11:29.100 --> 00:11:31.580 attaches are just military liaisons at an embassy. 00:11:31.879 --> 00:11:34.039 They're just observers, basically. But the general 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:36.919 staff turned them into an elite network. They 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:39.460 essentially functioned as highly talented spies 00:11:39.460 --> 00:11:43.139 and analysts. Wow! These military attaches were 00:11:43.139 --> 00:11:45.240 gathering on -the -ground intelligence, talking 00:11:45.240 --> 00:11:47.879 to foreign agents, and producing reports of such 00:11:47.879 --> 00:11:50.580 high quality that the military planners back 00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:54.259 in Berlin often had a much clearer, faster picture 00:11:54.259 --> 00:11:57.940 of global events than the actual civilian diplomats. 00:11:58.039 --> 00:11:59.919 The diplomats who were supposed to be running 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:02.460 foreign policy. Exactly. So you have the military 00:12:02.460 --> 00:12:05.100 with better intelligence than the actual government. 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:07.600 I have to imagine that created some serious tension. 00:12:07.779 --> 00:12:10.299 Oh, it caused massive friction. Even Otto von 00:12:10.299 --> 00:12:12.720 Bismarck, the legendary chancellor who literally 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:15.539 unified Germany and was known as the Iron Chancellor, 00:12:16.059 --> 00:12:18.779 had to deal with this. He did. The source mentions 00:12:18.779 --> 00:12:21.919 a specific incident in 1887 where the military 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:24.340 actually tried to convince the emperor to declare 00:12:24.340 --> 00:12:27.600 a preventative war on Russia. The 1887 incident 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:30.419 is a prime example of the friction. In the German 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:32.879 Empire, the chancellor and foreign minister were 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:35.139 supposed to handle diplomacy. Right, the civilian 00:12:35.139 --> 00:12:37.679 government. But the German army reported directly 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:41.159 and exclusively to the Kaiser. They had constitutional 00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:43.580 autonomy from the civilian parliament. So they 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:46.539 didn't answer to Bismarck. No. So the general 00:12:46.539 --> 00:12:49.480 staff, looking purely at military timetables, 00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:51.919 decides Russia is becoming a threat and suggests, 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:54.159 let's just attack them now before they get stronger. 00:12:54.409 --> 00:12:57.809 That is bold. Bismarck had to complain vehemently 00:12:57.809 --> 00:13:00.230 and use all of his political weight to get the 00:13:00.230 --> 00:13:02.769 military leaders to back down. He had to stop 00:13:02.769 --> 00:13:05.730 them from starting a massive war purely on logistical 00:13:05.730 --> 00:13:08.070 grounds. Imagine being the Iron Chancellor and 00:13:08.070 --> 00:13:10.230 having to fight your own generals to stop them 00:13:10.230 --> 00:13:12.429 from casually starting a war you don't want. 00:13:12.750 --> 00:13:15.129 If we connect this to the bigger picture, you 00:13:15.129 --> 00:13:17.429 can see how this structural lack of civilian 00:13:17.429 --> 00:13:20.789 control laid the groundwork for absolute disaster. 00:13:20.970 --> 00:13:22.690 Because Bismarck wasn't going to be around forever. 00:13:22.850 --> 00:13:25.220 Right. Bismarck was a political titan strong 00:13:25.220 --> 00:13:27.419 enough to push back, but the chancellors who 00:13:27.419 --> 00:13:29.620 came after him were not. They just didn't have 00:13:29.620 --> 00:13:32.320 the leverage. Exactly. The source provides several 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:34.860 chilling historical moments where the military 00:13:34.860 --> 00:13:37.519 simply bypassed the civilian government entirely. 00:13:37.720 --> 00:13:40.740 Like when? For instance, in 1905, during the 00:13:40.740 --> 00:13:43.259 first Moroccan crisis, the chief of the general 00:13:43.259 --> 00:13:47.200 staff, Alfred von Schlieffen, actively pushed 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:50.309 for a prevented war against France. Again, with 00:13:50.309 --> 00:13:52.710 the preventive war. Yeah, treating international 00:13:52.710 --> 00:13:55.669 tensions simply as an opportune moment to deploy 00:13:55.669 --> 00:13:58.429 his troops. Let's pause on that. The military 00:13:58.429 --> 00:14:01.669 head is actively lobbying to start a major European 00:14:01.669 --> 00:14:04.409 conflict over a diplomatic dispute in North Africa. 00:14:04.490 --> 00:14:06.730 Because he felt the army was ready. And the source 00:14:06.730 --> 00:14:09.149 points out it gets even more extreme right before 00:14:09.149 --> 00:14:11.950 World War I. At a critical point during the July 00:14:11.950 --> 00:14:15.549 crisis of 1914, Helmut von Moltke, who was then 00:14:15.549 --> 00:14:18.169 the chief of staff, advised his military counterpart 00:14:18.169 --> 00:14:20.590 in Austria -Hungary to mobilize against Russia 00:14:20.590 --> 00:14:23.570 immediately. He sent that communication urging 00:14:23.570 --> 00:14:26.850 a foreign ally to mobilize for war. and he did 00:14:26.850 --> 00:14:28.490 it without even telling the German Chancellor 00:14:28.490 --> 00:14:31.330 or the Kaiser beforehand. That is mind -blowing. 00:14:31.970 --> 00:14:34.730 In a modern context, that would be like the chairman 00:14:34.730 --> 00:14:37.429 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff secretly calling 00:14:37.429 --> 00:14:40.490 a foreign military and coordinating a war without 00:14:40.490 --> 00:14:42.789 telling the president or the secretary of state. 00:14:42.929 --> 00:14:45.409 It's a complete circumvention of power. How did 00:14:45.409 --> 00:14:47.590 the civilian government not immediately arrest 00:14:47.590 --> 00:14:50.250 him for treason? They couldn't, because the culture 00:14:50.250 --> 00:14:53.110 had shifted so far that the military was viewed 00:14:53.110 --> 00:14:57.159 as Untouchable. Untouchable. Yes. The historian 00:14:57.159 --> 00:14:59.720 Gordon A. Cray is quoted in the text, saying 00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:02.299 that the crucial decisions in 1914 were made 00:15:02.299 --> 00:15:05.039 by the soldiers with an almost complete disregard 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:07.480 for political considerations. So the politicians 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:10.360 were just sidelined. Once the military mobilization 00:15:10.360 --> 00:15:12.799 timetables were set into motion, the civilian 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:14.740 diplomats were basically told to step aside. 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.700 And this terrifying trend only accelerated once 00:15:17.700 --> 00:15:21.320 World War I actually began. Very much so. By 00:15:21.320 --> 00:15:23.320 the later years of the war, General Paul von 00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:25.740 Hindenburg and his deputy, Erich Ludendorff, 00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:28.700 established what amounted to a silent military 00:15:28.700 --> 00:15:30.899 dictatorship. A silent dictatorship. They were 00:15:30.899 --> 00:15:33.299 running German foreign policy directly with the 00:15:33.299 --> 00:15:36.019 emperor, leaving the chancellor and all the civilian 00:15:36.019 --> 00:15:38.759 officials completely out of the loop. The state 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:41.080 had effectively become a subsidiary of the army. 00:15:41.769 --> 00:15:43.990 It's terrifying when you think about it. Truly. 00:15:44.250 --> 00:15:47.970 But to wage a global war on that scale and to 00:15:47.970 --> 00:15:51.110 sustain that level of unchecked power, you need 00:15:51.110 --> 00:15:53.509 an economy that can support millions of soldiers 00:15:53.509 --> 00:15:56.590 and endless artillery shells. You need a massive 00:15:56.590 --> 00:16:00.250 industrial base. And that brings us to the industrial 00:16:00.250 --> 00:16:03.559 might of this empire. The text points out that 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:07.100 in 1914, the German Empire accounted for 12 percent 00:16:07.100 --> 00:16:10.039 of the entire global industrial output. Twelve 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:12.080 percent of the whole world. They were the largest 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:14.960 industrial base in continental Europe. That industrial 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:17.519 base was the engine of the army, and the general 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:20.220 staff was not shy about heavily managing that 00:16:20.220 --> 00:16:22.620 economy to suit their needs. They wanted control 00:16:22.620 --> 00:16:25.549 over the factories too. Exactly. They recognized 00:16:25.549 --> 00:16:27.570 early on that future wars would be one in the 00:16:27.570 --> 00:16:29.629 factories just as much as on the battlefield. 00:16:29.929 --> 00:16:32.490 The way they aggressively managed emerging technologies 00:16:32.490 --> 00:16:35.009 is a perfect example, particularly when we look 00:16:35.009 --> 00:16:37.350 at the brand new field of aviation. Right. The 00:16:37.350 --> 00:16:39.509 text mentions they were ruthless about aviation 00:16:39.509 --> 00:16:42.549 patents, but I didn't quite grasp how they forced 00:16:42.549 --> 00:16:45.230 these private capitalist companies to cooperate. 00:16:45.330 --> 00:16:47.889 It was incredibly heavy handed, but effective. 00:16:48.769 --> 00:16:50.970 The army didn't just act as a buyer of airplanes. 00:16:51.450 --> 00:16:54.470 They stepped in as an industrial dictator. What 00:16:54.470 --> 00:16:57.129 does that mean in practice? Well, they regulated 00:16:57.129 --> 00:16:59.210 the supply of raw materials to these factories, 00:16:59.549 --> 00:17:02.409 they set fixed prices, and they effectively suspended 00:17:02.409 --> 00:17:04.589 standard corporate secrecy. Just suspended it? 00:17:04.730 --> 00:17:07.990 Yeah. They forced rival private firms to cross 00:17:07.990 --> 00:17:10.390 -license their proprietary technology with each 00:17:10.390 --> 00:17:13.529 other. So no more secrets? Right. If Company 00:17:13.529 --> 00:17:16.650 A invented a better engine, the Army forced them 00:17:16.650 --> 00:17:19.569 to share the blueprints with Company B so both 00:17:19.569 --> 00:17:22.670 could produce planes faster. That is such a wild 00:17:22.670 --> 00:17:25.950 concept for the time. Basically telling powerful 00:17:25.950 --> 00:17:28.470 industrialists, we don't care about your corporate 00:17:28.470 --> 00:17:30.930 profits or your patents. You're going to share 00:17:30.930 --> 00:17:33.769 your tech so we can dominate the skies. And it 00:17:33.769 --> 00:17:36.490 worked. The text notes this forced collaboration 00:17:36.490 --> 00:17:39.450 resulted in a rapid expansion and a huge output 00:17:39.450 --> 00:17:42.529 of high quality aircraft. But here's a detail 00:17:42.529 --> 00:17:44.529 that really surprised me about those planes. 00:17:44.849 --> 00:17:48.339 What's that? The German Air Force, the Luftstreitkräfte, 00:17:48.539 --> 00:17:50.460 wasn't actually an independent branch of the 00:17:50.460 --> 00:17:53.220 military like the Navy was. No, it wasn't. The 00:17:53.220 --> 00:17:56.140 Army viewed the airplane strictly as a tool for 00:17:56.140 --> 00:17:58.599 ground warfare. Just an extension of the infantry? 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:01.319 Pretty much. They used it for reconnaissance, 00:18:01.700 --> 00:18:04.119 artillery spotting, and eventually tactical bombing. 00:18:04.490 --> 00:18:07.750 So despite how culturally and technologically 00:18:07.750 --> 00:18:10.829 important aviation was becoming, it was kept 00:18:10.829 --> 00:18:14.690 strictly as an overland air arm integrated directly 00:18:14.690 --> 00:18:16.910 into the German Army. They kept a very tight 00:18:16.910 --> 00:18:19.170 grip on the new domain of the air. They controlled 00:18:19.170 --> 00:18:21.400 everything they could. This explosion of high 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:24.299 -tech aviation, mass -scale logistics, and managing 00:18:24.299 --> 00:18:26.960 12 % of the globe's industrial output created 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:29.299 a new problem for the Army, though. A human capital 00:18:29.299 --> 00:18:32.099 problem. Exactly. You can't fly complex aircraft 00:18:32.099 --> 00:18:34.579 or manage continent -wide railway supply chains 00:18:34.579 --> 00:18:37.380 relying solely on the old aristocratic bloodlines. 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:39.950 No, you definitely can't. The text talks about 00:18:39.950 --> 00:18:43.210 the junkers, the wealthy landed nobility in Prussia, 00:18:43.549 --> 00:18:45.730 who traditionally monopolized the officer corps. 00:18:46.269 --> 00:18:48.529 If you were a commoner, no matter how smart you 00:18:48.529 --> 00:18:51.390 were, you were usually shunted into lower prestige 00:18:51.390 --> 00:18:54.250 branches like supply or heavy artillery. Right. 00:18:54.430 --> 00:18:57.230 Wait, if the officer corps was completely locked 00:18:57.230 --> 00:18:59.950 down by these wealthy aristocrats, how did they 00:18:59.950 --> 00:19:03.230 handle this massive shift into high tech industrialized 00:19:03.230 --> 00:19:05.750 warfare? Did they just train the nobles to be 00:19:05.750 --> 00:19:09.029 engineers? They tried. But it simply wasn't enough. 00:19:09.750 --> 00:19:12.410 The sheer reality of running an operation of 00:19:12.410 --> 00:19:15.710 that unprecedented scale requiring intense technical, 00:19:15.849 --> 00:19:18.529 logistical and industrial expertise meant that 00:19:18.529 --> 00:19:20.750 competence had to win out over bloodlines. There 00:19:20.750 --> 00:19:23.289 just weren't enough smart nobles. Exactly. The 00:19:23.289 --> 00:19:26.029 demands of this modern machine were so vast that 00:19:26.029 --> 00:19:28.410 by the 1890s they had to start opening up the 00:19:28.410 --> 00:19:31.049 highest ranks to highly talented commoners out 00:19:31.049 --> 00:19:33.250 of pure necessity. So they were forced to adapt. 00:19:33.420 --> 00:19:35.400 The traditional Junker class simply couldn't 00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:37.180 produce enough mathematically and logistically 00:19:37.180 --> 00:19:40.700 gifted officers to run a multi -million man mechanized 00:19:40.700 --> 00:19:43.599 army. That makes total sense. It forced a significant 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:46.339 shift in social mobility within German society, 00:19:46.839 --> 00:19:49.579 driven entirely by the military's insatiable 00:19:49.579 --> 00:19:52.640 need for competence. So what does this all mean? 00:19:53.019 --> 00:19:55.019 We've covered a massive amount of ground today. 00:19:55.180 --> 00:19:58.470 We really have. We've seen how a deeply fragmented 00:19:58.470 --> 00:20:01.589 collection of 38 duchies and kingdoms states 00:20:01.589 --> 00:20:04.430 that stubbornly kept their own local badges on 00:20:04.430 --> 00:20:07.589 their hats and argued over regiment names were 00:20:07.589 --> 00:20:10.509 systematically forged by pressure into a unified 00:20:10.509 --> 00:20:14.210 industrial military juggernaut. A totally unprecedented 00:20:14.210 --> 00:20:17.450 force. It was an army so efficient, so structurally 00:20:17.450 --> 00:20:19.950 sound with its multi -decade conscription pipeline 00:20:19.950 --> 00:20:22.970 and its hyperacademic general staff that it literally 00:20:22.970 --> 00:20:25.970 became the model for nations like Japan. A global 00:20:25.970 --> 00:20:27.890 blueprint. But it was also an army that grew 00:20:27.890 --> 00:20:30.450 so powerful and so convinced of its own supreme 00:20:30.450 --> 00:20:33.009 competence that it eventually bypassed its own 00:20:33.009 --> 00:20:35.490 civilian government, conducting secret diplomacy 00:20:35.490 --> 00:20:38.109 and plunging the world into a catastrophic war. 00:20:38.430 --> 00:20:40.869 It is one of history's most profound case studies 00:20:40.869 --> 00:20:43.569 on the balance of power within a state. It shows 00:20:43.569 --> 00:20:45.869 us exactly what happens when a nation's defense 00:20:45.869 --> 00:20:48.549 apparatus vastly outgrows its civilian oversight. 00:20:48.789 --> 00:20:52.329 When the tail wags the dog. Precisely. When the 00:20:52.329 --> 00:20:55.470 military becomes the most competent, well -resourced, 00:20:55.829 --> 00:20:57.849 and intellectually rigorous institution in a 00:20:57.849 --> 00:21:01.509 country, there is a very real, dangerous temptation 00:21:01.509 --> 00:21:04.190 for it to view every international diplomatic 00:21:04.190 --> 00:21:07.069 problem as a nail simply because it happens to 00:21:07.069 --> 00:21:09.049 be holding the biggest, most advanced hammer. 00:21:09.109 --> 00:21:12.549 Yeah. It begins treating diplomacy not as a complex 00:21:12.549 --> 00:21:15.509 search for peace, but as just another logistical 00:21:15.509 --> 00:21:18.740 branch of warfare. That is a lesson regarding 00:21:18.740 --> 00:21:21.380 civilian control of the military that remains 00:21:21.380 --> 00:21:24.819 deeply urgently relevant today. Absolutely. The 00:21:24.819 --> 00:21:28.039 mechanisms might change, but the danger of unchecked 00:21:28.039 --> 00:21:30.559 institutional power is timeless. And this raises 00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:32.380 an important question, something for you to mull 00:21:32.380 --> 00:21:34.099 over after we wrap up here today. Okay, let's 00:21:34.099 --> 00:21:36.160 hear it. The source notes that the Imperial German 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:38.779 Army was officially abolished in March of 1919 00:21:38.779 --> 00:21:41.279 after their devastating defeat in World War I. 00:21:41.819 --> 00:21:44.259 But the text explicitly states that its deepest 00:21:44.259 --> 00:21:46.440 regimental traditions, some of which stretched 00:21:46.440 --> 00:21:48.839 all the way back to the 17th century, were not 00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:51.319 destroyed with the empire. They survived. They 00:21:51.319 --> 00:21:53.660 were deliberately kept alive and carried forward 00:21:53.660 --> 00:21:56.059 into the Provisional Reichswehr, which was the 00:21:56.059 --> 00:21:59.059 much smaller interwar army, and later integrated 00:21:59.059 --> 00:22:01.200 straight into the Wehrmacht, the military of 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:03.180 the Second World War. The traditions just carried 00:22:03.180 --> 00:22:06.289 right over. That chain of tradition, the specific 00:22:06.289 --> 00:22:08.670 pride of those old regiments, wasn't completely 00:22:08.670 --> 00:22:12.809 broken until the total collapse in 1945. So think 00:22:12.809 --> 00:22:16.549 about this. When an empire falls in defeat, but 00:22:16.549 --> 00:22:19.529 its military structures, its institutional memory, 00:22:19.690 --> 00:22:22.750 and its fierce regimental pride are deliberately 00:22:22.750 --> 00:22:25.309 preserved and passed down to the next generation 00:22:25.309 --> 00:22:28.349 of soldiers. Yeah. How does that romanticized 00:22:28.349 --> 00:22:31.289 ghost of a defeated army shape the future identity 00:22:31.289 --> 00:22:33.589 and the future catastrophic actions of a nation? 00:22:33.710 --> 00:22:36.250 Wow. That is a heavy and vital thought to leave 00:22:36.250 --> 00:22:39.069 on. The idea that an army can die on paper but 00:22:39.069 --> 00:22:41.250 live on in the minds of the next generation is 00:22:41.250 --> 00:22:43.430 chilling. It really is. Thank you so much for 00:22:43.430 --> 00:22:45.849 joining us on this deep dive. We hope you walk 00:22:45.849 --> 00:22:48.029 away from this with a new perspective on how 00:22:48.029 --> 00:22:50.509 history's most powerful machines are built, how 00:22:50.509 --> 00:22:53.089 they manage to reorganize society itself, and 00:22:53.089 --> 00:22:55.430 how easily they can spiral out of control when 00:22:55.430 --> 00:22:57.849 left unchecked. Keep questioning the history 00:22:57.849 --> 00:23:00.369 behind the world we live in today. Until next 00:23:00.369 --> 00:23:00.589 time.