"the rulers of Germany at that time were a different kind of person altogether."
A piece of history, largely neglected, is what happened in Germany following the war.
Germany entered into a period of revolution which swept the entire country and ended up in the abdication of Wilhelm II and the establishment of the Wiemar Republic.
The new republic was divided into left and right - in 1919 the leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered, the right came to prominance and in the same year the Nazi Party was founded and eventually rose to power with the support of German industrial capitalism.
Would highly recommend an extremely readable book on the period, 'The Kings Depart' by Richard M Watt, one of the great classics of Twentieth Century European history.
Jim Carroll