Chapter 1: Early Years Of The Weimar Republic

Question 1

When was the German empire founded?

Answer 1

18th January 1871

Question 2

What caused the formation of the German empire in 187?

Answer 2

Three successful wars by the North German state Prussia

Question 3

What was the empire forged as a result of?

Answer 3

Traditional diplomacy(aristocracy) not an outpouring nationalist feeling from the masses

Question 4

What are the states of the German empire?

Answer 4

Prussia
Bavaria
Baden
Hesse-Darmstadt
Württemberg

Question 5

What is the names of the two houses of government in the German empire?

Answer 5

Reichstag
Bundestrat

Question 6

Who does the Reichstag represent?

Answer 6

The people

Question 7

Who does the Bundersrat represent

Answer 7

The 25 states

Question 8

Who were the only ones who could vote in the German empire?

Answer 8

Men: “a universal manhood suffrage”

Question 9

What was the problem with the constituencies established in 1867 and 1871?

Answer 9

They never adjusted to population shifts(urbanisation)

This means people rural areas retained a vastly disproportionate share of power when compared with urban people

Question 10

Who was the main decisions made by

Answer 10

The monarch(Kaiser) and the chancellor

Question 11

Where were government ministers generally selected from?

Answer 11

The civil service or the military(more likely to follow through with orders)

Question 12

Who was elected and who wasn’t?

Answer 12

The cabinet wasn’t
The reichstag was

Question 13

What caused aggressive militarism(more aggressive foreign policy)?

Answer 13

-no natural boundaries
-no major mountain ranges
-suspicious of foreign threats

Question 14

What was the situation for Germany before 1918?

Answer 14

-religion
-socio-economic development
-raw materials
-new industries
-great power rivalries with other nations
-national identities
-political ideas

Question 15

What were the different national identities in Germany?

Answer 15

-German
-polish
-Danes
-French

Question 16

What was the socio-economic development in Germany pre 1918?

Answer 16

-rapid industrialisation

-rapid urbanisation

-rapid migration

-primary rural influence(influential areas)

Question 17

What were the new industries in Germany pre 1918?

Answer 17

-explosives
-plastics
-synthetic dyes
-photography

Question 18

What were the political ideas of Germany pre 1918?

Answer 18

-absolutism (extremes
-militarism
-liberal democracy(modern democracy)
-revolutionary socialism
-communism
-antisemitism

Question 19

Who were the electors in the Weimar Republic?

Answer 19

Men and women over 20(granted individual rights under a new bill of rights)

Question 20

Who could the electors elect?

Answer 20

-local gov
-Reichstag
-president

Question 21

What could the president do?

Answer 21

-head of state and armed forces
-elected every 7 years
-CHOOSES THE CHANCELLOR
-can have emergency powers under article 48
-power or dismiss Reichstag and call elections

Question 22

What is the Chancellor?

Answer 22

-head of gov(traditionally from most popular party)
-chooses a cabinet and puts laws to the Reichstag

Question 23

What does the Reichstag do?

Answer 23

-voted in every 4 years by a secret ballot
-vote for a party not a person
-one seat for every 60,000 votes

Question 24

What is the local government?

Answer 24

18 local governments, runs education policy and judiciary

Question 25

What does the Reichstrat do?

Answer 25

-members sent by the 18 lander -veto or pass laws by the Reichstag unless there is a majority of 2/3 or more

Question 26

Social classes: Junkers?

Answer 26

-land owners, wealthy conservative aristocrats -fear that political social and economic dominance was threatened -saw Catholics and socialists as threats to political and social order

Question 27

Social classes: upper middle class?

Answer 27

-growth of powerful entrepreneurial upper middle calass (Elsewhere in Europe the upper middle class is a force for political change)-IN GERMANY THEY ALLIED TO TRADITIONAL ELITES sustain the current system -industrial areas are controlled by the middle class -associate process with unification with their own success -any division as a threat-socialism as a direct threat

Question 28

Social classes: lower middle class?

Answer 28

-declining and increasing threatened -lively hood threatened by industrialisation (cheap factory-produced goods) -tend to support extremist and antisemetic groups

Question 29

Social classes: working class?

Answer 29

-population doubling -by 1913 40% of people employed in industry -long working conditions ,a dangerous and unhealthy conditions -most spend 25% of income accommodation and lack of adequate sanitation (Urban life less than 40 in the 1880s)