Germany 1 Flashcards
(18 cards)
Abdication of the Kaiser
- 9th November 1918
- Prince Max of Baden announced the abdication
- 11th November armisitice signed
Revolution from above
Reasons for abdication
Ludendorff convinced the Kaiser to hand power over to a civilian government
Revolution from below
Reasons for abdication
Various mutines and union made revolution likely unless Kaiser abdicated
Kiel mutiny where sailors refued to launch a final suicidal naval attack against the British Royal Navy (pointless as war was lost); spread to other ports and cities
Stab in the back myth
- dolschtoss
- Idea that Germany was winning the war but was betrayed by Weak Weimar politicians
Features of the Weimar Government
- 19th Jan 1919 election 82% vote turnout
- Freedom of speech, religion and equality
- Head of Government was president, elected every 7 years
- Split into 18 states each with individual power
Strengths of the Weimar Constitution / Government
- (increased) democracy; voting age lowered from 25 to 20
- Proportional Representation
- Strong President
- Democratically-appointed Chancellors
- Federal System
Weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution / Government
- Democracy was different and unpopular
- PR made it hard to get a majority and gave small parties a disproportionate amount of power
- Article 48 was abused, overrided German rights
- Federal states could rebel against central government
TofV Blame
Clause 231 said the war was exclusively Germany’s Fault
How much did Germany have to pay as part of reparations to the Allies?
£6.6 billion
Treaty of Versailles
Disarmament
- Army limited to 100k
- No conscription
- No tanks, air force or submarines
- 6 battleships
- 6 cruisers
- 12 destroyers
- 12 torpedo boats
- Rhineland demilitarised
T of V
Territory
- lost rich industrial land like the Saar and Silesia
- lost all colonies
- lost land in East Europe (Polish Corridor, Estonia, etc)
- Anschluss with AH forbidden
T of V
Overall
Germany lost:
- 13% of its land
- 12.5% of its population
- 50% of iron and steel industry
Spartacist Uprising
- 5th-12th January 1919
- Communist revolt
- Lena Luxembourg + Karl Leibknicht
- Mass strikes
- Occupied governemnt HQ, newspaper & newspaper and telephone offices
- General strike of 100k
- Put down by 4k Freikorps
- Luxemburg and Leibknecht shot
Kapp Putsch
- March 1920
- 12k Freikorp led by Kapp marched on Berlin to overthrow government
- Kapp proclaimed a new government
- Army refused to help gov
- Gov fled to Stuttgart
- Left wing organised general strike that paralysed Berlin
- Kapp fled to Sweden
- Weimar shown to be weak
French Occupation of the Ruhr
- Germany paid £50m by 1922 but announced they could not pay more
- Ruhr was Germany’s premier industrial area of iron, steel and coal
- Jan 1923 French occupied Ruhr to take the wealth themselves in lieu of reparation payments
- Killed 100+ civilians
- German workers strike
- Government prints money to pay striking workers
Hyperinflation
- Nov 1923 a loaf cost 200 billion marks
- 1922 value of German Reichsmark collapsed, 3500 RM needed for 1USD
- By 1923, 1tr for 1USD
- Middle classes, savers, poor, pensioners hit hard
- Farmers, debters, bussinessmen did well
