Germany, 1890-1945: Democracy And Dictatorship

Question 1

What was the Bundesrat?

Answer 1

The main law making body in the Kaiser’s Germany (it could only consult with the Kaiser)
It has 58 members from German states, decided by the size of the state.
Because 14 votes were needed to reject a measure, Prussia could control the Bundesrat.

Question 2

What was the Reichstag?

Answer 2

German parliament elected by men over 25. 382 members, over half of whom were Prussian.
Its consent was needed to pass legislation from the Bundesrat, and it voted on the federal budget, but the Bundesrat and the Kaiser could dissolve it.

Question 3

When was Kaiser Wilhelm Born?? What was wrong with him?

Answer 3

1859

He was weak and had had a paralysed arm. There was a British physician at the birth, which was a bad start. His mother also put him through horrible treatments in an attempt to fix his arm.

Question 4

When was Kaiser W married?

How many kids did he have??

Answer 4

1881

7

Question 5

When did Kaiser W become chancellor?

When did he abdicate??

Answer 5

1888

1918 ( it was announced before he had consented).

Question 6

What was ‘a place in the sun’

Answer 6

Kaiser Wilhelm’s obsession with having an overseas empire to match Britain and France.

Question 7

What voting system was used in the Weimar Reichstag.

Answer 7

Proportional Representation ( where the %of votes you got determined your seat)

This meant that there were as many as twenty parties , which meant no majority and things were slow and difficult

Question 8

Why might people not have liked the Weimar?

Answer 8

Generally, older or higher class people didn't like this new government because they missed the Kaiser.
The new government was also linked to the defeat.

Question 9

Who could vote in the Weimar?

Answer 9

Everyone, even women over twenty.

Question 10

Who were the left wing parties in the Weimar??

Answer 10

Communist party (KPD)
Social Democratic Party (SPD)
German Democratic Party

Question 11

Who were the right wing parties in the Weimar??

Answer 11

People’s Party (DVP)
National People’s Party (DNVP)
National Socialist Democratic Party
(NDSAP or Nazi)

Question 12

Who was the central party in Weimar?

Answer 12

Zentrum

Question 13

Who was the first president of Weimar Germany?

Answer 13

Friedrich Ebert

Question 14

When was the Spartacist uprising??

Answer 14

January 1919. They had hoped to piggyback off the workers’ riots to gain support.

Question 15

Why did Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht start the spartacist uprising?

Answer 15

They didn’t trust the Weimar Government. They hated the Parliament and wanted Germany to be run by small councils of soldiers and workers. They hoped to achieve it by staging a full scale communist revolution.

Question 16

Explain the clusterfuckery that was the Spartacist uprising

Answer 16

1919
Thousands of communists swarmed the streets of Berlin, taking over the governments news and telegraph HQs.
They thought the workers and other left wing groups would join them. They did not. The freikorps and army were called in and both rosa and Karl were murdered.

Question 17

What was the Red Rising in the Ruhr?

Answer 17

1920
A communist red army, led by members of the KPD who were angry about bad pay/working conditions.
They totalled at about 50000 and occupied the Ruhr to take control of it’s raw materials. The Freikorps crushed them, killing around a thousand.

Question 18

What was the Kapp Putsch?

Answer 18

1920
The Weimar Government were content that the Freikorps had crushed all of the left wing uprisings and that they were no longer needed, so they made them redundant. The Freikorps marched on Berlin and attempted to instate Wolfgang Kapp as the new leader of Germany. They drove the government out of Berlin and would have succeeded if the workers hadn’t gone on strike.

Question 19

What was the Munich Putsch.

Answer 19

The Nazi party, led by Hitler and Ludendorff, and with the SA, thought that democracy was too weak and that there should only be one party, with a strong leader (Ludendorff). Hitler and 600 SA burst into a meeting where the leader of Bavaria, Kahr was speaking. They forced him to support them, but let him leave after which he renounced his support. Hilter served 9 months of a five year sentence.

Question 20

What made 1923 a turning point?

Answer 20

Invasion of the Ruhr – Hyperinflation, the Munich Putsch,

Industry trouble.

Question 21

Why were there Industry troubles in 1923

Answer 21

No disposable income

Question 22

Explain Hyperinflation

Answer 22

The Weimar government had to tell the Ruhr workers to strike after the invasion, after which it had to pay their wages and it's reparations, so it simply started printing money. Unfortunately shop owners realised people had more income and raised the price of goods, so they printed more money, so they raised prices, and then money was worthless and nobody could afford anything.
The middle class who had savings were now worth nothing and so everyone was plunged into poverty.

Question 23

How did Stresemann deal with Hyperinflation

Answer 23

He invented an entirely new currency which he named the Rentenmark, one of which was worth 1000 billion marks. He burnt the marks, and in twenty five years he replaced it with the Reichsmark, which was stable for 25 years.

Question 24

How did Stresemann deal with the Ruhr invasion.

Answer 24

He organised financial aid from the United States through the Dawes plan (800 million gold marks), and then negotiated reparations down from 6.6 billion down to 1.8 billion, and they got longer to pay it, in the Young plan of 1929.

Question 25

When did Germany join the LON

Answer 25

1926

Question 26

When were the Locarno treaties signed

Answer 26

1925

Question 27

When was the Kellogg -Briand pact signed

Answer 27

1928

Question 28

How did they use the Dawes Plan money?

Answer 28

It was reinvested into German infrastructure, for example roads and schools and factories and houses. American companies like Ford and Gillette built factories in Germany.

Question 29

Why were the twenties a golden age for Germany?

Answer 29

The new democratic government gave German artists a new freedom. Traditionalists though that Germany was turning into an immoral, sex obsessed mess. Artists like Otto Dix and George Grosz were successful but fled Germany when the Nazis came into power.

Question 30

What did the Wall St Crash do to Germany?

Answer 30

The Americans asked for their money back and German firms went bankrupt, making people redundant which meant that they had no income for luxuries which made them more redundant. The Government had to cut back on spending because they weren’t being payed taxes, which made them look weak.

Question 31

What was good about Nazi propaganda, which was made by Josef Goebbels?

Answer 31

It was clear and to the point, offered things the people wanted and was delivered using the latest technologies

Question 32

Who did the Nazi party target?

Answer 32

Working class people, who were struggling under the Weimar Government.

Question 33

What happened between 1930 and 1938 in the Reichstag elections??

Answer 33

Support for Communism rose, so support for the Nazis also rose.