Germany: Chapter 1 [The Weimar Republic]

Question 1

GERMAN REVOLUTION

Answer 1

• war caused food shortages due to low domestic production and naval blockades
• Oct 1918: mutiny at Kiel
• troops soon forced to retreat because Germany under threat of military occupation
• Allies insisted on Kaiser’s abdication for peace
• mutiny, strikes and protests calling for abdication

Question 2

KAISER’S ABDICATION

Answer 2

• 9 Nov 1918: fled to Holland in exile
• 10 Nov: Ebert and Council of People’s Representatives took office of New Republic
• 11th Nov: Armistice signed by Erzberger [Ebert’s rep]
• Senior Germans claimed the surrender unnecessary
• Dolschtoss theory

Question 3

WEIMAR REPUBLIC

Answer 3

19 Jan 1919: after elections National Assembly drew up Weimar Constitution
- equality, freedom of speech and religion and all men and women above 20 allowed to vote
- Parliamentary Democracy: Chancellor every 5 years, President every 7 years, 18 states with own parliament and laws and police [federation]

Question 4

EBERT’S APPROACH

Answer 4

• keep previous gov’s civil servants
• promised Trade Unions 8 hour work day
• promised industrial leaders no nationalisation
• BUT senior figure disliked democracy
• many wanted Kaiser’s return
• communists wanted no industrialists or ruling class [inspired by 1917 Russian Revolution]

Question 5

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF NEW CONSTITUTION

Answer 5

• Germany = politically divided and economically ruined
• Germany had no experience of team work and new gov needed it
• Proportional Representation required unfamiliar cooperation and created weak, inefficient, short-term coalitions
• ARTICLE 48: President able to pass laws without Reichstag approval in emergencies

Question 6

WEIMAR CHANCELLORS

Answer 6

• shortest = Muller = 86 days
• longest = Cuno = 1 year 202 days

Question 7

TREATY OF VERSAILLES

Answer 7

• TERRITORIAL TERMS:
• Alsace and Lorraine to France
• Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium
• Posen and West Prussia to Poland
• Upper Silesia voted to be part of Poland
• North Schleswig to be part of Denmark
• German port of Danzig became international city
• Germany lost all international territories, 13% of European territories, 15% coal reserves and 50% iron reserves
• NON-TERRITORIAL TERMS:
• Article 231: War Guilt Clause
• £6,600 million reparations to Allies
• no tanks, airforce or submarines
• army = 100,000 internal men
• navy = 6 battleships, 6 cruisers, 12 destroyers and 12 torpedo boats

Question 8

GERMAN REACTION

Answer 8

• shocked - hadn’t been allowed to attend negotiations
• gov refused to sign but then Allies threatened war
• 28th June 1919: signed
• ‘Shameful Diktat’ - unfair and deliberately humiliating
• signing politicians known as ‘November Criminals’

Question 9

CHALLENGES TO WEIMAR

Answer 9

• Left wanted political power for works, equality for all and land and business for workers [worker interests]
• Right wanted powerful, authoritarian gov, Kaiser and previous system’s return, capitalism, privately owned land and business and hated communists

Question 10

LEFT: SPARTACIST UPRISING [5 JAN 1919]

Answer 10

• Spartacus League marched on Berlin and occupied gov newspaper HQ and telephone offices
• gov found strike hard to subdue to TOV’s army reduction
• used Freikorps [250,000 men who had refused to surrender their weapons and hated communists]
• Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Leibknecht shot
• communists regularly won 10% of seats

Question 11

RIGHT: KAPP PUTSCH [13 MARCH 1920]

Answer 11

• Freikorps marched on Berlin and declared Wolfgang Kapp the German leader after Ebert tried to disband 2 of their units
• Freikorps = TOV’s strongest opposers
• Germany army = sympathetic and refused to stop them
• Ebert moved gov from Berlin and encouraged general strike
• Kapp fled and Freikorps disbanded
• military weakness but also people’s support for Ebert displayed

Question 12

GERMANY’S ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

Answer 12

-1918: close to bankruptcy
- 1922: failed to pay reparations
- Jan 1923: French and Belgian troops marched on Ruhr
- Germans went on strike using arson and sabotage to destroy factories
- French workers brought in
- 100 Germans killed amid fighting
- July 1925: troops removed [Dawes Plan]
- Germans united but lost income and experienced hyperinflation [money printed to pay striking workers]

Question 13

HYPERINFLATION [1923]

Answer 13

• 1919-1923: gov’s income = 1/4 of needed income
• 1923: 300 paper mills and 200 printing shops
• value of mark dropped because connected to gold reserves
• 1914: $1 = 4 mark
• 1923: $1 = 4.2 billion marks
• Dec 1918: bread = 0.54 marks
• Nov 1923: bread = 201 billion marks
• millions in poverty
• those on fixed incomes suffered [pensioners]
• loan, mortgage, land and farm owners benefitted