Social developments 1914-29

Question 1

When was conscription introduced? For who?

Answer 1

• 1916
• Men over 18
• Other war work for people 17-60

Question 2

How much of the workforce was female by Oct 1918?

Answer 2

Over 1/3

Question 3

What happened to families during the war?

Answer 3

• Working/absent mothers leave children neglected
• Schools couldn’t be heated in winter from lack of coal
• Poorer families suffer malnutrition

Question 4

What percentage of all children suffered rickets in wartime?

Answer 4

40%

Question 5

What led to spreading misery and distress at the end of the war?

Answer 5

• Direction of resources to the war
• Disruption to agriculture from conscription
• British blockade of German ports

Question 6

What infrastructure was cut during the war?

Answer 6

• Electricity cut to conserve energy
• Public transport didn’t operate reliably

Question 7

What epidemic spread across Europe in the war?

Answer 7

Spanish flu

Question 8

How were workers paid during hyperinflation’s peaks?

Answer 8

• Daily, sometimes even twice
• Some paid workers in goods (in kind)

Question 9

Who suffered most from hyperinflation?

Answer 9

• People w/savings, investments, fixed incomes, pensions, welfare support
• war bond purchasers
• white collar workers
• landlords

Question 10

Who did well from hyperinflation?

Answer 10

• People w/debt, mortgages, loans
• Businesspeople (taking out loans and repaying them with devalued currency)
• Property owners w/fixed rents
• Farmers (since food was in demand)

Question 11

What welfare state measures were established in 1918?

Answer 11

• 8hr days for workers
• Systems of industrial tribunals put in place
• Trade union restrictions abolished

Question 12

What welfare state measure was established in 1920?

Answer 12

War-related pensions for widows, orphans and invalids

Question 13

What welfare state measure was established in 1923?

Answer 13

National insurance extended

Question 14

What welfare state measure was established in 1925?

Answer 14

Accident insurance extends to ensure diseases linked to certain types of work

Question 15

How did Lander governments use German loans to extend welfare provisions?

Answer 15

They improve hospitals, schools, roads, and make affordable homes

Question 16

What issues did some elites have with the new welfare state

Answer 16

It needed high tax to maintain. Some elites saw it as an attack on their wealth and therefore another reason to oppose Weimar

Question 17

What article of the new constitution was universal suffrage listed under?

Answer 17

Article 109

Question 18

What evidence was there for a “New Woman” in Weimar?

Answer 18

• Some women would smoke, wear lipstick, and have short hair
• Cheaper contraception was also available

Question 19

What were the “Wilde Cliquen”?

Answer 19

‘Wild ones’ - a youth club who rejected authority and often imitated Americans in their style

Question 20

In what ways did the lives of young people become more comfortable in Weimar?

Answer 20

• More contraception meant families were smaller
• Young people were often able to engage more in youth clubs and other leisure activities, like going to the cinema

Question 21

Who were the Doppelverdiener?

Answer 21

Married women who worked outside the house. They caused lots of controversy

Question 22

What evidence is there against a new woman idea?

Answer 22

• Most women voted conservative, notably the NSDAP
• The BDF encourages women into “natural” types of work
• Germany’s suffrage movement really wasn’t very widespread
• Doppelverdiener

Question 23

What evidence is there for a decline in influence of the elites?

Answer 23

• Weimar removes titles and legal privileges
• Demilitarisation

Question 24

What evidence is there to suggest that elite privilege remained strong?

Answer 24

• Ebert Groener
• Hindenburg as president gave Junkers someone advocating for them still
• They still preserved their exclusivity by other marrying within class

Question 25

What was the Stahlhelm?

Answer 25

A revanchist group of ex-servicemen who Groener and Seeckt secretly cooperated with

Question 26

What does revanchist mean?

Answer 26

The want to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country after a war

Question 27

What evidence is there to suggest that the military remained powerful?

Answer 27

- Military budget increased by 75% between 1924 and 8 - Secret military schools were set up to train officers and rearm - Groener was appointed defence minister in 1927 and refuses to allow the Reichstag to restrict its activities

Question 28

What was the new style of painting that came as a reaction to romanticism?

Answer 28

The New Objectivity Movement

Question 29

Who founded the Bauhaus movement? When and with what?

Answer 29

- Walter Gropius - 1919 - With the proclamation of Bauhaus

Question 30

What did the Bauhaus movement popularise?

Answer 30

- Ordinary geometric designs - Emphasis put on functionality and importance of design for mass production

Question 31

What was the slogan of the Bauhaus movement?

Answer 31

‘Art into industry’

Question 32

Who wrote Metropolis?

Answer 32

Fritz Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou

Question 33

Who wrote All Quiet on the Western Front?

Answer 33

EM Remarque

Question 34

What is an example of a popular nightclub at this time?

Answer 34

Resi

Question 35

Who denounced Weimar culture? How did he denounce it?

Answer 35

Siegfried Kracauer denounced it as a ‘culture of distraction’

Question 36

In what ways were people opposed to Weimar culture?

Answer 36

- Some viewed it as “Un-German”, and the decline of their once great nation - Some Lander imposed censorship - Grosz was fined for “defaming the military”

Question 37

Which artists used expressionism? What did they use it for?

Answer 37

- George Grosz and Otto Dix - Use it to expose hypocrisy of the time