The Weimar Republic (not including Hitler's rise)

US Ambassador to Germany notes 500 women protested German involvement in WWI outside the Reichstag

1915

Rations for German sailors cut, mutiny occurred

1917

Average German lived on 1000 calories a day

By 1918

400,000 civilians and 186,000 civilians died of Influenza

1918-1919

Prince Max von Baden appointed Chancellor

3 October 1918

Mutiny led to the arrest of 600 soldiers, town of Kiel was taken over, mutiny spread to all German cities

28 October 1918

Ottoman Empire agreed to a ceasefire with the Allied

30 October 1918

Large demonstration in Berlin; Scheidermann (SDP leader) told them Germany was now a republic

9 November 1918

Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated and fled to Holland; Friedrich Ebert came to lead Germany

10 November 1918

Germany signed an armistice

11 November 1918

Spartacist demonstration; 16 killed by Ebert’s troops

December 1918

50,000 workers on strike in Berlin → turned into a Communist revolution

By January 1919

Luxemburg and Liebknecht were arrested and executed

15 January 1919

Kurt Eisner (led Bavaria as an independent state) was murdered → Communists declared a Soviet republic → Ebert sent forces → 600 communists killed

May 1919

Communist protests in the Ruhr industrial area → Ebert sent forces → 200 casualties

1920

Failed Kapp Putsch by the right wing

March 1920

Ebert’s foreign minister Walter Rathenau was murdered by extremists

Mid 1922

SDP won more seats in the Reichstag than any other party despite unrest; Scheidermann became chancellor

January 1919

Weimar Constitution adopted

31 July 1919

Paris Peace Conference; 32 nations represented

January 1919 to January 1920

Treaty of Versailles signed by Germany

28 June 1919

Treaty of St Germain signed by Austria

1919

Treaty of Neuilly signed by Bulgaria

1919

Treaty of Sevres signed by Turkey

1920

Treaty of Trianon signed by Hungary

1920

Treaty of London → promised Italy land for entering WWI

1915

Treaty of Lausanne signed by Turkey (renegotiation of the Treaty of Sevres)

1923

Covenant of the League of Nations produced, committee chaired by Woodrow Wilson

April 1919

All ex-enemy states had joined the League of Nations

By 1926

USSR admitted to the League of Nations

1934

Teschen awarded to Poland and the surrounding area went to Czechoslovakia → ongoing border dispute

1920

Vilna contested by Poland and Lithuania → came under Polish control → League attempted to have it returned to Lithuania but failed

1922

Mandate system for former colonies of Germany and the Ottoman Empire established

May 1919

Britain established Transjordan from its ‘A mandates’

1921

Britain gave Iraq independence after having a League mandate for it

1930

Sykes-Picot Agreement → Britain and France agreed to divide the Middle East between them

1916

Balfour Declaration → Britain gave support for a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine

1917

Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia formed alliances, aiming to protect themselves from Hunagrian or Italian attempts to regain territories

1920-1921

Germany paid its first instalment of reparations (50 million pounds)

1921

Germany paid no reparations

1922

Germany declared it would be unable to make reparations payments

1923 and 1924

German national debt reached 469 billion marks

By December 1922

The Treaty of Rapollo → Germany secretly rearmed in the USSR

1922

47% of total Russian imports came from Germany

By 1932

Treaty of Berlin signed to reinforce the Treaty of Rapollo

1926

German government requested a postponement of payments due in January and February 1922

December 1921

David Lloyd George attempted to persuade the French to ease the burden on Germany at a conference in Genoa

1922

French sent 60,000 troops into the Ruhr industrial region; the Ruhr produced 80% of Germany’s steel and 70% of its coal

11 January 1923

Hyperinflation in Germany; 663 billion marks in circulation

By August 1923

Only 30% of German workers worked full time

By the end of 1923

Nationalist Black Reischswehr group rebelled in Berlin

September 1923

Communists took over the governments of Saxony and Thuringia

1923

Communists took over and declared the Rhineland independent

1923

Gustav Stresseman was chancellor of a coalition government

August to November 1923

Stresseman served a foreign minister

Until 1929

Dawes plan produced → loan from the US to Germany to cover reparations; French would leave the Ruhr

April 1924

The Treaty of Locarno → Germany and France agreed on their border

1925

The Kellogg-Briand Pact → signed by 65 countries, proclaimed that they would only fight in defence

1928

The Young Plan → reparations reduced by 20%; due date extended to 1988

1929

Industrial production higher than in 1913

By 1928

German exports rose by 40%

1925 to 1929

Hourly wages rose every year

1924 to 1929

Health and unemployment insurance schemes rolled out

From 1927

Unemployment increased to 1.9 million

1929

Government ran a budget deficit

1925 onwards

Six Weimar Governments

1924 to 1929

Hindenburg became President

1925

900 dance bands on Germany

1927

Wall Street Crash

October 1929

Unemployment was more than 3 million

September 1930

Unemployment peaked at 6 million, a third of all workers

By early 1933

293,000 civilian deaths from hypothermia and starvation

1918

Stinnes-Legeien Agreement → trade unions wouldn’t interfere with the free market in return for legal recognition and an 8 hour working day

November 1918

Ebert-Groener Pact → the army would defend the government against revolutionary socialism

November 1918

Weimar had 10 different coalition governments

1919 to 1923

Elections showed a shift to the extremes; rise in support for the USDP, KPD and DVP

June 1920