weimar germany

strength of the weimar constitution (rights)

A Bill Of Rights - this guaranteed every german citizen freedom of speech and religion, and equality under the law

strength of the weimar constitution (democracy)

Democratic - elections for parliament and the president too place every 4 years and all germans over 20 could vote

strength of the weimar constitution (reichstag)

The Reichstag - appointed the government and made all laws. almost all political power was exercised by politicians in the Reichstag, before 1918 the kaiser and the military took most of the impotent decisions

weakness of the weimar constitution (48)

Article 48 - this gave the president the power to act without the parliament approval in an emergency. however it didn’t define what an emergency was, so the power was overused and this weakened germans’ confidence in democracy

weakness of the weimar constitution (PR)

Proportional Representation - each party got the same percentage of seats in parliament’s the percentage of votes it received in an election. this meant there were lots of small parties in parliament making it very difficult to pass laws and led to weak and short-lived governments.

reichstag (Definition)

elected every 4 years, more important than reichsrat, could make laws and help choose chancellor with a majority

Reichsrat (Definition)

55 representatives from the 18 german staes, but couldn’t make laws, just approve them

Terms of the treaty of versailles (military)

army reduced to 100,000, no tanks or submarines and unable to unite with Austria

Terms of the treaty of versailles (territory)

Rhineland demilitarised, Alsace Lorraine given to France, 13% of german land taken, overseas territories taken, unable to have union with Austria

Terms of the treaty of versailles (rep)

had to pay 6.6 billion in war reparations

Terms of the treaty of versailles (guilt)

Germany had to accept blame for WW1

the Kapp putsch

the Freikorps (a right-wing group of ex-soldiers led by Wolfgang Kapp) had a lot of support from soldiers and some civilians who tried to stop their party from being disabled by marching into Berlin and declared a new government, but failed as Ebert told the workers to strike against them

the Spartacists uprising

the Spartacists (a left-wing group of communists led by Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebnecht) had support from other left-wing groups who tried to overthrow Ebert and Weimar by capturing a government newspaper hq and telephone bereau. hundreds were killed including the leaders, by the army

the ‘stab in the back’ theory

a view felt by many angry germans, that germany had never really been defeated in WW1, and that the new Weimar government had betrayed germany by signing the armistice and agreeing to the treaty of versailles, the weimar politicians became known as the ‘november criminals’

economic problems for weimar (ruhr)

January 1923 - the French occupy the Ruhr, germanys most industrials district (produced lots of coal), because of germanys failure to pay reparations and the valuable resources there, but workers striked and the the Dawes plan was made so the French left in 1925

economic problems for weimar (hyperinflation)

Germany keeps printing money to rebuild the country, weimar asks the workers in the ruhr to passively resist by going on strike after the french occupy, and weimar tries to pay striking workers by printing money so the value of money becomes eventually almost worthless by November 1923

The Dawes plan (stresemann solutions)

agreed in august 19245, named after US VP Charles Dawes, who helped. this changed the reparation payments to 1 billion marks for the first year increasing to 2.5 billion over 4 years, Frances would leave the Ruhr (1925) and US would help germanys economy by giving loans.

The Rentenmark (Stresemann solutions)

November 1923 - Stresemann stopped the printing of all paper money and replaced all old money with a new currency called the rentenmark (based on property value rather has gold reserves), 1 rentenmark replaced 1000 marks, ending hyperinflation and getting the economy back on track

Young plan (Stresemann solutions)

1929 - the weimar complained about reparations, so the US banker Owen Young investigtedand made a new plan, the reparations figure was reduced from 6.6 billion to 1.8 billion and her length of time was increased to 59 years, an average of 2.05 billion marks per year, the US gave 3 billion in loans over the years

Locarno Pact (Stresemann solutions)

1925 - signed by Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Belgium, the countries agreed to keep existing borders between Germany, France and Belgium. it marked germanys return into the international scene, sometimes known as the ‘Locarno honeymoon’

The League of Nations (Stresemann solutions)

part of the Locarno pact was that Germany had to join the league of nations, established 1920 to maintain peace. In september 1926, German was given a permanent seat in the council, gaining ‘great power’ status

The Kellogg-Briand Pact (Stresemann solutions)

1928 - Germany signed this pact along with 64 other nations, it was agreed they would keep their armies for only self-defence and solve dispute by international means, it improved relations between Europe and the US.

evidence for a golden age 1924-29 (standard of living)

10% wage increase

2 million homes built, 200k renovated, 60% homelessness reduction in 1928

national unemployment welfare scheme, other reforms for single mums, veterans and disabled

evidence against a golden age 1924-29 (standard of living)

many of the middle class had lost all savings in hyperinflation but didn’t benefit from governments benefit scheme, by 1928, 184k unemployed

the state ended up spending 33x more money on housing than in 1913, risky as money from american loans

evidence for a golden age 1924-1929 (women)

equality of education and civil service and equal pay, women over 20 given vote and 32 woman deputies in riechstag 1926

more social freedoms, could drink/smoke in public, go out on their own, wore make-up and had short hair

evidence against a golden age 1923-1929 (women)

despite the large number of women who had worked mens jobs during the war, many were just takenbackby the men after, normally the better paid ones. married women were criticised for not staying at home and working instead

evidence for a golden age 1923-1929 (culture)

artists had more freedom to express how they felt about society or life

architecture flourished under the ‘school of building’ focused on basic shapes, colours and efficient use of space, with bold buildings and unusual materials

Fritz lang produced the film ‘metropolis’ generally acclaimed the most advanced film of the decade, and german actress Marlene Dietrich also became a world famous star