Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-1933

1.7m dead and 4.2m wounded

German death and wounded toll in WW1

$37bn

cost of ww1 to Germany

3rd March 1918

Defeated Russia in WW1 - Treaty of Brest Litovsk

-1/3rd European Russia lost from Baltic to Black Sea, inc Ukraine

-1mkm2

-45m pop

-6bn marks in compensation

-1/4 of Russian industry and 9/10 coal mines

8th August 1918

Black Day of the German Army (Ludendorff)

October Reforms

-Germany became parliamentary democracy: Kaiser head of state (ceremonial role only)

-Prince Max of Baden Chancellor and started ceasefire talks

-Chancellor accountable to reichstag not Kaiser

-pressure from allies for Kaiser's abdication

3rd October 1918

Prince Max's peace note to President Wilson asking for armistice

24th October 1918

Wilson replied to Prince Max's request and ordered German surrender and abdication of the Kaiser

-Ludendorff resigned and fled to Sweden

22nd October 1918

strike at Friedrichshafen

-workers shouted 'Kaiser is a scoundrel' and 'up with the German republic'

28th October 1918

Naval mutiny at Wilhelmshaven

Admiral Scheer

planned a final breakout attack on the Royal Navy despite war lost by October 1918

3rd November 1918

Naval mutiny spread to Kiel

6th November 1918

Soldiers, sailors and workers councils took control of cities like Munich and Hamburg

-widespread

8th November 1918

Revolt in Bavaria led to declaration of Bavarian Socialist Republic: independent Republic

9th November 1918

-SPD calls general strike in Berlin

-Prince Max announces Kaiser's abdication

-resigned as Chancellor

-Chancellorship handed to Friedrich Ebert (SPD leader) who formed 6-man socialist interim gov

-Philip Scheidemann announced German republic

-General Groener (Deputy Chief of General Staff) withdrew support for Kaiser

10th November 1918

Ebert-Groener Pact

-Groener assured Ebert army leadership would support new gov if Ebert resisted demands of soldiers councils to democratise the army and defend Germany against communist revolution

11th November 1918

Armistice signed by Ebert's gov

-Der Dolchstoss (stab in the back myth)

6th December 1918

Sparticist demonstration in Berlin fired upon and 16 killed

23rd-24th December 1918

sailors revolt against gov put down by army

-3 USPD ministers in gov resigned

5th-12th January 1919

Spartacist Uprising in Berlin

-crushed by Freikorps

-Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg executed

15th November 1918

Stinnes-Legien Agreement

-German employers accepted nationwide unions as legitimate workers organisations

-workers councils in plants with 50+ employees

-parity employment offices

-employers agreed to stop discrimination of union members and their support of house unions

-unions rejected radical socialist demands

22nd November 1918

Gov and Berlin workers and soldiers councils agreement that gov only exercised power in the name of these councils

KPD

-founded 1916

-became German Communist Party (KPD) 1919

-led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg

-5,000 members 1918

-joined Comintern 1919

USPD

-founded 1917

-minority group left of SPD

-leader Hugo Hasse

-300,000 members 1918

SPD

-founded 1875 as Marxist Socialist Party

-leaders Friedrich Ebert and Philip Scheidemann

-1912 largest party in Reichstag

-1m members 1918

-working-class voters

19th January 1919

elections held for new constituent assemblies

-newly elected gov Jan 1919 became Constituent Assembly and came up with Weimar Constitution

-

11th February 1919

New Constitution drawn up in Weimar by National Assembly creating Weimar Republic

-Ebert first President

-Scheidemann Chancellor in coalition gov with Z & democratic parties

June 1920

New elections under Weimar Constitution rules held

1932

36 parties in Reichstag

Article 48

make laws bypassing reichstag in emergencies

-Intended as safeguard

-Ebert used 136 times

-after 1930, parliamentary gov broke down and relied on it to pass legislation

General Hans von Seeckt

Commander of army 1920-1926

-believed army could interfere in politics whenever he saw fit

-seeked to restore Germany's military might

-worked to military alliance with USSR to destroy Poland

-deals with Red Army kept secret from politicians

Article 54

Guaranteed the independence of judges

Unreform of the judiciary

-judges gave Hitler easy time after Munich Putsch 1923

-political murders: 22LW, 354 RW

-sentenced to death: 10 LW, 0RW

-sentenced to severe punishment: 17LW, 1RW

January-June 1919

Paris Peace Conference - allied leaders meet and draw up the Treaty of Versailles

-Woodrow Wilson USA

-David Lloyd-George GB

-Georges Clemenceau France

-Vittorio Orlando Italy

28th June 1919

Treaty of Versailles signed by Bauer's gov

-only 7 days to sign: Diktat

Article 231

War Guilt Clause: Germany had to accept responsibility for starting the war

-£6.6bn in reparations to Allies

-hand over merchant shipping fleet

-railway locomotives and rolling stock

-patents

-overseas investments

20th June 1919

chancellor Scheidemann resigns over signing ToV

-replaced by Chancellor Bauer

10th January 1920

ToV became effective

Czechoslovakia and Poland

Germans living in non-German states

May 1919

ToV revealed to Germany

Freikorps

Free Corps, the paramilitary units composed of ex-soldiers which sprang up throughout Germany after 1918. This group of former soldiers helped the nationalist right to deal with the communist threat in the immediate aftermath of the First World War

-150 korps, 400,000 men

John Maynard Keynes

British economist who argued reparations were too high, max Germany could afford was £2bn

-would hamper economic recovery across the continent

1921

USA made separate peace treaty with Germany after WW1

-Wilson failed to win vote in Congress to ratify ToV

$1.44bn marks

German debt after WW1

Fehrenbach

Chancellor of Germany 25 June 1920 - 4 May 1921

-believed he was happy with inflation rising as lessened burdens of war debts

1.8%

unemployment in Germany 1921

-good compared to nearly 17% in Britain

new welfare state

-state health insurance extended to include wives, daughters and disabled

-aid to war veterans incapable of work due to injury increased

-national youth welfare act 1922 all local authorities should ensure children are protected and in education

£6.6bn

1921 Reparations Commission set 132bn gold marks to be paid back in annual payments

-6 days to accept (Diktat)

-Fehrenbach (Z) coalition gov collapsed May 1921 and Worth (Z) into power

January/February 1922

Germany granted a postponement by Reparations Commission of Allied Powers

July 1922

Germany requested postponement of reparations

November 1922

Germany asked for 500m gold mark loan and 3-4 years release from reparations payments

-French suspicious making excuses and led to Jan 1923 Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr to extract payment by force

11th January 1923

Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr

-60,000 troops (later 100,000)

-seized coal, steel and manufactured goods

-took control of railways, mines, factories, steelworks

-Chancellor Cuno called for passive resistance

passive resistance

-gov paid striking workers

-sabotage of infrastructure

-non-cooperation with French: not producing goods or paying reparations

-French set up military courts

-150,000 Germans expelled from region

-132 germans shot in 8 months, inc 7y/o boy

may 1923

coal deliveries 1/3rd of 1922 total

total output of Ruhr fell to 1/5 pre-occupation production

2x

total cost to Germany of ruhr occupation was _ annual reparation payments to allies

200bn

exchange rate of mark to $ Nov 1923

-Jan 1923 17,792

cost of bread

-0.29 marks 1913

-1,200 marks summer 1923

-428bn Nov 1923

cost of beef

-1.75 marks 1913

-18,800 marks summer 1923

-5.6trillion Nov 1923

1919

-law passed limiting the working day to max 8hours

-state health insurance extended to inc wives, daughters and disabled

-aid for war veterans incapable of work due to injury became responsibility of national Govs and aid for war widows and orphans increased

youth national welfare act 1922

all local authorities to set up youth offices with responsibility for child protection and decreed all children had the right to an education

Hugo stinnes

'king of the ruhr'

-owned German Luxemburg Mining Company

-owned Rhine Westphalian Electric Company

-deputy of DVP in Reichstag

-raised large bank loans 1923 and purchased whole forests to supply lumber to his mines

-empire of 150 newspapers and magazines, interests in railways and banks

29.3%

percentage of Germans in full employment by the end of 1923

autumn 1923

unrest, strikes, riots and looting by LW due to hyperinflation

KPD with USSR support planned to seize Saxony and launch national revolution

26th September 1923

Chancellor Gustav Stresemann ends passive resistance in the Ruhr

16%

percentage decline in coal production due to ToV

13%

percentage loss in agricultural land due to ToV

48%

percentage loss of iron ore due to ToV

May 1924 Election

KPD 12

SPD 21

Z 17

DDP 6

DVP 9

DNVP 19

NSDAP 7

=shows results quite split

1919-December 1924

SPD always highest share of votes

February 1919-November 1923

10 coalition Govs

March 1919 (7th)

Raterpublik in Bavaria

-open fighting on streets of Berlin to crush rebellion

-more than 500 killed

-Freikporps

spartacists revolt again in Berlin

Comintern

Communist International set up Moscow 1919 after Russian Revolution 1917

April 1919

Strikes in Halle and the Ruhr

1920

-attempts to seize power in Ruhr by 50,000 workers

-1,000 workers killed in Halle and Dresden

-disturbances in Saxony and Thuringia

1923

strikes in Saxony and Hamburg

12th March 1920

Kapp (Luttwitz) Putsch

-12,000 Freikorps marched on Berlin

-army troops would not fire against their own (RW)

-supported by Wolfgang Kapp (RW DNVP civil servant & politician) who wanted to seize power in Putsch

-Ludendorff and Seeckt non-committed to Kapp

-SPD-led Bauer gov fled

-Kapp Chancellor but fled after 4 days of paralysis in Berlin: army neutral, civil servants refused to work for new gov, left organised general strike

750

number of people who were ringleaders in Kapp Putsch

412

number granted amnesty (out of 750) after Kapp Putsch

285

number who had proceedings discontinued (out of 750) after Kapp Putsch

7

number who had their proceedings reviewed (out of 750) after Kapp Putsch

1

number punished after Kapp Putsch (out of 750)

Feb 1920

Noske (defence minister) ordered 2 Freikorps units to disband

-von Luttwitz (Freikorps leader) refused and his arrest ordered

-led to Kapp Putsch

Jan 1920

the gov began to meet terms of ToV

-reduced size of army

-disbanded some freikorps units

Organisation Consul

terrorist league - far right political assassinations to destabilise republic

-Walter Rathenau

-Matthias Erzberger

24th June 1922

assassination of Walter Rathenau by OC

-DDP, foreign minister and Jew

-participated in armistice and negotiated with allies over ToV terms

-over 1m attended funeral

26th august 1921

assassination of Matthias Erzberger by OC

-Z, former defence minister

-led delegation for signing of Armistice and signed ToV

-Germany's representative on reparations committee

376

number of political assassinations 1919-1923

-22 far left: 10 death sentence

-354 far right: 326 unpunished, 1 severely punished

1922

Organisation Consul banned by law by judges sympathetic to RW assassin's aims

12th August 1923-November 1923

'great coalition' gov led by Gustav Stresemann (DVP)

-SPD, DDP, Z, DVP

-ended passive resistance and tackled hyperinflation

-Stresemann foreign minister until death 3rd Oct 1929

October 1923

Stresemann took decisive action against KPD plans to seize control in Saxony

-army took control and RW's plan to use Gustav von Kahr (head of Bavarian state gov) to launch march on Berlin delayed

-except Hitler and Nazis: Munich Putsch

8th-9th November 1923

Munich (Beer Hall) Putsch

-Hitler's largely insignificant Nazis in Munich tried to move plans to march in Berlin forward by show of force

-Hitler secured Lundendorff's support

-thought had von Lossow's support (local army head) and von Kahr (Bavarian State Commissioner)

-police loyal to von Kahr and opened fire on Nazis

-14 Nazis and 4 police killed

-Hitler fled, arrested, imprisoned

Landsberg Prison

Where Hitler only served 9 months of 5 year sentence 1924-5

-minimum security prison

-provided a platform for Hitler

-Lundendorff arrested but acquitted

-Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in prison

103 days

Length of Stresemann's Chancellorship

-August 1923-Nov 1923

3rd October 1929

Gustav Stresemann dies

September 1923

End of passive resistance in the Ruhr and stopped paying striking workers wages

November 1923

Rentenmark to replace Reichsmark

-1 rentenmark: 1 trillion old marks

-no gold reserves so backed by all Germany's industrial assets

-tight control of money in circulation

August 1924

Rentenmark renamed Reichsmark and backed by gold equivalent to 30% of Reichsmark in circulation to prevent hyperinflation

Hjalmar Schacht

Reich Currency Commissioner 1923 and DDP co-founder and banker

-economic reforms under his direction

300,000

number of civil servants sacked early 1924 under Chancellor Wilhelm Marx who replaced Stresemann 30th November 1923

-taxes increased for individuals and companies

6,000

number of failed companies in 1924

-more than 1923

-due to economic reforms: balancing the budget (taxes increased for individuals and companies)

1923

genuine crisis that could have led to civil war with left/right over hyperinflation

-stabilised by Stresemann