The Growth of Political Extremism

0.0(0)
studied byStudied by 0 people
learnLearn
examPractice Test
spaced repetitionSpaced Repetition
heart puzzleMatch
flashcardsFlashcards
Card Sorting

1/7

flashcard set

Earn XP

Description and Tags

Study Analytics
Name
Mastery
Learn
Test
Matching
Spaced

No study sessions yet.

8 Terms

1
New cards

The challenge from the left

  • 5 Jan 1919 - Sparticist Revolt led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in Berlin

  • However revolt was poorly supported and poorly prepared - Sparticists were crushed by Jan 13 by Groener’s Freikorps

  • Rosa and Karl were executed

  • Workers who helped overthrow the Kaiser became frustrated that the Republic was more wiling to compromise with the right

  • Newly established KPD attempted to start a communist revolution - but didn’t have the support

  • There were 5 proper left-wing risings from March 1919-1923

2
New cards

Extent of a threat from the left

  • Left had bad co-ordination - all their attacks on Weimar weren’t largely unified

  • Poor leadership - extreme left suffered at the hands of the Freikorps

  • Concessions - Kapp Putsch repression - authorities repressed rebels brutally

  • ‘White Terror’ Kurt Eisner took political lead of Red Bavaria, but was assassinated on 21 Feb 1919 - Freikorps crushed the republic with 1,000 deaths in May 1919

  • ‘Red threat’ used to describe anyone sympathetic to the left

3
New cards

The challenge from the right

  • Posed a more major threat to the Weimar Government

  • Right had been hostile to the Republic from the start since they didn’t believe in democracy and accused the politicians now leading Germany of betraying the Fatherland

  • However since each right-wing group had differing objectives this weakened the ability of right-wing groups overthrowing the Republic

4
New cards

The Kapp Putsch, 1920

  • Terms of Versailles meant that some of the Freikorps units had to be disbanded

  • Defence Minister Noske ordered 2 units to disband, but General von Luttwitz, the commanding general refused the disbanding of one of the units, resulting in his arrest being ordered

  • Luttwitz then marched his troops on Berlin in protest, supported by Wolfgang Kapp who wanted to organise a putsch

  • Kapp and Luttwitz were forced to flee Berlin after Ebert’s government called a workers strike on Berlin - meaning they couldn’t take over Berlin without water, gas or electricity

  • The putsch showed not to trust the army, civil servants can be disloyal, and the Weimar Government was weak without the army’s support, suggesting the government was not truly in control

5
New cards

Political assassinations

  • Assassination groups were formed out of the old Freikorps units

  • Some were actively supported by members of the regular German army

  • One of their first victims was Hugo Haase, a USPD member

6
New cards

Assassination of Erzberger

  • Former finance minister

  • Assassinated in August 1921

  • Assassinated by members of terrorist league Organisation Consul (formed from ex-Freikorps after their units disbanded after the failed Kapp Putsch)

  • Erzberger signed the Treaty of Versailles

7
New cards

Assassination of Rathenanu

  • 24 June 1922

  • Foreign minister

  • His ‘crimes’ were being a Jew and a leading minister in the republican government

  • Assassinated by the Organisation Consul

  • His assassination however resulted in over 700,000 protesters in Berlin

  • Had participated in the signing of the armistice

8
New cards

The political impact of the Ruhr Invasion

  • Germans of all classes and political stances were outraged

  • Trauma of hyperinflation - Germany swept with an anti-French feeling and was more united than at any time since the end of the war

  • However many blamed the government for the Ruhr invasion and middle-class support for the republic was damaged

  • On the left, the Communists tried to use the crisis to stage uprisings

  • On the right, they accused the government of betrayal

  • The Ruhr occupation, and the hyperinflation crisis were what drove the newly / small NSDAP party to attempted to overthrow the Republic in 1923