Weimar germany

The Impact of the First World War

Pre-war:
• Kaiser celebrated for achievements
• Finest army in the world
• Prospering businesses
• Well - educated and well-fed workforce

Germany 1918:
• The proud German army had been defeated
• People surviving on turnips and bread - flour mixed with sawdust to make it go further
• A flu epidemic was sweeping the country

Economic:
• National income 1/3 of 1913 levels
• 600 000 widows & 2 million children without fathers
• 2/3 amount of goods produced as in 1913
• 50% of milk produced
• 300 000 die of starvation and hypothermia

Social:
• 1 1/2 million demobilised troops returned to the streets
• Huge disparity between the rich and poor
• Workers bitter about pay restrictions and the increasingly wealthy factory owners
• Angry about the loss of war - unrest where there once was order and discipine

Political:
• Opposition from the left and the right - revolution October-November 1918
• Belief in the stab-in-the-back theory and the betrayal of Field Marshal Hindenburg by weak politicians

The Birth of the Weimar Republic

• Allies said Germany must abdicate the Kaiser and become a democracy

• The Kaiser refused, so socialists led an uprising, and took over keil

• On the 9th November 1918 Kaiser abdicates & leaves for Netherlands

• Ebert new leader of the Republic of Germany

• He immediately signed the armistice and drew up a new constitution

The Weimar Constitution

• Run by president Freidrich Ebert
• Bill of Rights - protects president and provides all with equality before the law
• Article 48 - The president can use article 48 to gain emergency powers
• All Germans over 20, including woman, could vote
• There was a system of proportional representation
• Ebert controls the armed forces

Impact of the Treaty Of Versailles on Germany

Political:

• nationalists and Hitler called the government “November criminals”

• Believed the politicians commited a “Dolchshtoss”

Economic:

• lost 16% of coal production and 10% of manufacturing

• Reparations of £6.6 bil → unable to pay 2nd installment in 1922

• Jan 1923 30,000 Belgian groups invaded the Rhur

• Government made workers strike and printed more money → hyperinflation

Territorial:

• lost- Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland

• All its oversea collinies in China and Africa went to the UN

Threats from the Left

• Left-wing opponents of the Weimar constitution believed that Germany needed a communist revolution as in Russia 1917

Spartacists Revolt:
• January 1919
• Spartacists launch their bid for power - similar to Lenin's Bolsheviks in Russia
• Led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg
• Joined by rebel sailors and soldiers
• Set up soviets in many towns
• Freikorps (ex-soldier anti-communist vigilante groups) win bitter street fighting and quash the attempt at gaining power

Threats from the Right

• Right Wing-opponents wanted a return to the Kaiser's strong, dictatorial style of government

Kapp Putsch:
• March 1920
• Wolfgang Kapp leads 5000 Friekorps into Berlin
• The army refuse to fire on the Freikorps
• Support for the Weimar proved to be stronger than first suspected
• Industrial workers declared a strike, cutting off water, power and transport
• Eventually this caused the defeat of the rebellion 3 days later

Munich Putsch

Treaty of Versailles

The Weimar republic was blamed for the Treaty of Versailles as Ebert signed the armistice. Many believed the German army had been 'stabbed in the back' by Socialist and liberal politicians

• 10% of land
• 12.5% of population
• 16% of coalfields
• Nearly half of iron and steel industry
• All colonies

Economic disaster & The Ruhr

• In 1922 Germany failed to pay their reparations installment
• In January 1923 French and Belgian troops marched into the Rhineland to take what they were owed in the form of material goods
• The government ordered the workers to respond with passive resistance -they stopped producing goods for the forces to take
• The French reacted harshly killing over 100 workers and 100 000 protesters from the region

Hyperinflation

• Passive resistance worsened the economic situation
• Germany had no income but had to pay war debts
• In order to pay the government simply began printing money
• Money was soon worthless, workers carried their wages in wheelbarrows daily
• Savings were worth nothing - the price of a house in 1921 was the price of bread in 1923

How did Germany recover from hyper inflation?

• In August 1923 a new government under Gustav Stresemann took over
• He called off the passive resistance
• He called in and burnt the worthless marks and replaced them with the new currency - Rentenmark
• He negotiated the Dawes and Young Plans
• The economic crisis was solvde quickly

• Exports & Imports increase

• Wages for industrial workers rose

The Dawes plan

1924 - reduced the reparations payments to $50 mil per year for 5 years

The young plan

1929 - reduced reparations from £6.6 billion to 1.8 billion, and extended the period time of payments to 59 years

The Weimar under Stresemann: Economic problems

• Stability was based on loans that could be withdrawn at any point

• Big landowners - the value of land increased by 700%
• Big businesses - owned half of the iron and steel industry
Whilst
• Peasant farmers overproduced and could not afford mortgages with the lower demand for food
• Small shops and businesses were threatened by large department stores
• 1913 - University lecturer earned ten times as much as a coal miner
• 1920's - University lecturer only earns twice as much

The Weimar under Stresemann: Cultural Improvements

• Censorship removed
• Writers and poets flourish - particularly in Berlin
• Artists inspired by the war - George Grosz paints 'pillars of society' and portrays a realistic view of war and society
• Bauhaus design college opens in Dessau - the first display attracted 15 000 visitors
• Cinema gains popularity - star actress Marlene Dietrich and producer Fritz Lang
• 900 dance bands in Berlin

The Weimar under Stresemann: Cultural problems

• The Bauhaus design college had been forced out of Berlin
• Many saw Weimar culture as immoral and supported the policy of 'Wandervogel' - a return to traditional values
• Cities represented a moral decline - made worse by American immigrants and Jewish artists and musicians

The Weimar under Stresemann: Foreign Policy Improvements

• Lorcano Treaty (1925) - Germany accepts Western borders
• 1926 Germany joins the League
• The Dawes Plan (1924) & The Young Plan (1929) - shows other nations working together to lessen the burden of reparations on Germany
• British, French and Belgian troops removed from the Rhineland

Locarno pact

Signed by Germany, France, Belgium, Britain, Italy - December 1925

• Germany accepted its new borders with France.

• France pledged peace with Germany; it would not occupy Germany again.

• Germany accepted its new borders with Belgium

• Belgium pledged peace with Germany.

• It was agreed the Rhineland would be permanently demilitarised.

The Weimar under Stresemann: Foreign Policy problems

• Joining the League of Nations and signing The Lorcano treaty was seen as the government accepting the terms of The Treaty of Versailles
• Communists saw the Lorcano treaty as a plot against the government in the USSR
• British and French troops still occupied part of the West Bank of the Rhineland

The Weimar under Stresemann: Political Improvements

• No more significant political uprisings post 1923
• Nazi's gained just 3% of the vote and was a fringe party
• Hindenburg, opponent of democracy, signs an oath to withhold it
• By 1928 - moderate parties had 136 more seats than radical parties

The Weimar under Stresemann: Political Problems

• 4 chancellors
• Communists and Nazi's gaining support in rural areas & building up their parties - quiet not destroyed
• 30% of the vote regularly goes to radical parties
• Hindenburg, opponent of democracy, voted president 1926