Weimar Germany/Hitler Rise to Power

1918

1918

• Proposed peace on strict conditions – Germany had to be more democratic

• When Kaiser refused, sailors in North Germany mutinied and took over town of Kiel (triggered other revolts and uprisings)

• Kaiser left Germany November 1918

• Spring Offensive successful against French and British (March)

• Unrest in Kiel (October)

• Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates (November 9)

• Armistice WWI (November 11)---the new government (the Weimar government) signs the armistice

• Freikorps: ex-soldiers disillusioned by the new government, extremely right-wing group

1919

• June 28: Germany signs TOV

• Naval blockade of Britain on Germany ends

• Spanish Flu pandemic ends

• Spartacists (Bolsheviks extreme left-wing) try to overthrow, are all killed

1920

• Freikorps: ex-soldiers led by Wolfgang Kapp, disillusioned by the new government, extremely right-wing group—-wanting to overthrow Weimar Republic and ignore TOV

• Kapp Putsch in March

  • Dr. Wolfgang Kapp led 5000 Freikorps into Berlin

  • Army refused to fire against own – seemed like govt. doomed 

  • Declared general strike which brought capital to a halt – 1.2 million on strike caused a lack of transportation, power and water in city

  • After a few days, Kapp realised he could not succeed & left

1922

• Ebert’s FM Walther Rathenau killed amidst not being able to control unrest
  

• First installment of TOV reparations paid in 1921 (50M)

• In 1922 the French got nothing
  

• Rapallo Treaty signed, Germany fully recognized Soviet government and improved relations with the USSR and both denounced reparations

  • Encouraged Britain to try and get Germany on their side instead of alienating them

1923

• So French occupied Ruhr as compensation:

  • Not nice to Germans so Germans go on strike

  • Central Weimar government prints more money to support, but this kickstarts the hyperinflation we see later

• Hitler, Ludendorff and others lead Munich/Beer Hall Putsch to overthrow Weimar Republic:

  • Kills 14 people and is arrested

  • Sentenced 5 years to prison, but only served 8 months, write Mein Kampf around this time

1924

• Dawes Plan:

  • Lent money to Germany to repay French

  • Reparations were to be guaranteed by two mortgages, one o German railways and the second on German industries (supplemented by taxation on the German population)

  • US ‘Reparations agent’ would reside in Germany to supervise repayments

  • Repayments were to be reduced

  • ‘Golden Age’ of the Weimar Republic starts

1925

• Hindenburg becomes president of Germany

• Not a dictator since he could be outvoted

• Was loved by the people but himself didn’t particularly like the Weimar Republic

• Was invalidating the Weimar Republic
  

• Locarno Pact signed, improving relations with France and Britain

• Locarno Era: so Germany rehabilitates and joins the League of Nations (around 1925-26)

1928

• Great Depression starts

• Ends the ‘golden age’ of the Weimar Republic

• US takes back lent money form Germany

  • Crippling their economy
    

• Nazi party, 2.83% of the total parliamentary vote, 12 seats in parliament

• Kellogg-Briand Pact signed

1929

• October wall street crash happened

• The undoing of the Dawes Plan, all money taken back and Germany couldn’t cope
  

• The ‘Grand Coalition’, formed under Chancellor Müller in 1928, seemed powerless as unemployment soared from 2 million in 1929, to 4.5 million in 1931 and nearly 6 million in 1932

• US unemployment went to 10 million, the world witnessed near economic failure

1930

• Nazis kept the pressure

• Demanded for justice, discipline and sacrifice, encouraged action over talk

• Nazis gained 107 seats in parliament in Reichstag elections in September, a huge increase from the previous 12 seats in 1928

• Hindenburg wins against Hitler for presidency, Hitler knew he would fail, however he just wanted more attention, which he got from the election

1932

Reichstag election

• Nazis had 230 seats in parliament in July

• Hitler refused the offer from Hindenburg of ‘vice Chancellorship’

• He only wanted top job

Another Reichstag in In November of the same year they lost seats until they had 196, probably because people were tired of the Nazis

1933

• Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Chancellor (January) (ARTICLE 53), mainly due to the fact that although HIndenburg did not fancy Hitler, he couldn’t find a more suitable candidate, all the others had already tried and failed:

  • Chancellors Heinrich Brüning (March 1930– May 1932), Franz von Papen (June 1932–November 1932) and Kurt von Schleicher (December 1932–January 1933)
    

• (February) Reichstag Fire:

  • Allegedly, Dutch person from Delft set fire to the parliamentary building

  • Hitler blamed this on the communists

  • Hitler enables the Enabling Act (ARTICLE 48): Hindenburg then took control over article 48 of the constitution which would declare Germany under a state of emergency allowing him to appoint chancellors

  • This gave Hitler ‘special powers’ to defeat the communists whom he blamed for the Reichstag fire

• Weimar republic is ‘gone’ by now

• (April) Starts boycotting Jewish businesses

1934

• Night of Long Knives (Röhm Purge) - 30 June to 2 July

  • A series of executions of SA leaders by Adolf Hitler to consolidate his power, including that of Röhm, one of Hitler’s long time supporters and allies, and one of the leaders of the SA, the paramilitary organization within the Nazi Party

  • Hitler feared a coup happening, and for that reason called the execution

  • Hitler saw the independence of the SA and the tendency of its members for street violence as a direct threat to his newly gained political power.

  • Also wanted to appease leaders of the Reichswehr, the German military, who feared and despised the SA as a potential rival

    • particularly because of Röhm's ambition to merge the army and the SA under his own leadership

• Hindenburg dies, Hitler comes to power and overthrows the Weimar Republic with the Nazi party

• Hindenburg’s funeral was grand and was used as Nazi propaganda

• Doesn’t hold elections and becomes the Führer (leader), and had everyone swear an oath on him, not on parliament or the government, but on him, solidifying his power