1. Weimar Germany 1918-1923

  • The German Revolution Of 1918:

    • Political change and confusion

      • The Kaiser was forced to abdicate and leave Germany (9th Novemver)

      • There was a temporaty government in place

      • There was a Communist group known as the Sparticists who wanted to over throw the temporary government

    • Social Disorder

      • There were riots and strikes

      • Widows and orphans were no longer lookked after by the Government

      • The British Navel Blockade meant that the Germany was cut off from the rest of the world and forced to produce their own suplies

      • People died of starvation

    • Denial + refusal to change beleifes

      • The temporary government sign the armastice which was met with some push back and some groups of people calling them the ‘November Criminals’ and a ‘stab in the back’

      • Senior members of the German armed forces claimed that Germany had been close to victory and surrender was unessesary

    • Causes of the 1918 Revolution

      • Military near-defeat of the battlefeild

      • The demands of the British and the French

      • Social and economic impacts of the war

    • Events

      • Chaos and disorder

      • The abdication of the Kaiser

    • Results

      • The end of the First World War

      • A new democratic constitution and the government - the Weimar Republic

      • New political ideas for Germany

      • A myth of betrayal of Germany by the ‘November Criminals’

  • The Weimar Constitution

    • The President is only elected every 7 years

    • Article 48 can be abused by the President and the Chancellor

    • Multipule parties can be elected and coalitions can lead to more disorder

    • The Chancellor is elected by the President

    • The new political system is more democratic

    • If article 48 is used correctly it can be very useful to take action fast to help the people that need it

    • Proportional representation allows extreamest parties or anti-weimar parties to be a part of the government

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution

Feature

Strengths

Weaknesses

Democratic

All people had the same rights in law, including the right to vote in elections

The republic faced serious opposition from people who did not want democracy to succeed. These people also had the right to vote for parties that wanted to destroy the democratic system

President’s role

A strong president could protect the country in times of crisis

The president is elected every 7 years - along time to have one person incharge if they abuse their power

Chancellor’s role

The chancellor needed a majority in the Reichstag, so their appointment was democratic

The chancellor is elected by the President which could give them both too much power. Lots of change in chancellors can have to balence parliment and the president

Proportional representation

A range of German veiws are represented in government which leads to a high voting turnout

Proportional representation led to many small political parties in parliament. No single party could get a majority so parties had to form coalitions. This lead to weak and unstable governments.

Article 48

In times of unrest this could be used to make laws so that government could continue

Lead to an abuse of power and less democracy

States’ rights

Spesific areas ar eable to be represented e.g a state of farmic can pass laws and opinions that specificaly and directly benifit their community

Individual states can oppose to the national government and try to remove it

Direct challenges left and right:

The Spartacist uprising, January 1919

The Kapp Putsh, March 1920

Who were they and what did they want?

They were a group of far left wing communists.

A millitary group of far right winged nationalists. Lots of them were members of the Freikorps lead by Wolfgan Kapp. They wanted to overthrow the Weimar and establish a right winged dictatorship

Why did they rebel at that point in time (any triggers)?

As the Government was temporary, they saw an oppertunity to take power

Becuse they wanted the government to stop demobolising the Freikorps

What did they do to try and gain power?

On 5th January the Sparticists captured the headquarters of the governments newspaper, but they did not capture any other buildings.

On march 13 1920, they seased control of Berlin. This led to the Weimar government to flee.

How did Ebert and the Weimar Government deal with them?

They had easily crushed the Sparticists and on 10 January they took over the Sparticists head quarters. 100 Sparticists were killed compared to 13 Freikorps. Most importantly the leaders, Rosa Luxenburg and Kar Liebknecht were murdered. Over the next 4 months, thousands more supporters were killed.

There was a general strike for workers accross the country called for by the government in exile. This lead to the defeat of the Kapp Putsch in days

How serious a challenge were they to the new republic?

They were a very serious threat and Ebert put his government in a very serious position as he required the help of the army and the Freikorps, neither of which could be trusted. And he had also undermined the position of the social democrats as the representitives of the working class.

They were a threat becuase they were mostly ex-militaty so had a good army. They had much right-winged support. The army supported the Kapp so were a big military threat.