CHAPTER 1: Germany 1918-1945 (Lacey Shephard)

The effects of the First World War

• The Ludendorff Offensive in early 1918, led to celebration in Germany as their troops were finally advancing through Belgium and France again.
• However, the USA had entered the war in 1917 and their soldiers and weapons were strengthening the Allied forces, meaning Germany was soon pushed back again.
• In June 1918, the Ludendorff Offensive came to a halt.
• In August 1918, the Allies launched a counter attack and in September 1918 it was clear that Germany would have to surrender.
• This quick reversal of fortune meant that many German people simply couldn’t understand the need for surrender.
• Effects of WWI: ==Physical== (Germans faced starvation and disease), ==Political== (Germany was ruled as a military dictatorship by the Kaiser which weakened the Reichstag and public opinion), ==Psychological== (Germans lost hope and became bitter and angry) and ==Anarchy== (Germany became incredibly unstable).

Getting rid of the Kaiser after the war

• One of the conditions for peace was that the Germans got rid of the Kaiser but he refused to abdicate.
• ==25th October 1918:== The Kiel Mutiny (naval commanders sent out their shops to fight the British one last time)
• ==26th October-5th November 1918:== Strikes and demonstrations against the Kaiser
• ==6th November 1918:== Soldiers’ and workers’ councils take control of many cities
• ==7th November 1918:== Social Democrat leaders sent an ultimatum to the Kaiser saying that unless he abdicated, they’d join the revolution too.
• ==9th November 1918:== General strike in Berlin and the Social Democrats announced the abdication of the Kaiser.
• ==10th November 1918:== Kaiser Wilhelm fled into exile in Holland
• ==11th November 1918:== The armistice is signed

Who would control Germany afterwards?

• The left-wing revolutionaries: They wanted a real revolution like the Russian Revolution that had taken place a year earlier and wished to seize power from the Social Democrats
• The Social Democrats: For them, the abdication of the Kaiser was the end of the revolution and certainly didn’t want a Bolshevik-style revolution.

The Spartacist rising: January 1919

• On the 5th of January the Spartacists captured the headquarters of the government’s newspaper and the telegraph bureau.
• However, it was badly planned, and they didn’t get any support from other left-wing groups.
• Due to this, it was easily crushed by Freikorps soldiers, who killed 100 Spartacists.
• Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, were also murdered, ending the Spartacist movement.
• Over the next couple of months, Freikorps soldiers killed thousands more Communist supporters, leading to many Germans to question President Ebert’s measures and a low level of support and trust in the government as many found them too brutal.

Who was to blame for the murder of Rosa Luxemburg?

• After Rosa and Karl were arrested, they were interrogated at the Freikorps’ headquarters
• As they left the headquarters after their interrogations, they were hit on the head by a rifle butt and dragged into separate cars.
• Karl Liebknecht was forced out of the car and then shot for trying to escape.
• Rosa Luxemburg was shot by Lieutenant Vogel and her body was thrown into a canal.
• President Ebert was outraged by these events and ordered an investigation into these murders.
• Lieutenant Vogel was convicted of failing to report a death and soon crossed over the Dutch border with a fake passport to escape a prison sentence.

Why did the Germans hate the Treaty of Versailles so much?

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