1) Why did the Weimar republic surmount so many political challenges in the 1920s only to collapse by 1933?

Question 1

What types of reforms did Prince Max’s government make? and what were they?

Answer 1

constitutional reforms.
-it extended the vote to all men
-it made both the ministers and the army responsible to the government, not the Kaiser

Question 2

What happened on the 28th of October 1918 - the gov’s official inauguration day?

Answer 2

the navy refused to sail against the British fleet. This set off strikes and mutinies across Germany. Some saw the reforms as a cynical fake. Others focused on what was unchanged: the country was still at war and the Kaiser still ruled. Others, like the Spartacists, wanted a revolution like that in Russia. Workers and soldiers councils were set up. Some shared the communist ideals of Russian soviets. Others were less radical but wanted change.

Question 3

What did Prince Max urge the Kaiser to do after the events of the navy refusing to sail against the british fleet?

Answer 3

prince Max urged to press the Kaiser to abdicate. The Kaiser could not ignore his empire breaking up. He abdicated and fled to holland.

Question 4

What happened to Prince Max’s gov after the Kaiser abdicated?

Answer 4

his gov had to resign. It had lasted less than a month

Question 5

After Prince Max’s gov failed, when was the new gov set up? What was it called and who was it led by?

Answer 5

on 10 November 1918. It was called the Council of People’s Representatives. It was led by the socialist groups that held power in the Reichstag.

Question 6

Which were the most significant socialist groups in the Reichstag?

Answer 6

it was:
-the Social Democrats (SPD), led by Friedrich Ebert
-the Independent Social Democrats (USPD), led by Hugo Haase

Question 7

Who became the new chancellor of the gov?

Answer 7

Ebert, with a cabinet of USPD and SPD members

Question 8

What problems did the new gov face and what did this force Ebert to do?

Answer 8

the new gov faced all of the problems of the previous one, worsened by a month of disruption and unrest. This forced Ebert to make the Ebert-Groener Pact with the army.

Question 9

What was the Ebert-Groener Pact with the army?

Answer 9

it was that the army would support the gov as long as the gov opposed more left-wing ideas of parties in the Reichstag

Question 10

Could the SPD and USPD agree with the Ebert-Groener pact?

Answer 10

no they could not agree with the pact, let alone gain the wholehearted support of smaller parties

Question 11

What did Ebert want to arrange for?

Answer 11

He wanted to arrange for elections as soon as possible and leave any significant changes to the newly elected National Assembly that would write the new constitution.

Question 12

What did Haase want?

Answer 12

He wanted to start social and economic reforms at once, and wanted nothing to do with the army without reforming it first.

Question 13

With all these different wants, what steps did the gov take?

Answer 13

-their first move was to stop the war. On 11 November, Matthias Erzberger of the German delegation signed the armistice on behalf of the gov. The allies then told the Germans that they could not take part in any treaty negotiations.
-in the shadow of this humiliation, parties began to form and reform, trying to gain enough votes to have a voice in the new Reichstag. The gov also made some social reforms in the hope of improving the unsettled political and economic situation. It set an eight-hour working day, allowed independent trade unions, set up help for ex-soldiers to find work, and widened health and unemployment benefit.

Question 14

What did the gov fix on 19 December? and meanwhile, what was happening between the SPD and USPD?

Answer 14

it fixed elections for 19 January 1919. Meanwhile, the rift between the SPD and the USPD over how radical their policies should be became so great that its council members resigned.

Question 15

What did many USPD members do?

Answer 15

they joined the German Communist Party (KPD)

Question 16

When was the KPD set up?

Answer 16

in December 1918

Question 17

What were the Freikorps?

Answer 17

a private army made up of ex-soldiers, unemployed youths and other discontents and led by ex-officers and other former military personnel

Question 18

what did the Freikorps have units specially recruited for? and what did this show?

Answer 18

they had special units specially recruited to fight in the East against possible communist invasion. This showed how many Germans were petrified of the ‘Red Plague’ of communism spreading from Russia

Question 19

Who would attack KPD political meetings?

Answer 19

political meetings came under attack from the private armies of other political parties

Question 20

What broke out in Berlin in January 1919, and what did Ebert do as a response?

Answer 20

a Spartacist-led uprising broke out in Berlin in January 1919 and because of it, Ebert moved the government to the small town of Weimar for safety

Question 21

Who were the Spartacists?

Answer 21

a radical communist group led by Karl and Rosa, who wanted a worker’s revolution in Germany

Question 22

Who were asked to deal with the Spartacist Revolt?

Answer 22

the Freikorps
-the results were brutal
-Both Karl and Rosa were captured, beaten and then murdered

Question 23

Where was the government located for the 19 January elections?

Answer 23

the government was still in Weimar

Question 24

To an extent, why can it be said that this election was a success?

Answer 24

because 82.7% of electors voted, which showed people clearly wanted to take part in choosing the government

Question 25

What were the results in the elections for the SPD and what did it have to do?

Answer 25

the SPD did not get the majority it had hoped for and could therefore only govern by forming a coalition with other parties.

Question 26

Who did the SPD form a coalition with?

Answer 26

the SPD formed a coalition with the Centre Party and the German Democratic Party (DDP)

Question 27

What did other parties have?

Answer 27

they had seats in the Reichstag (and therefore a vote) but were not part of the government

Question 28

What was the most right wing of the major parties? What were its views and what did it want? and who were a large number of its members?

Answer 28

it was the German National Peoples Party (DNVP):
-it was conservative, nationalist and monarchist.
-it did not want social reform and disliked the idea of a republic, only grudgingly accepting it.
-it supported the army
-a large number of its members were wealthy landowners, and many of its members were anti-Semitic.

Question 29

What was the other significant, second last far right-wing group? What were its views and what did it want? and who were its members?

Answer 29

it was the Germans Peoples Party (DVP)
-this was a moderately conservative group, a new party restructured from the older National Liberals in 1919, under the leadership of Gustav Stresemann.
-it accepted, without really supporting, the republic.
-its members were mostly the wealthy industrial middle class who were not in favour of social reform but who wanted the economy to be fixed quickly so that business could go on.
-it was nationalist and supported the army

Question 30

What was the party that was between the 2 main right-wing groups and the 4 main left-wing groups? what views did this group have?

Answer 30

it was the Centre Party
-this was a long-established party, largely Catholic and included defending the Church in its policies.
-it drew in people from many social groups.
-it had conservative values but did advocate social reform.
-however, it was firmly against left-wing policies and fanatically opposed to communism.
-its election posters tended to show the horrors that communism would bring, and urged voters to vote so as to guard against communism

Question 31

What were the 4 major left-wing parties?

Answer 31

1) the German Democrats (DDP)
- this was a newly formed party of liberal, educated professionals who supported the idea of the republic as well as a more representative constitution.
- it was often part of a government coalition. Its members believed in social reform, including regulating industry to give workers a better deal, and in reforming the army
2) the Social Democrats (SDP)
- this was the largest party in the Reichstag from 1919 to 1929. It was a long established party that, despite its name, was not anti-monarchist before the war. However, in a split in 1917, the SPD shifted to a republican stance to keep its members, who increasingly favoured a republic.
- it was the party at the head of the new post-war government. SPD members believed in the republic and in moderate social reform, but no revolution. Immediately after the war, it attracted many worker’s groups.
- However, it also had a liberal, middle class following of people who wanted moderate reform. It was hampered in its desire for some social reforms by the high number of union members it needed to please.
3) the Independent social Democrats
- this group split from the SPD in 1917. It wanted a more radical system than the republic - Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were members of the USPD before forming the Spartacists.
- they stood for social reform that included creating a more equal society
4) the German Communist Party (KPD)
-This was set up in 1919.
-it wanted a workers revolution and the establishment of a communist state with the abolition of private ownership.
-it mainly attracted the young, poor and unemployed - holding out to them the promise of a future that was far better than any of the other parties had to offer

Question 32

Who was the first president of the Weimar Republic?

Answer 32

on 11 February, Ebert was elected first president of the Republic by 277 votes to 51

Question 33

When was the Weimar constitution finally passed?

Answer 33

the Weimar constitution was finally passed by the National Assembly on 31 July 1919

Question 34

What was signed on 28 June 1919?

Answer 34

the German delegation from the Weimar government signed the treaty of Versailles. They had no choice but to sign it.

Question 35

What was the consequence for the Weimar government having signed the treaty?

Answer 35

it made the government hugely unpopular because resentment of the treaty was widespread and many Germans thought that the war could have been won

Question 36

What elements of the treaty were most deeply resented?

Answer 36

they were the fact that Germany was not allowed to take part in negotiations, it was forced to accept responsibility for starting the war and it had to pay huge reparations

Question 37

What happened to all the soldiers the end of the war released?

Answer 37

they were recruited by almost all of the political parties to form private armies

Question 38

How many political parties were there in the Reichstag? and what was the problem with this?

Answer 38

On average, there were 29 different political parties. There were many since it only took 60,000 votes to gain a seat. It was very democratic, but it did not take into account that the more parties there were, the more difficult it was for the Reichstag to work effectively.

Question 39

Apart from having to many parties, what was another problem with the Reichstag?

Answer 39

another problem was that members moved between parties and some parties split altogether.
-for example, in 1920, the USPD split over policy and about half of the party left to join the KPD. Such shifts confused some voters.
-Adolf Hitler made the point early in his political career that voters needed a simple slogan, often repeated, and posters targeting particular groups to steer them through the minefield of voting. This was one reason his political party, the National Socialist German Workers party, won as many votes as quickly as it did.

Question 40

in addition to the sheer number of parties, what were the other problems with the constitution?

Answer 40

-the method of proportional representation meant that people voted for a party in one of 35 large electoral areas rather than for a particular person in their area, as they had done before the war. Their representative in the Reichstag was then chosen from the party list. If a member died or resigned, there was not a by-election to replace them. The next person on the list took their place. To many, it began to feel as if there were a lot of politicians buy none specifically interested in them.
-it was almost impossible for any party to have a majority in the Reichstag. All Weimar chancellors had to form governments from coalitions of parties. Between 1919 and the end of 1923, there were nine different short-lived coalitions and each party was focused almost entirely on what they could get out of the coalition, not how to best work together to govern. The different coalition parties did not have the same aims, so all gov’s spent a lot of time arguing out policies, even before laws could be presented in the Reichstag. When coalitions broke down, the chancellor had to ask the president to use Article 48 to rule by decree. As this was only intended for emergencies, it made it look as though the gov was in constant crisis.

Question 41

Was the Weimar government able to overcome its challenged?

Answer 41

despite its problems. the Weimar gov stayed in power, and between 1924 and 1929 it seemed to be overcoming its challenges.
-the Reichstag kept meeting and there was no need to resort to government by decree, despite the fact that some right-wing politicians had been pressing for this ever since Paul von Hindenburg had been elected president
– Hindenburg had been in the military high command during WW1 and had been a strong supporter of the Kaiser and imperial rule. Despite his swearing an oath to uphold the Constitution when elected, he really favoured a more authoritarian system of government

Question 42

Between 1924 and 1929, what was the German economy like? and who was this due to?

Answer 42

between 1924 and 1929, the German economy recovered and Germany reached agreements with other countries that began to restore its position abroad and undo some to the terms of the treaty of Versailles. This was largely due to the work of Gustav Stresemann, leader of the DVP, who was also one of the few politicians who urged parties to work together and managed to achieve this.

Question 43

Was Stresemann always supportive of the Republic?

Answer 43

Stresemann had initially been against the republic, but he changed his position when he saw the damage that party fighting was doing to Germany. He spoke against the ‘trust no one, betray everyone’ attitude between parties and was convinced that Germany needed a ‘great coalition’ of parties prepared to follow moderate policies despite their political differences.
-he also believed that economic recovery and peaceful relations with other countries were important for the stability of Germany’s political system - this was one of the reasons he was foreign minister for most of his time in gov

Question 44

When was Stresemann chancellor and when did he become foreign minister?

Answer 44

he was chancellor during 1923, then foreign minister until 1929

Question 45

What did Stresemann manage to hold together?

Answer 45

he managed to hold together a coalition of the DVP, the Centre Party, the SPD and the DDP for much of that time by forming working relations based on trust with the leaders of these parties often despite significant opposition from the more extreme groups in all parties.

Question 46

As the economy improved, what happened to social conditions?

Answer 46

social conditions stabilised and political violence died down

Question 47

When did Stresemann die?

Answer 47

1929

Question 48

What were the 3 reason for the collapse of the Weimar system?

Answer 48

-public feeling about the Weimar gov: The public had long disliked the association of the gov with the treaty of Versailles. From 1925, one of the ways it showed this dislike was in electing Paul von Hindenburg as president of the Republic. Hindenburg was the first to voice the ‘stab in the back’ theory about the treaty. This theory, which he must have known to be false, was that the German army could have won the war, but was stabbed in the back by the November Criminals. This theory contributed to the unpopularity of the Weimar gov. Hindenburg was now part of that gov, but his public popularity was due to his pre-republic position. His commitment to the gov was lukewarm at best. He was likely to favour government by decree and side-lining the Reichstag.
-economic problems and the government’s failure to deal with them: in 1929, the US economy was having problems when the Wall Street Crash in the USA led to a full-blown depression. US loans had helped to put the German economy back on its feet. Now the USA was calling in all of its loans and not lending any more. Prices rose rapidly, as did unemployment. Meanwhile wages fell. The gov failed to agree a policy to help the economy and as it argued and the situation worsened, support for the extremist political parties rose. The parties that benefited the most were the most extreme - the communists and the Nazis.
-Coalition failure: Hindenburg was not inclined to keep chancellors who could not get an agreement on policy, but changing chancellors made government even more haphazard. Parties found it harder and harder to work together and the SPD refused to take part in any more coalitions. Hindenburg was forced to fall back on governing by decree under Article 48; from July 1930 until the elections of 1932, 109 laws were created by the chancellor, Bruning, using his presidential decree and only 29 laws were passed by the Reichstag. There were three chancellors and several elections in an attempt to find a gov that would work

Question 49

Support for the Nazis in elections was boosted by what?

Answer 49

by the SA and its attack on political opponents