1919-1923 Flashcards
Problems
Legacy of WWI
November criminals signed the armistice to end the war
Stab in the back myth
Treaty of Versailles
Inflation
Treaty of Versailles
Army restricted 100,000 men 6 battleships, no subs or airforce Lost 13% of territory 12% living in foreign occupation Rhineland demilitarised Kicked out of League of Nations Reparations
Lack of public support
1919 produced majority for pro-Weimar parties
1920 saw votes slump to 45%
Not wholehearted support
Threat from extreme left
Spartacist uprising
Socialist rebellion
Crushed by the freikorps
Leaders Luxembourg and liebknecht were executed
Widespread strikes
Red Bavaria
USPD leader in Bavaria assassinated by right wing student
Triggered a revolution
Bavarian soviet republic declared
Raised a red army
Friekorps dissolved it and killed over 1,800 communists
Threat from extreme right
Kapp putsch
Army said troops do not fire on troops
Kapp seized Berlin
Putsch collapsed by itself from SPD general strike
Munich putsch
Led by Hitler
Went into Munich beer ball and demanded for a march on Berlin
Politicians warned the army of the plans
The Bavarian police easily crushed the putsch
354 assassinations carried out by right wing, 22 from left
1923
Inflation and reparations
Increase money supply to pay for reparations
Mark declined in value
Wartime shortages caused price rises
Government had to support war widows, injured war veterans and demobilised solider
1922 government sought to suspend their reparations but were refused permission
1923 Germany was failing to meet all reparations
Ruhr crisis
Belgium and France occupied the Ruhr in order to gain money for the reparations
German workers followed s policy of passive resistance
Government paid workers lost revenue for the resistance which heightened inflation
Hyperinflation
Due to the Ruhr crisis inflation heightened
MArk was now worthless
1923 300 paper mills and 150 printing presses worked 24 hours a day to print money
Dec 1923 1 US dollar was equivalent to 4.2 trillion marks
Survival
Weakness of Weimar’s opponents
Poor leadership and planning of attempted putsches
Spartacists didn’t carefully plan their take over
Munich putsch Hitler seemed indecisive and procrastinated over night to launch the coup
Lack of public support
Spartacists only had around 15,000 members
700,000 people demonstrated over the murder of walther rathenau 1922
Survival
Leaders
Ebert
Ruled under article 48 for Munich putsch
Led freikorps to crush spartacists uprising and red Bavaria
Stresemann
Fufillment
1923 French were removed from the Ruhr
Cut government spending - 700,000 state employees were sacked
Dawes plan and young plan
Rentenmark
New currency was worth 1 trillion of the old
Survival
Other factors
Army and elites
Freikorp
Support from international
Dawes and young plan
USA
