4 - Key People Flashcards
1
Q
Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919)
A
a lawyer by profession, was the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the founding members of the SPD in 1875. He thus had a thorough grounding in socialist politics in his youth. As a committed Marxist, he adopted a strong anti-war position in 1914 and continued to agitate against the war, for which he was imprisoned in 1916. Released in November 1918 in an amnesty for political prisoners, he resumed his political activities as one of the leading figures in the revolutionary Spartacus League. During the Spartacist rising in January 1919, he was captured by the Freikorps, tortured and then shot in the back on the pretext that he was trying to escape.
2
Q
Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919)
A
was born in Russian Poland but became a German citizen after marrying Gustav Lubeck. She had a long career in revolutionary politics in both Russia and Germany, having been involved in the 1905 Russian Revolution. In Germany, she was imprisoned in 1916 for her involvement in anti-war agitation but was released in November 1918 under an amnesty for political prisoners. She resumed her revolutionary activities and was a leading figure in the Spartacus League. During the Spartacist rising in January 1919, she was captured by the Freikorps, beaten and then shot. Her body was thrown into a canal.
3
Q
Gustav Noske (1868-1946)
A
was a journalist by profession and a leading member of the SPD. He played a key role in 1918 in persuading the mutinying Kiel sailors to end their revolt and was appointed Minister of Defence in the new republican government. As such, he was responsible for using the army and Freikorps to suppress the Spartacist revolt and later left- wing revolts. After the failure of the Kapp Putsch, he was forced to resign as Minister of Defence because of pressure from trade unions.
4
Q
General Walther von Luttwitz (1859-1942)
A
was an army general who had commanded forces on the Western Front in the war. In 1919, he was appointed Commander- in-Chief of the army in Berlin and was also in charge of the Freikorps. As an outspoken opponent of the Treaty of Versailles, he became the driving force behind the Kapp Putsch. After the failure of the putsch, he escaped to Hungary but returned to Germany in 1924 after being granted an amnesty.
5
Q
Wolfgang Kapp (1868-1922)
A
had trained in law and worked as a civil servant. He was attracted to right- wing politics and co-founded the Fatherland Party in 1917. He was a monarchist and in 1919 was elected to the Reichstag for the nationalist DNVP. He attempted a putsch in 1920 and tried to set himself up as Chancellor but, after its failure, he fled to Sweden. He returned to Germany in 1922 but died in Leipzig whilst awaiting trial.
6
Q
Hugo Hasse (1863-1919)
A
was a Jewish lawyer who had become a leading figure in the SPD before 1914. His anti-war stance alienated him from the majority of the party and in 1917 he took a leading role in forming the breakaway USPD. During the revolution of November 1918, he joined with the Majority SPD in setting up a new government but resigned in December in protest at the armed suppression of a sailors' revolt in Berlin.
7
Q
Matthias Erzberger (1875-1921)
A
had entered the Reichstag as a deputy for the Centre Party in 1903. He had supported the Peace Resolution of 1917 and became a member of Prince Max's government in 1918. He led the German delegation to sign the armistice and had signed the Versailles Treaty on behalf of the German government in 1919. He was Reich finance minister from June 1919 to March 1920 and had carried out a major reform of the German taxation system. He had been subject to frequent attacks in the Conservative press and was a prime target for assassination.
8
Q
Walther Rathenau (1867-1922)
A
was a physicist and chemist by training and head of AEG Electricals. He entered politics as a Liberal. In 1919, he joined the DDP and became Minister of Reconstruction in 1921, then foreign minister in 1922. He recommended the fulfilment of the Treaty of Versailles.
9
Q
Gustav Stresemann (1878-1929)
A
was the leader of the DVP party. Although a monarchist at heart, he came round to working with republican parties in the Weimar Republic and became Chancellor in the Grand Coalition of 1923. He was responsible for the introduction of a new currency and the ending of hyperinflation but was forced to step down as Chancellor in November. Nevertheless, he continued to serve as foreign minister from 1923 until his death in 1929.
10
Q
Gustav Ritter von Kahr (1862-1934)
A
was a right-wing Conservative politician
was Minister-President (1920-21) of the right-wing government in
ria. He stepped down after disagreements with the Reich government
n 1923, he was appointed State-Commissioner General and given wide
rs by the Munich government. He favoured a strong Bavarian state with
n monarchy and he had hoped to use the Nazi Party to this end. However,
igh sympathetic to Hitler, he was an unwilling participant in the Beer Hall
h of November 1923. He spent the rest of his career as president of the
in administrative court, but was murdered in 1934 during Hitler’s ‘Night of the Long Knives’
11
Q
Otto von Lossow (1868-1938)
A
was the commander of the Reichswehr in Bavaria. He was a staunch Conservative and favoured a strong national state. He refused to obey orders from the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin and only obeyed instructions from von Kahr, with whom he was plotting to establish a new regime in Berlin. However, he was ready to be patient (unlike Hitler) and how convinced he really was by Hitler's attempted putsch is not known.
