booklet 2 Flashcards
1914
4th August: SPD shows support for the war.
Kaiser acclaims German unity in speech to the Reichstag.
1914
December: Liebknecht becomes the first SPD member to oppose German involvement in the war.
1916
August: ‘silent dictatorship’ of Hindenburg and Ludendorff established as supreme political power in Germany.
1916-17
Turnip winter - Germany undergoes severe famine.
1917
April: 200,000 Berlin workers strike against worsening conditions in Germany.
USPD founded by breakaway members of the SPD.
United states declares war on Germany and her allies.
1917
July: Centre party leader Erzberger calls for an end to German involvement in the First world war.
Bethmann-Hollweg is forced to resign as chancellor and is replaced by George Michaelis.
1917
October: Radical communist Bolshevik party seizes power in Russia.
1918
January: 1 million workers strike in Germany.
1918
March: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ends the war between Germany and Russia. Russia lost considerable land in Eastern Europe.
1918
August: War turns decidedly against Germany.
1918
29th September: Ludendorff informs Kaiser Wilhelm 2nd that Germany has lost the war.
1918
3rd October: Prince Max of Baden becomes chancellor with a government appointed from Reichstag members for the first time.
29th October: Kiel Mutiny breaks out.
1918
7th November: Socialists (under Kurt Eisner) seize power in Bavaria and declare it an independent socialist republic.
9th November: Prince Max announces the abdication of the Kaiser and hands power to the SPD leader, Friedrich Ebert.
10th November: SPD/USPD coalition forms the new government of Germany and Ebert signs the Ebert-Groner pact.
15th November: Stinnes-Legien agreement signed between union leaders and industrialists.
1919
1st January: Spartacist uprising begins but is crushed by the Freikorps withing 2 weeks.
19th January: first democratic elections take place.
1919
April: Freikorps crush communist republic in Bavaria.
