Chapter 1

Question 1

The abdication of the Kaiser

Answer 1

• At 1:30pm on 9th November 1918, in a house adjacent to the German army headquarters in Spa, Belgium, Kaiser Wilhem II of Germany was brought the news that his abdication had been announced in Berlin
• by 5:00pm in the afternoon, he had been forced to accept what had happened

Question 2

what did the Kaiser’s companions advise him to do following his abdication
What did the Kaiser do

Answer 2

• his companions advised him that his only hope of safety was to travel northwards into Holland, which had remained neutral during the war which Germany had been waging on the Western Front for the last four years against the British and the French
• However, Wilhelm was uncertain what to do
• It was not until just before dawn on 10th November, that a convoy of 10 cars, including the Kaiser’s with it’s royal insignia removed, set off to the Dutch border at Eysen
• Here, the royal party was kept waiting for 6 hours while the Dutch authorities decided what should happen to such an important visitor, but eventually they were allowed to continue by special train

Question 3

What did Wilhelm say to the German ambassador when they met the next day

Answer 3

• he complained “I am a broken man. How can I begin life again? My prospects are hopeless. I have nothing left to believe in”
• However, as Europe celebrated the armistice on 11th November 1918, Wilhelm sat down to ‘a good cup of English tea’ at his new residence

Question 4

When did Germany decide to ask for an armistice

Answer 4

• By the end of September 1918 it had been clear to General Ludendorff and the German High Command that Germany was on the brink of defeat
• Although the allied armies had not yet entered German territory, German forces were in retreat along the Western Front
• Elsewhere in Europe, Germany’s allies were trying to negotiate peace terms
• Ludendorff concluded that Germany’s only hope of avoiding a humiliating surrender was to ask the Allies for an armistice

Question 5

How did Ludendorff try to get better peace terms from the Allies

Answer 5

• US president Wilson’s fourteen points offered a possible basis for a negotiated peace settlement
• but Ludendorff understood that Germany’s autocratic political system was an obstacle to this
• He, therefore, advocated a partial democratisation of the political system in Germany as a way of getting better peace terms from the Allies

Question 6

The October Reforms

Answer 6

In October following the recommendations of Ludendorff, the Kaiser began a series of reforms that effectively ended his autocratic rule:
- he appointed Prince Max of Baden as his new chancellor
- the chancellor was to be responsible to the Reichstag and he established a new government based on the majority parties in the Reichstag, including the German Social Democratic Party (SPD)
- The armed forces were put under the control of the civil government

Question 7

Effect of the October Reforms

Answer 7

• these reforms were a major constitutional transformation in Germany but they did not come about as a result of popular pressure, nor because of pressure from the main democratic parties in the Reichstag
• They amounted to a ‘revolution from above’ which was not only designed to save Germany from humiliation, but also to save the Kaiser’s rule

Question 8

When/why did Prince Max write to president Wilson and why was Wilson hesitant to reply (the peace note)

Answer 8

• On 3rd October, prince Max wrote to President Wilson asking for an armistice
• It took nearly three weeks for Wilson to reply, largely because he was suspicious that the German high command was using the request for an armistice as a means of buying time to regroup and prepare for a new offensive

Question 9

How did Wilson reply to Prince Max (the peace note)

Answer 9

• When Wilson replied, he demanded that Germany must evacuate all occupied territory, call an end to submarine warfare and fully democratise its political system

Question 10

How did Prince Max react to Wilson’s terms (the peace note)

Answer 10

• These terms, which effectively demanded a German surrender and the Kaiser’s abdication, were too much for Ludendorff to accept
• He tried but failed to gather support for a last ditch military effort to resist, whereupon he resigned and fled to Sweden
• The reforms had failed to achieve his objectives

Question 11

the impact on the German people (peace note)

Answer 11

• the news that prince Max’s government was asking for an armistice was a shattering blow to the morale of the German people and to their armed forces
• the peace note was an admission that Germany had lost the war
• this was the first occasion on which the German people had learned the truth about their country’s hopeless military situation
• it undermined their respect for the Kaiser and his military and political leaders
• civilians who had borne the hardships of food shortages with fortitude were no longer prepared to show restraint
• many soldiers and sailors lost respect for their officers

Question 12

The Kaiser’s position after the peace note

Answer 12

• the Kaiser was increasingly seen as an obstacle to peace but he resolutely refused to abdicate

Question 13

People’s views on the Kaiser after the peace note

Answer 13

• during a strike in Friedrichshafen on 22nd October, workers shouted “The Kaiser is a scoundrel” and “up with the German Republic’
• On 28th October when the German navy’s high command, in one last act of futile resistance to a humiliating peace, ordered ships from Wilhelmshaven to attack British ships in the English Channel, the crews of two cruisers refused to obey orders
• this naval mutiny was the beginning of a much broader revolutionary movement

Question 14

The November Revolution of 1918 - what happened during the first two days

Answer 14

• unrest in navy spread to main German naval base at Kiel
• On 3rd November 1918, sailors there mutinied against their officers and took control of the base
• on the following day the revolt spread to the city, and workers’ and soldiers’ councils were established, similar to the Soviets in Russia during the Revolution of 1917

Question 15

what did the government try to do? How did the revolution spread?

Answer 15

• despite attempts by the government to meet the mutineers’ demands, the revolt spread to many other German ports and cities
• By 6th November there were workers and soldiers councils springing up spontaneously all over Germany

Question 16

Who led these revolts

Answer 16

• radical socialists did not lead these revolts, although it might seem to outsiders as though Germany was on the verge of a communist revolution like Russia’s
• in fact, most members of the councils were patriotic Germans who wanted the Kaiser to abdicate and a democratic republic to be established

Question 17

When did the collapse of the regime happen?

Answer 17

• once the authority of military officers, government officials and police had been successfully challenged, the collapse of the regime happened with extraordinary speed

Question 18

What happened in Bavaria? What did this mean for Germany?

Answer 18

• On 8th November a republic was proclaimed in Bavaria and the Bavarian monarchy was deposed
• this was the ‘decisive moment in the German revolution’
• it was certainly a key stage in the establishment of an all-German republic, as it brought home to Prince Max that he had lost control of the situation, but the most important developments were happening in Berlin

Question 19

What was happening in Berlin? What did the SPD threaten to do?

Answer 19

• On 9th November 1918, the SPD called on workers in Berlin to join a general strike to force the Kaiser to abdicate
• they also threatened to withdraw support from Prince Max’s government unless the Kaiser abdicated within 24 hours

Question 20

How did Prince Max react to the threat that SPD made?

Answer 20

• Max knew he could not continue to govern without the SPD, so when the Kaiser still refused, Max took matters into his own hands and on 9th November, he released a press statement claiming the emperor had abdicated
• this was a desperate move by prince Max to keep some control over the situation, even though he had no constitutional authority to act this way

Question 21

What did Prince Max do after releasing the statement that the Kaiser abdicated

Answer 21

• On the same day, Prince Max resigned as chancellor and handed the position to Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the SPD

Question 22

what did Phillip Scheidemann do?

Answer 22

• at about the same time, Phillip Scheidemann, another leading figure in the SPD, stood on the Reichstag balcony and declared that the German republic was now in existence

Question 23

Did the Kaiser finally actually abdicate?

Answer 23

• all of these events happened before the Kaiser had, in fact, abdicated
• later in the day, General Groener told the Kaiser that the army would no longer fight for him
• at this point the Kaiser had lost control of the situation and had no choice but to abdicate, although he did not actually sign his abdication until after it had been announced

Question 24

Ebert’s beliefs

Answer 24

• Ebert was not a revolutionary
• he believed in evolutionary change through winning a majority in parliamentary elections and then introducing reforms

Question 25

What did Ebert think of his government

Answer 25

• Even though he had been chosen by Prince Max, as the new Chancellor because he was the leader the majority party in the Reichstag, he had come to power through a revolutionary act
• he was conscious of the fact that his government lacked legitimacy

Question 26

what was Ebert determined to do after agreeing the armistice?

Answer 26

• Ebert was conscious that his government lacked legitimacy
• he was therefore, determined to establish a new constitution as quickly as possible
• his priority after agreeing the armistice with allies on 11th November, was to organise elections for a Constituent Assembly

Question 27

What was one of the problems that Ebert faced prior to the creation of a new constitution

Answer 27

• prior to the creation of a new constitution, Ebert urged Germans to keep essential services running, to avoid street demonstrations and to maintain law and order
• his problem was that his authority did not extend much beyond Berlin where disorder and violence were becoming the norm
• after the armistice and the demobilisation of much of the army, bands of angry, disillusioned and workless ex-soldiers roamed the streets
• street demonstrations, strikes and armed clashes became regular occurrences

Question 28

Pressure Ebert faced from the left

Answer 28

• Ebert’s efforts to contain the revolution were further threatened by pressure for more radical change from the left
• he could not ignore the fact that the workers’ and soldiers’ councils, in which the USPD and the Spartacists had established a foothold, had made the running in the early stages of the revolution
• they were not about to allow Ebert’s government to take the key decisions without any reference to them

Question 29

What agreement did Ebert reach with the workers’ and soldiers’ councils?

Answer 29

• On 22nd November an agreement was reached between the new government and the Berlin workers’ and soldiers’ councils whereby the government accepted that it only exercised power in the name of these councils
• this was merely a temporary compromise

Question 30

What did the people who were part of USPD think should happen?

Answer 30

• many in the USPD, whose leaders were part of Ebert’s government, saw the councils as the true expression of the revolutionary will of the people and the means by which the revolution could be extended
• they believed that the autocratic system of government would not finally be abolished unless the aristocratic estates were broken up, the army, and judiciary were democratised, and the key industries were nationalised under workers’ control

Question 31

Who did Ebert have to rely on for the survival of his government? What did these people want?

Answer 31

• in this situation, the survival of Ebert’s government depended on the support of the army
• most army officers came from aristocratic backgrounds, had been loyal to the Kaiser and were vigorously opposed to democracy
• they had no wish to see Germany become a republic

Question 32

What was the political situation in Germany in late 1918?

Answer 32

• In late 1918, however, the political situation in Germany was highly unstable and many officers believed that Germany faced the danger of a Bolshevik revolution (like Russia’s in October 1917), which would lead to a civil war and possible occupation by Allied forces

Question 33

The Ebert-Groener Pact

Answer 33

• Their first concern therefore, was to prevent the revolution going any further
• On 10th November, General Groener telephoned Ebert to assure him that the army leadership would support the government
• in return, Groener demanded that Ebert should resist the demands of the soldiers’ councils to democratise the army and defend Germany against communist revolution
• Ebert assured Groener that the government was determined to resist further revolution and to uphold the existing command structure in the army
• this agreement became known as the Ebert-Groener Pact

Question 34

why did Ebert agree on the Pact and who was critical of this?

Answer 34

• For Ebert the Pact was a necessary and unavoidable device to ensure an orderly transition to the New Republic
• for his critics on the left, however, it was an abject betrayal of the revolution

Question 35

How did the struggle for power continue?

Answer 35

Whilst Ebert and his cabinet made preparations for elections to a Constituent Assembly, to be held in January 1919, the struggle for power continued:
- On 6th December a Spartacist demonstration in Berlin was fired on by soldier, killing sixteen
- On 23-24th December, a sailors’ revolt against the government in Berlin was put down by the army. In protest, the three USPD ministers in the government resigned
- On 6th January, the Spartacists launched an armed revolt against the government in what became known as the January Revolution, or the Spartacist uprising. After a week heavy fighting in Berlin, the revolt was crushed

Question 36

When were the elections for the constituent assembly held?

Answer 36

• amidst the political and social tensions, the elections for the Constituent Assembly were held on 19th January 1919
• women were allowed to vote for first time

Question 37

Who won the election?

Answer 37

• the SPD secured the largest share of the vote and the largest number of seats in the Assembly but they did not have an overall majority and would, therefore, have to compromise with other parties in order to establish a new constitution and govern the country

Question 38

How did the new political order come to receive its name?

Answer 38

• the assembly met in the small town of Weimar rather than Berlin, as the political situation in the capital was still unstable in the aftermath of the January Revolution
• this is how the new political order came to receive its name = the Weimar Republic

Question 39

who was elected as the first president of the republic?

Answer 39

• Ebert was elected by the assembly as the first president of the republic and a new government, led by Phillip Scheidemann, was formed by the SPD in coalition with the Centre and German Democratic parties

Question 40

What did the workers’ and soldiers’ councils do?

Answer 40

• the workers’ and soldiers’ councils handed over their powers to the Constituent Assembly, which could then concentrate on the business of drawing up a new constitution

Question 41

What was the general agreement that all representatives shared?
What clear declaration was made?

Answer 41

• Although the representatives did not agree on all issues concerning the new constitution, there was general agreement that it should represent a clear break with the autocratic constitution drawn up by Otto von Bismarck for the German empire in 1871
• it, therefore, began with the clear declaration that ‘Political authority derives from the people’ and the constitution was designed to enshrine and guarantee the rights and powers of the people

Question 42

Main differences between the Weimar Republic and other systems of government

Answer 42

• The constitution of the Weimar Republic was, in many ways, more democratic than the systems of government in force at the time in other democratic countries
• it also marked a clear break with Germany’s autocratic past

Question 43

Strengths of the Weimar constitution

Answer 43

• provided a wider right to vote than in countries such as Great Britain and France. Women were able to vote on the same terms as men and they were allowed to become deputies in the Reichstag and state parliaments
• system of proportional representation enabled even the smaller parties to win seats in the Reichstag and influence government decisions. The country was divided into 35 electoral districts, each with about 1million voters
• there was full democracy in local government as well as central government. Unlike in the second empire, the largest state, Prussia was not in a position to dominate the rest of Germany
• the constitution also set out clearly the rights of the individual. The ‘Fundamental rights and duties of German citizens were guaranteed in the second part of the constitution. Statements included: ‘all Germans are equal before the law’, ‘personal liberty is inviolable’, ‘censorship is forbidden’, ‘the right of property is guaranteed’, and ‘all inhabitants enjoy full religious freedom’. It gave illegitimate children the same rights as legitimate ones and promised ‘economic freedom for the individual’.

Question 44

Weaknesses of the Weimar constitution

Answer 44

Proportional representation was a very fair system but had two clear consequences:
- the proliferation of small parties = smaller parties could gain representation in the Reichstag - enabled smaller parties (many of which were anti-republican) to exploit the parliamentary system to gain publicity. Proportional representation in itself did not create the fragmented party system. This was due to deep divisions in German society and lack of a national consensus
- Coalition governments = because of proliferation of small parties, none of the larger parties could gain an overall majority in the Reichstag. Since governments had to command majority support in the Reichstag, all governments in the Weimar Republic were coalitions, many of which were very short-lived

Question 45

What power did the President have?

Answer 45

• Article 48 of the constitution gave the President the power to rule by decree in exceptional circumstances
• the granting of such powers was not remarkable in itself - indeed, all democratic constitutions allow for an executive authority to use exceptional powers in a time of national emergency

Question 46

How did Ebert use article 48?

Answer 46

• it was not anticipated by those who wrote the constitution, however, that these powers might be used on a regular basis
• Ebert, the first president, used article 48 powers on 136 occasions
• some of these occasions could be deemed to be genuine emergencies but Ebert also used his power in non-emergency situations when he simply wanted to override opposition in the Reichstag
• there were no effective safeguards since a president could threaten to dissolve the Reichstag and call new elections if it refused to agree to a presidential decree
• it is ironic that Ebert, who had been a leading voice for the cause of parliamentary democracy in the 1918-19 revolutionary upheavals, should, as President, undermine democracy through his overuse of Articlese 48

Question 47

The survival of undemocratic institutions

Answer 47

• in the second empire, the army, the civil service and the judiciary were key pillars of the regime
• army officers, senior civil servants and judges were recruited from the aristocracy, supported by the autocracy and looked with disdain on democratic politicians
• they would not, therefore, fit easily into the New Democratic republic
• an opportunity existed for the architects of the new constitution to reform these institutions but, because they placed the need for stability above the desire for a thoroughly democratic system of government, they did not do so

Question 48

The army under the Weimar Republic

Answer 48

• it had been largely free from political control in the second empire and its leaders were determined to preserve as much independence as they could in the Weimar Republic
• the officer corps of the army in the second empire was allowed to continue intact into the new republic with the result that the army was far from being politically neutral
• the full force of military power would be used against left-wing revolts whilst conspirators from the Right were often supported by elements within the army
• General Hans von Seeckt, who was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the army in 1920, believed that the army owed loyalty not to the Republic, which he regarded as merely temporary, but to a timeless Reich that was the true expression of German nationhood
• Although he would not allow his officers to meddle in politics on their own initiative, he nevertheless believed that the army as a whole, and under his command, could intervene in politics whenever he saw fit

Question 49

The civil service under the Weimar Republic

Answer 49

• under the Weimar constitution, civil servants were given a guarantee of their ‘well-earned rights’ and of their freedom of political opinion and expression as long as this did not conflict with their duty of loyalty to the state
• this meant that government administration in the new republic was left in the hands of those who were anti-democratic in their outlook
• senior civil servants, especially in the German foreign office, were still recruited overwhelmingly from the aristocracy
• top civil servants could wield enormous power, especially when ministers in coalition governments were frequently changing

Question 50

The judiciary under the Weimar Republic. How were different groups treated by the judiciary? Why?

Answer 50

• Article 102 of the constitution guaranteed the independence of the judges
• this would be a basic requirement in any democratic constitution but in Weimar Germany the judges who had served the second empire remained in their posts
• these men were staunchly monarchist and anti-democratic and showed their bias in their legal judgements
• the penal code of the republic stipulated that anyone attempting to overthrow the constitution by force should be sentenced to life imprisonment
• members of left wing groups who were brought before the courts were punished with great severity
• right wing conspirators, on the other hand, were treated very leniently