Chapter 1: Early Years Of The Weimar Republic Flashcards
When was the German empire founded?
18th January 1871
What caused the formation of the German empire in 187?
Three successful wars by the North German state Prussia
What was the empire forged as a result of?
Traditional diplomacy(aristocracy) not an outpouring nationalist feeling from the masses
What are the states of the German empire?
Prussia
Bavaria
Baden
Hesse-Darmstadt
Württemberg
What is the names of the two houses of government in the German empire?
Reichstag
Bundestrat
Who does the Reichstag represent?
The people
Who does the Bundersrat represent
The 25 states
Who were the only ones who could vote in the German empire?
Men: “a universal manhood suffrage”
What was the problem with the constituencies established in 1867 and 1871?
They never adjusted to population shifts(urbanisation)
This means people rural areas retained a vastly disproportionate share of power when compared with urban people
Who was the main decisions made by
The monarch(Kaiser) and the chancellor
Where were government ministers generally selected from?
The civil service or the military(more likely to follow through with orders)
Who was elected and who wasn’t?
The cabinet wasn’t
The reichstag was
What caused aggressive militarism(more aggressive foreign policy)?
-no natural boundaries
-no major mountain ranges
-suspicious of foreign threats
What was the situation for Germany before 1918?
-religion
-socio-economic development
-raw materials
-new industries
-great power rivalries with other nations
-national identities
-political ideas
What were the different national identities in Germany?
-German
-polish
-Danes
-French
What was the socio-economic development in Germany pre 1918?
-rapid industrialisation
-rapid urbanisation
-rapid migration
-primary rural influence(influential areas)
What were the new industries in Germany pre 1918?
-explosives
-plastics
-synthetic dyes
-photography
What were the political ideas of Germany pre 1918?
-absolutism (extremes
-militarism
-liberal democracy(modern democracy)
-revolutionary socialism
-communism
-antisemitism
Who were the electors in the Weimar Republic?
Men and women over 20(granted individual rights under a new bill of rights)
Who could the electors elect?
-local gov
-Reichstag
-president
What could the president do?
-head of state and armed forces
-elected every 7 years
-CHOOSES THE CHANCELLOR
-can have emergency powers under article 48
-power or dismiss Reichstag and call elections
What is the Chancellor?
-head of gov(traditionally from most popular party)
-chooses a cabinet and puts laws to the Reichstag
What does the Reichstag do?
-voted in every 4 years by a secret ballot
-vote for a party not a person
-one seat for every 60,000 votes
What is the local government?
18 local governments, runs education policy and judiciary
What does the Reichstrat do?
-members sent by the 18 lander
-veto or pass laws by the Reichstag unless there is a majority of 2/3 or more
Social classes: Junkers?
-land owners, wealthy conservative aristocrats
-fear that political social and economic dominance was threatened
-saw Catholics and socialists as threats to political and social order
Social classes: upper middle class?
-growth of powerful entrepreneurial upper middle calass
(Elsewhere in Europe the upper middle class is a force for political change)-IN GERMANY THEY ALLIED TO TRADITIONAL ELITES sustain the current system
-industrial areas are controlled by the middle class
-associate process with unification with their own success
-any division as a threat-socialism as a direct threat
Social classes: lower middle class?
-declining and increasing threatened
-lively hood threatened by industrialisation (cheap factory-produced goods)
-tend to support extremist and antisemetic groups
Social classes: working class?
-population doubling
-by 1913 40% of people employed in industry
-long working conditions ,a dangerous and unhealthy conditions
-most spend 25% of income accommodation and lack of adequate sanitation
(Urban life less than 40 in the 1880s)
