Early Weimar government part 2 Flashcards
What was a revolt from the left ?
Spartacist uprising
Problems with coalition governments?
No real major changes between each cabinet - just a reshuffle
No continuity ever able to be achieved because of constant turnover
Main beneficiaries of all this turmoil was the extreme right and light wing parties
Democracy not shown to be a success and they could exploit it
When was the Spartacist uprising?
5th January, 1919
What was the goal of the Spartacist uprising?
Staged and armed uprising in Berlin to overthrow Ebert’s government and set up a revolutionary communist regime
What did the Spartacist revolt do and why was it not successful?
they occupied buildings and Newspaper offices
they were Poorly supported and poorly prepared-they had not secured the majority of the working class in Berlin.
Groener used Freikorps units to put them down
What was the result of the Spartacist revolt?
All over by 13th January after brutal street fighting
Resulted in the execution of the ringleaders (Liebknecht & Luxemburg)
The brutality to which the revolt had been suppressed, and Ebert’s reliance on the army and the Freikorps, deepened the divisions on the Left for many years to come.
What kind of reaction would there have been from those on the left wing?
why?
Spartacist revolt
Workers disillusioned with the ‘revolution’ to establish the republic (which they believed was too right-wing)
what was one of the main issues for eberts goverment?
Economic conditions bred disorder also demobilised soldiers found it hard to adjust to civilian life.
How much of a threat is the left wing (AKA SpARTACISTS) to the Government?
THREAT = KPD has strong support in industrial centres: the Ruhr, Saxony
NOT = Lacked the proper support or determination
Influenced by 1917 Russian Revolution and communists
What were some controversies regarding Bavaria?
Bavaria- groups that fought for separation from the rest of Germany, whilst others wanted a united Germany so that it could become a great power again
Reichscwher
German army
in January 1920 what was the the government forced to do regarding the treaty of versaiiles?
and reduce the size of its army and to disband some Freikorps units.
In Feb 1920, defence minister Gustav Noske, ordered 2 freikorps units, comprising 12,000 men to disband.
General Von Luttwitz, the commanding general refused to disband one of them, when the government ordered his arrest.
What was the name of the civil servant that supported the kapp putsch
wolfgang kapp
Why was it the kapp putsch successful
Supported by right-wing civil servant Wolfgang Kapp,
“Troops do not fire on troops;
Army right wong pustch right wing so revolt could not be put down
What are the lessons that can be learned from the kapp putsch ?
Army not to be trusted
Civil servants could be disloyal
Workers as a group could be a great force of power
Weimar was weak without the army
Governmental control shown as weak due to judges being lenient towards right-wingers
Why did violence continue even after the kapp putsch?
Violence continued as right-wing nationalists organised themselves into leagues, committed to the elimination of prominent politicians and those associated with the ‘betrayal of Germany’
What were the patriotic leagues ?
often formed out of the old Freikorps units, act as fiercely anti-republican paramilitaries.
Potentially very powerful and some were supported by members of the regular German army.
Hugo Haase
part of SPD USPD
co-chaired of the Council of the People’s Deputies during the German Revolution of 1918–19.
assassinated in late 1919
Matthias Erzberger
centre party
Reich Minister of Finance (1919–1920), Vice-Chancellor of the German Reich
murder on 26 August 1921 by the Feme, a German nationalist organization
Walther Rathenau
Assasinated on 24 June 1922 by the far-right Organisation Consul
DDP
Rathenau became foreign minister in Wirth’s second cabinet.
What was the white terror ?
The term given for the period of political violence between 1919 and 1923 that saw 376 political assassinations in Germany.
Organisation Consul led by Captain Ehrhardt assassinated both Matthias Erzberger and Walter Rathenau.
354 assassinations by right wing. 326 of these murderers received no punishment.
22 assassinations by left wing. 10 of these murderers executed.
organisation consul
Organisation Consul was an ultra-nationalist, antisemitic and anticommunist terrorist organization active in Germany from 1920 to 1922. It was formed by members of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, a Freikorps unit which disbanded after the Kapp Putsch failed to overthrow the German Weimar Republic in March 1920
How many assassinations were there between 1919-1923
376 political assassinations (22 by the Left, 354 by the Right)
July 1922: Reichstag passed a law ‘for the protection of the Republic’
which imposed severe penalties on conspirators and banned extremist organisations
Which state refused to implement the law for protection of the republic
Bavaria’s conservative govt. refused to implement the new law
What year was a law ‘for the protection of the Republic’ passed
july 1922
What statistic shows the bias in the judicial system?
326 right-wing murderers went unpunished (only one convicted and sentenced to severe punishment until 1923)
10 left-wing murderers sentenced to death
What are the similarities between the Kapp putsch and the Spartacists
Led by charismatic, political extremists
Disliked govt & aimed to overthrow it
Centred on Berlin
Neither put down directly by the Weimar govt
What are the differences between the Kapp putsch and the Spartacists
Spartacists were anti-War, Kapp Putsch supported the army
Kapp was a monarchist, Spartacists wanted a Communist revolution
Kapp enjoyed support of Freikorps
Why was there anger from the right
Stresemann called off passive resistance in the Ruhr (without winning concessions from the French)
Bavaria’s right-wing govt. declared state of emergency and placed Gustav von Kahr as state commissioner
Growing desire by the Right to march on Berlin and establish a strong dictatorship
Gustav Ritter von Kahr
Right-wing Conservative
Minister-President of Bavaria (1920-1921)
Stepped down after disagreements with central govt.
State-Commissioner General in 1923
Wanted Bavaria to have its own monarchy and planned to use the Nazis to achieve this
Unwilling to participate in the Munich Putsch (Nov 1923)
President of the Bavarian administrative court until his murder in 1934
Who was the German’s workers party?
Established in 1919
Founded and led by Anton Drexler
Combined socialist ideas with nationalism
The DAP: Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
Became the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) in 1920
Published a 25-point programme of its beliefs/policies
Adolf Hitler (Weimar Era)
Austrian who believed all Germans should be in one Reich
Supporter of WWI and fought for the German army
Outraged by the armistice
Supported the ‘stab in the back’ myth
Political agent for the army and sent to spy on the German Workers’ Party
Joined the party in 1919
1921: became party leader of the now-NSDAP
Arrested after the failed Munich Putsch
Wrote Mein Kampf in prison
When was the Munich Beer Hall Putsch
8th Nov, 1923: the Nazis interrupted an address by the two to 2000 people in a beer hall
what happened in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch
With Ludendorff on side, Hitler set out to win over Ritter von Kahr and Otto von Lossow (local army commander)
Stormtroopers (SA) surrounded the building and Hitler declared that the revolution had begun
Kahr and Lossow agreed to support (at gun-point in a side room)
What is the SA?
as a paramilitary organization associated with the Nazi Party.
Why did the Munich Beer Hall Putsch collapse
Kahr and Lossow’s support vanished overnight (as did any chance of mass-support)
Stormtroopers unable to gain control of Munich army barracks
9th Nov: Hitler went through with the march anyway
Gun battle with police resulted in Hitler falling and breaking his shoulder. He fled but was captured
Ludendorff allowed himself to be arrested
Seeckt sent in troops to clean up the mess
Nazis were banned, Hitler imprisoned
Impact of the Munich Putsch
on adolf hitler and nazism
it displayed to other people the nazi message so it gained in popularity
