Early Years Of The Weimar Republic Flashcards
What were Germany’s problems coming into 1918?
- Industrialisation and an economic shift to industry (overcrowded living conditions in places like the Ruhr)
- War (lots of money and loss of life)
- Class system (angry working class leading to rise in communism, very rigid class system with little mobility)
- Religion (Catholics vs Protestants vs Jews)
What political problems arose from the Treaty of Versailles?
- War guilt,
- Disarmament
- Rhineland issue
- Saarland issue
- Territorial losses
- Ger banned from League of Nations
Under what article of the T of V did Germany have to accept responsibility for WW1? What were the consequences of this article?
Article 231. This made Germany liable to cover costs of the war, this was decided to be £6.6bn. Germans were humiliated and believed the war was not lost and they were now in massive debt to the allies.
What did Germany’s disarmament do to Germany?
Army limited to 100,000 men, conscription, gas and tanks were banned
- Germany had no way to defend itself, or ‘start’ another war
- Loss of militarist identity
What was the consequences of the Allied occupation of the Rhineland?
- Germany couldn’t attack France or Belgium with a Schlieffen plan version 2
- Many Germans were now in an occupied zone
- Rhineland had a large economic output for Germany, this was lost
What were the consequences of the occupation of the Saarland?
- Germany struggled to power industry in the rest of the country
- Couldn’t make money of exporting coal as L of N countries exploited these coal mines for themselves
What percentage of German territory was lost post war? What were the consequences of this loss?
- Around 13% of German territory in Europe was lost alongside all of Germany’s colonies
- Germany lost 75% of its iron ore amongst losing key zinc ore deposits and a large chunk of arable land (15%)
- Many ethnic Germans now outside of the ‘fatherland’ leading to an identity crisis of people in this land and the development of the ‘volk’ idea
- Loss of natural resources and political power as now smaller, loss of economic input from these areas
What were the consequences of Germany being banned from the League of Nations?
- Germany was isolated and not a part of the international community
- Fewer trade opportunities
- Poor diplomatic ties with anywhere else in Europe
What was Britain’s reaction to the Treaty of Versailles?
P - Content Germany had lost its empire and fleet and so would not threaten European peace
N - PM Lloyd George worried that Germany was now susceptible to USSR expansion
N - PM Lloyd George wanted Germany to be a Strong Trading partner
N - Keynes and others believe the reparations were unwise and France being greedy
What was the French reaction to the Treaty of Versailles?
P - Recovered Alsace-Lorraine, reparations were good, demilitarised Rhineland protected France
N - Treaty was too lenient, “only an armistice”, not proper revenge
What was the German reaction to the treaty of Versailles?
- Millions of ethnic Germans outside of Germany, lots of resentment
- War guilt clause was unjust humiliation
- Reparations were too high
- Allied Occupation of Rhineland and Saarland was extremely unpopular
- Exclusion from LoN and international community was seen as unjust discrimination against a proud major power
What were problems with the Weimar constitution?
- Article 48 (president could rule by emergency decree, this was abused)
- The extreme representative democracy meant at no time in the Republic did any one party gain an overall majority, weak coalitions as a result
- 3/5s of major parties in the Weimar Republic were anti-Weimar republic (only SPD and Centre stood by the Weimar system
- All the parties drew from a narrow crowd, Nazis only ones to really draw a diverse crowd
- Small extremist parties could easily get MPs due to the proportional representation
What did the wartime German government do that had a negative effect on the Weimar Republic?
The War Gov’t borrowed and printed loads of money believing they would win and get a lot of reparations. Borrowing and printing caused inflation. The Weimar Republic then inherited this 1.44bn marks debt. Raising taxes or cutting spending would destroy any WR popularity. They were stuck.
