Economic Development and Policies Flashcards
Why was the German economy in trouble in 1918?
The goverment had spent all of its gold reserves in the war and had been printing more and more money which caused severe inflation and people being less willing to spend their money as it was worth less, which was bad for trade which had been disrupted all over Europe
What made trade in Europe even worse in 1918 then it had been during the war?
When the war ended the production of war goods such as ammunition had ended with it
How much had farm production dropped by during the war?
20%
How much had industrial output dropped during the war?
It had almosted halved
What parts of the treaty of versialles slowed the economy?
The reperations and the loss of both agricultural and industrial land
What had developed during the war because of inflation and the scarcity of goods?
A black market
How did the goverment attempt to support soldiers leaving the army?
It provided retraining schemes and provided loans for those leaving the army until they could find work
Who did the weimar goverment set up pensions for?
The wounded, widows and orphans
What institutions provided layers of support for people?
The federal goverment and lander
In 1920 how many estimated disabled veterans were there?
1,537,000
How many survivor veterans not categoried as disabled were there in 1920?
1,945,000
By 1924 how many veterans, war widows, children and parents of dead soldiers were the Weimar goverment supporting?
768,000 disabled veterans, 420,000 war widows, 1,020,000 children and 190,000 parents of dead soliders
What percent of the weimar population were reviewing federal welfare payments?
About 10 percent, many more were on poor relief
How did the goverment pay for all the welfare costs?
They went into debt
How much had goverment debt increased from 1914 to 1918?
3 times, owing about 150 billion marks not including reparations
From 1921 on how was Germany dealing with reperarion payments?
It was in negotiations with the allies on how to pay it, but the allies, especially France felt that Germany was deliberately trying to avoid having to pay any payments at all arguing that all Europe had economic problems
How were reparations paid up till 1924?
Through things like coal wood and railway carriages.
What happened in January 1923?
Germany failed to pay its reparation payments in full
What had happened when Germans had fell behind on reperation payments before?
The London Ultimatium of allies in 1921 had said that payments should be made in full or the allies would occupy the Ruhr
Why was the Ruhr essential to the German economy?
It’s coal and industries were based there
How did the allies respond to the German failure to pay reparations?
The French with the aid of Belgian troops invaded the Ruhr
How did the German goverment respond to the invasion of the Ruhr?
They instantly stopped all reparation payments to France but not the other allies, told all German officials not to accept orders from non Germans and urged workers in the Ruhr to have passive resistance such as strikes and sabotage.
How did the French respond to the German orders?%
They cut of the Ruhr from the rest of Germany by setting up a border, patrolled by armed forces and taking control of the postal and telegraph services. They brought in their own workers to solve the problem of passive resistance
What did the new German coalition goverment do in 1923?
They called for a stop to passive resistance tactics and began negotiations with the French as the occupation had been beneficial to neither sides.