Empire to democracy 1914-1929: Political

Question 1

What was the political situation of Germany straight after the war begun in 1914?

Answer 1

All parties joined forces to pledge support for the German war effort (promoted patriotism)

Question 2

Who was Ludendorff?

Answer 2

• Hindeburg’s 2nd in command from 1916
• Dismissed in 1918
• Involved in 1920 Kapp Putsch and 1923 Munich Putsch
• Nazi deputy 1924-1928

Question 3

What did Kaiser Wilhelm II do in 1916 which signalled a political turning point and how did it signal this?

Answer 3

WHAT:
Appointed Hindenburg as army chief of staff with Ludendorff as his deputy
HOW:
As Kaiser had surrounded his supreme command to Hindenburg and allowed him superiority over the chancellor, it was suggested Wilhelm abdicated responsibility and allowed dictatorship to emerge

Question 4

How were Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht significant within this period?

Answer 4

ROSA:
- Helped found the Spartacist League in 1916
- Supported the Spartacist rising
- Led to her being captured, shot and having her body dumped in a canal
KARL:
- Co founded Spartacus group in 1916 with Rosa
- Helped found German Communist Party in 1918
- Supported Spartacist rising in 1919
- Murdered by right wing Freikorps

Question 5

What are the reasons for complete political breakdown?

Answer 5

1. Strikes + uproar for peace
2. SPD split in 1917 (breakaway minority formed Independent Social Democratic Party with a commitment to end war)
3. 1917- 1st direct Reichstag intervention of war with the passage of ‘peace resolution’ (Passed by 212 votes to 126)
4. Replacement of Hollweg by Michaelis (persuaded Reichstag to vote for new war credits)

Question 6

What were the 2 stages of the 1918 revolution which destroyed the old imperial regime?

Answer 6

1. The revolution from above
2. The revolution from below

Question 7

What were the stages of the revolution from below?

Answer 7

1. Kiel fleet mutinied- 8 sailors shot dead and others injured
2. Kiel held by 40,000 rebellious sailors, soldiers and workers
3. Elected councils of workers, sailors and soldiers were established in several major cities to establish military and civil control
4. Spartacists, SPD and unions supported a call of a general strike

Question 8

How did the peoples revolution end?

Answer 8

• Establishment of a socialist republic (disappointed Spartacus movement)
• Spartacus League barely had 1000 members by the end of 1918

Question 9

How was the democratic government in the Weimar constitution established?

Answer 9

• Parties who favoured a democratic republic won nearly 80% of votes in election (SPD, USPD, Zentrum)
• Compromise was agreed and accepted by 262 votes to 75
• Lander government given control of their own police, schools, judges
• Central government controlled taxation and the military

Question 10

What were the components of the new democratic government in Weimar?

Answer 10

1. President
2. Chancellor
3. Reichsrat
4. Individual voters rights
5. The Reichstag

Question 11

What was the role of the president of the new democratic government in the Reichstag?

Answer 11

• Appointed and dismissed ministers
• Could dissolve Reichstag
• Could call new elections
• Supreme commander of armed forces
• Had power to make decisions in the event of an emergency without the Reichstag’s consent (article 48)
• Appoints chancellor

Question 12

What was the role of the chancellor in the new democratic government in the Reichstag?

Answer 12

• Proposed new laws to Reichstag
• Need 50% majority before appointed

Question 13

What was the role of the Reichsrat in the new democratic government in the Reichstag?

Answer 13

• Made up of 67 representatives from 17 seperate states
• Could be overruled by Reichstag

Question 14

What were individual voters rights in the new democratic government in the Reichstag?

Answer 14

• Vote on important issues
• Guaranteed freedom of speech
• Guaranteed right to work + employees given equal rights with employers to determine working conditions and wages

Question 15

What was the role of the Reichstag in the new democratic government in the Reichstag?

Answer 15

• Chancellor and ministers were responsible to the Reichstag
• Voted on the budget (new laws had to originate in the Reichstag and required approval of a majority of Reichstag deputies)

Question 16

What were some of the key features in the new democratic government?

Answer 16

1. Germany remained a federal state with a central Reich government and separate state Lander governments
2. Elections for the Lander and Reich used a system of proportional representation
3. Chancellor and ministers had to answer to Reichstag for their actions
4. Referendums could be called by president, Reichsrat or people’s request

Question 17

What were the fundamental rights and duties of German citizens?

Answer 17

• Guaranteed by new constitution
  1. All Germans considered equal before law with a guarantee of personal liberty and religious freedom
  2. Economic freedom (right to have a job)
  3. Cooperation of workers and employees in the regulation of wages and working conditions

Question 18

Who were the Freikorps?

Answer 18

• Volunteer military units
• Mostly recruited from demobilised soldiers and officers
• Tough men with right wing nationalist sympathies

Question 19

What did Ebert impose to portray authority?

Answer 19

• Formed a provisional government consisting of 3 SPD and 3 USPD members to take control until elections could be held (to win support of workers and soviets)
• Made a deal with right wing army (Ebert Groener Pact) with General Groener
• Agreed an armistice in 1918
• Allowed civil servants, military officers, judges, policemen, teachers and other government officials to keep their posts despite anti republican views

Question 20

What was the Ebert-Groener pact?

Answer 20

Agreement to suppress lingering revolutionary activity in return for a promise that the government would maintain the authority of the army and its existing military officers

Question 21

What happened after Ebert stated his policies?

Answer 21

• Ebert’s USPD colleagues disapproved of his actions and his cabinet broke up
• USPD police chief opposed Ebert’s orders to put down a sailors pay demonstration by force
• The 3 USPD ministers resigned
• Spartacists created the KPD and decided to boycott the upcoming elections scheduled

Question 22

What was the Spartacist Rebellion?

Answer 22

• 1919
• Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg gave speeches to encourage workers’ rebellion and inspire them to overthrow SPD government before next elections
• Ebert turned to General Noske to deal with the incident
• Noske used Freikorp brands
• Within 2 days more than 100 workers were killed
• Liebknecht and Luxembourg were captured and killed by the Freikorps despite the government being against this
• Uprising was crushed
• Left wing no longer saw SPD as their saviour but as their enemy and felt very bertrayed

Question 23

What were the major outbreaks of trouble from the years 1919-1923?

Answer 23

1919- Lots of strikes which the Weimar government called on Freikorps and army to suppress (1900 workers killed)
1920- Communists formed an army of 50,000 workers and seized control of the Ruhr, declaring civil war against army and Freikorps. Over 1000 workers were killed and 250 solders and police killed
1921- Attempted communist rising and strikes where 145 people were killed
1923- More strikes. 22 political assassinations by left wing opposition.

Question 24

What were the events involving the Freikorps in 1920?

Answer 24

• Government started to reduce the size of the army and to disband some Freikorps units
• Defence minister ordered 2 Freikorps units to disband

Question 25

What was the Kapp Putsch?

Answer 25

- 1920 - Freikorps leader and Wolfgang Kapp, along with the support of sympathetic officers, marched to Berlin to proclaim Kapp as chancellor - Ebert's government fled and ordered the army to crush the rising - Ordinary workers called a strike which spread across the whole of Germany and saved the government (encouraged by some socialist members of Ebert's government and trade unions) - Within 4 days the Putsch collapsed (Kapp and Luttwitz forced to flee)

Question 26

What did the Kapp Putsch prove about Germany?

Answer 26

1. Army couldn't be trusted 2. Workers had a lot of power when they were a group 3. Weimar government was weak without support of the army

Question 27

What law did the Reichstag pass in 1922 and what did it do?

Answer 27

- 'For the Protection of the Republic' - Placed severe penalties on those involved in conspiracy to murder - Outlawed extremist organisations

Question 28

What happened with the French and the occupation of the Ruhr?

Answer 28

- In 1921 the reparations Germany had to pay was set at £6.6 billion with 66 annual instalments of £100 million - In 1923 Germany was accused of still owing much of their timber and coal payment - The French were angered, leading to 100,000 French and Belgian troops advancing into the Ruhr to take coal, steel and manufactured goods from Germany as reparations - Set up machine gun posts and demanded food from shops without having to pay - French forces shot civilians, took hostages and conducted aggressive house searches - Government responded by Germans refusing to work for the French - 132 Germans died and 150,000 were expelled from the area

Question 29

What did the invasion of the Ruhr lead to?

Answer 29

- Further political uprisings - Forced Ebert to use article 48 - Ebert transferred power from the Lander to regional military commanders - Ebert appointed a new Reich commissioner (replaced democratically elected SPD leader)

Question 30

What did Hitler do to the German Worker's Party (DAP)?

Answer 30

- Turned it into the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) - By 1923 it had 55,000 members - It proclaimed the superiority of the German race - Had its own paramilitary force (SA) -

Question 31

What was the Munich/Beer hall Putsch and what did it lead to?

Answer 31

- Happened in 1923 - Hitler and the NSDAP tried to exploit the discontent in Germany by attempting to take over the government with the putsch - Marched into a beer hall where state governor (Kahr) and commander in chief of the Bavarian army (Lossow) were having a meeting - Filled the hall with SA men - Kahr and Lossow were persuaded at gunpoint to agree to Hitler's plan - They refused to support him and used the police to crush the rising - Nazi party was banned and Hitler was imprisoned (only served 9 months after sentenced to 5 years) - Hitler did benefit from the publicity of the court case and his time in prison allowed him to create his book 'Mein Kampf'

Question 32

What was the ideology of the Nazi Party?

Answer 32

- Anti semitic - Anti democratic - Anti communist - Social Darwinism: Germans were a master race - Germany needed an all powerful leader

Question 33

When did Gustav Stresemann become chancellor?

Answer 33

1923

Question 34

What was the impact of the Ruhr invasion?

Answer 34

- Contributed to the collapse of the mark - Large pressures put onto the republic's finances - Government met the demand for strike pay by printing more money (by the end of 1923 German money had hardly any worth) - Stresemann formed a coalition with SPD and Zentrum to deal with problems (coalition collapses when he refuses to deal more harshly with perpetrators of Munich Putsch)

Question 35

What were some of Stresemann's main measures as chancellor?

Answer 35

1. Ended passive resistance in the Ruhr 2. Reduced government expenditure 3. Appointed Hjalmar Schact as Reich currency commissioner (introduced a new currency and controlled inflation) 4. 1924 Dawes Plan 5. Recommenced reparation payments (Led to French evacuating the Ruhr in 1924) 6. 1926- Germany accepted into League of Nations as a permanent council member 7. 1926- Treaty of Berlin (helped win trust of the German army) 8. Improvement in industrial relations, public works and house building programmes 9. 1929 Young Plan

Question 36

What was the Dawes Plan?

Answer 36

Scaled down the reparation payments and arranged for Germany to receive American loans

Question 37

What was the Young plan?

Answer 37

Reduced the reparations bill by 75% and lessened the annual payments

Question 38

Why was Stresemann awarded a Nobel peace prize?

Answer 38

- 1925 negotiation of the Locarno treaties - Promised to respect the western frontier and kept troops out of the Rhineland - Awarded the prize in 1926 as many believed it was his greatest achievement

Question 39

What was the political situation like in 1924?

Answer 39

- Decrease in number of right wing paramilitary organisations - Threat of political assassination decreased - 67.5% voted for pro republican parties - Nazi vote decreased from 6.5% to 3% - Communist party vote decreased from 12.6% to 9%

Question 40

Who were the presidents of Germany within this period?

Answer 40

1. Ebert (1919-1925) 2. Hindenburg (1925-1934)

Question 41

What happened to Hitler and his place in politics after he was released from prison in 1924?

Answer 41

- Banned from political activity until 1927 - Party was allowed to reform in 1925 - SA adopted the swastika symbol - SS developed under Himmler as Hitler's elite bodyguard

Question 42

What were some of the major events in WW1 for Germany?

Answer 42

1914- Germany successfully march through Belgium and into France + Britain enter war against Germany 1915- German begin naval blockade of UK (loads to UK food shortages and rationing) 1916- Germany lose 500,000 soldiers in Battle of Somme + SPD lead anti war movement 1918- Spring offensive starts off well and gains land for Germany, but then fails due to inadequate supplies

Question 43

What increased left wing strength and confidence in 1920?

Answer 43

USPD (400,000 members) voted to join KPD (78,000 members)