Germany in Transition (Facts)

Question 1

Summarise the four main points of the Treaty of Versailles

Answer 1

• Accept full responsibility for war and damage
• Pay 6,000 million marks in reparations
• Lose land (all colonies, Alsace-Lorraine, Saar to France and Polish corridor)
• Weakened military (100,000 men)

Question 2

Two main weaknesses of Weimar Republic constitution

Answer 2

• Proportional Representation (politicians spent more time negotiating coalition deals than running country)
• Article 48 (president could bypass the Reichstag)

Question 3

What was the Spartacist uprising?

Answer 3

50,000 Communists who rebelled in Berlin in 1919 - put down by army and right-wing Freikorps but both sides suffered losses.

Question 4

Outline the events in the Ruhr in 1923

Answer 4

Germany failed to pay reparations; France occupied Ruhr; German government ordered strike and workers obeyed; government printed money to pay workers - hyperinflation

Question 5

3 main results of Munich Putsch

Answer 5

• Nazi party was banned
• Hitler went to prison in Landsberg castle
• Hitler changed strategy to democratic means

Question 6

What three main things (plus three reforms) did Stresemann’s government do to solve hyperinflation?

Answer 6

• Called off strike
• Persuaded French to leave Ruhr
• Changed currency to Rentenmark
• (Job centres, unemployment pay, better housing)

Question 7

Two main impacts of increase in unemployment in Germany after the Wall Street Crash

Answer 7

• Government had to increase expenditure on unemployment benefit and other benefits.
• People began to lose faith in democracy and turned to Communists and Nazis (far-left and far-right)

Question 8

What happened at a parliamentary level as a result of Chancellor Brüning replacing Müller?

Answer 8

• Brüning cut unemployment benefit, which worsened the depression.
• Hindenburg used Article 48 to govern, weakening the power of the Reichstag (which arguably later allowed Hitler to take power)

Question 9

Four main demographics who supported Nazis

Answer 9

• Wealthy businessmen (frightened of Communists)
• Middle class (decided country needed strong leader)
• Nationalists (blamed T.o.Versailles for hyperinflation)
• Rural areas (shopkeepers, farmers, farm labourers)