Germany Unit 1 Flashcards
Strengths and weaknesses of WC?
Strengths =
- Democratic - voting age lowered from 25 to 21
- Checks and balances - president re elected every 7 years, chancellor chooses cabinet, proportional representation ( 60k votes mean 1 seat)
Weaknesses =
- Born from violence - people had no choice
- Coalition governments - 29 parties in reichstag = coalition that doesnt agree
- weakness in a crisis - article 48 undermines constitution
Grievances about the WR
‘Diktat’ - germans had no say in the treaty of versialles
Germany lost =
-army = 100k max
- navy = limmited
- air force = nah
- German colonies = nope
- lost land to france and belgium
- and lots of coal and metal ( 50% of iron)
- ‘Dolchoss’ = stab in the back
- we were forced to surrender ahhh betrayal by politicians akdjkasfhadjfhf
Two revolts that happened after WR was formed?
Spartacist Revolt = the left wing one
- KPD had 30 newspapers and was well funded
- Ebert sacks a popular police officer (popular w/workers)
= huge left wing revolt
solution = get some retired, right wing ‘Freikorps’ who all have guns from the army ( remember 100k only = sacked lots of them)
RESULTS : Freikops kill leaders and destroy all communists in the revolt
Kapp Putcsh - freikorps plot twist
- they fear they will be disbanded by ebert = riot
solution - workers ( left wing) went on strike = leader runs away
1923 - not good. what happened?
hint - stresemann fixes all this later
Hyperinflation - Government literally prints money with 300 paper mills
- doesnt end well, unless you had debts or loans
- food shortages, chaos, savings are gone etc etc
Ruhr - the FRENCH are here now
- Germany does not pay their reparations to france = invasion
- german workers on strike < the french just get their own
- crippled germany industrially
What did Stresemann do?
Rentenmark = economic
- mark = hyper inflated through the roof
- new money = rentenmark
- value attached to gold = backed by banks
- supply limited
- then got renamed to Reichsmark but nothing changed
Dawes plan - economic
- reparations amount decresed to 50 million / year
- US decide to give germany economic life support ( which ended very very well for them)
- yayy the french are gone from the ruhr because you paid them
- extremists not happy
The Young plan - economic
- reduced total amount needed to pay by germany to just 2bn
- gave them until 1988 to pay them
-BUT , germany have to pay the same amt of reparations, but for decades now :(
Locarno pact - forign policy
- rhineland demilitarised
- germany being treated as equals yay
- extremists do no like nonono
League of nations - foreign policy
- all the countries talk about peaceful resolutions n stuff
- Stresemann gets germany invited
- germany on the world stage ( as an equal too)
Kellogg - Briand Pact - foreign policy
- a pact that germany signed that said ‘war is bad, no war please’
- people respect WR and feel better about germany
Name all the changes in the standard of living 1924 - 29
Unemployment
- Unemployment Insurance Act
- Took 3% of wages to pay for sick pay
Wages
- Real Wages up by 25%
- Working week went down
Housing
- 1m houses shortage
- Over 100k built by private companies
Other
- Veterans and widows got a pension
- Increase in higher education numbers
Changes for Women in the WR?
Politics
- Women got right to vote
- WC said that they had equal rights to men
Work
- Levels reduced since the war, back to pre-war levels
- Women not treated equally, despite WC
- Expected to give up work for marriage, got paid less
- Positives = Women got jobs at shops and offices, and women in medicine doubled
Leisure
- New women
- Wore revealing clothes, smoked, drank, cut hair etc
- Shows liberal attitudes in WR
- BR fell
- Divorce rate up
Culture in the WR
Art
- Expressionism
- Artists showed everyday life (no restrictions)
Architecture
- Bauhaus movement = sleek, futuristic style
Cinema
- Films became much more popular
- 3,800 sound enabled cinemas
- Free expression
- The communists thought this was all extravagant, and that money should be used for the working class
- The right wing said that it undermined German Values
