Interwar Germany Flashcards
Who was William II
- fled Germany on November 9, 1918
- abdicated the country
- sought refuge in the Netherlands
- ultimately caused the second empire to fall
Who was Fredrick Ebert?
- head of the social democratic party
- influential group within France
- became the head of Germany after William II fled
- Proclamation of a parliamentary republic
what threat did the parliamentary republic face?
A threat fro the far left, which was the sparticist revolt
What was the sparticist revolt?
- against the proclamation of a parliamentary republic
- Revolutionary Marxists (Communists)
- wanted an immediate socialism
- wanted a worker state
- wanted an immediate socialism
- Overthrow the capitalist regime
Who succeeded in putting down the sparticist revolt?
- Freikorps,, (right wing, ultraconservative, paramilitary organizations
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What was the political revolution of 1918?
–resulted in the proclamation of a parliamentary republic that ended in a democratic nature
- during this change, the social order remained
- the change from monarchy to a republic did not necessarily make changes to this order
- incomplete revolution, only limited to the political sphere
What was the weimar constitution? What was its components?
It was a parliamentary democracy. It included the reichstag and the executive branch
What was the Reichstag?
-german parliament or legislature
- two housed
- deputies were based on universal suffrage and secret ballots
- women were guaranteed the right to vote
- based on universal suffrage
What was the executive branch?
- chancellor and his cabinet
- equivalent to a prime minister
- needed the vast majority of Reichstag for support
- president above the chancellor
- elected be popular vote
- elected to a seven year term
- could issue laws without them being passed by the Reichstag
What system was the weimar constitution based on?
proportional representation. it was often unstable due to coalition’s being formed to fill in seats. they often disagreed which caused the needed for another coalition
Who was the first president under the Weimar Republic?
Fredrick Ebert
What is the Kapp Putch?
- armed revolt
- far right trying to take power
- immediate cause was to dismantle the Freikorps
- thought they were a threat to the wealth of the government
- well trained army units
- one of units marched into Berlin
- Berlin people launched as strike against them
- turned off utilities, stopped transportation
- Forced the Kapp out, causing the Putsch to fail
- Weimer people will come back in and restore power
Who was the Kapp Putsch?
-wolfgang kapp
- wanted to take power and make an authoritarian regime
- no program to offer
- declared himself chancellor as Germany
- Weimer republic did not want to fight
Did the German Government fault again? On what?
-yes, reparation
What happened when the Germans faltered on their reparations?
- rance would send in an army along with Belgium
- Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr
- was lead by the french primer: Raymond Poincare
- didn’t work
- Germany responded by factory workers to engage in passive resistance
- no factory was working
- caused run away inflammation, causing their economy to collapse
- German marc plummeted in value
- Germany responded by factory workers to engage in passive resistance