knowledge test

Question 1

When was the Kiel mutiny which precipitated Germany’s defeat in World War I?

Answer 1

october 1918

Question 2

What is name of the Peace Treaty that was signed in June 1919?

Answer 2

treaty of versailles

Question 3

What was the name of the clause that blamed Germany for the war?

Answer 3

Article 231, the War-Guilt Clause

Question 4

What were the 5 key consequences for Germany once the Treaty of Versailles was signed?

Answer 4

a. Germany were blamed for starting the war
b. Armed forces reduced to 100,000 men (volunteers), no armoured vehicles,
submarines or aircraft and only 6 warships.
c. Reparations £6,600 million – it took until the 1980s to pay this.
d. Lost its empire – now controlled by the League of Nations.
e. Military banned from the Rhineland – on Germany’s boarder with France.

Question 5

What did the Weimar’s Bill of Rights promise?

Answer 5

a. Many didn’t accept guilt for starting the war.
b. The reparations and loss of industrial areas led to an economic crisis and living
standards dropped dramatically.
c. Lost pride and some ‘German’ areas now lived under foreign rule.

Question 6

When and where was the Weimar Republic declared?

Answer 6

. 1919, Weimar, in Germany

Question 7

Who became President of the Weimar Republic in 1919?

Answer 7

Freidrich Ebert – Leader of the Social Democratic Party

Question 8

Why was the government based at Weimar?

Answer 8

There was a lot of violence in Berlin.

Question 9

What was the force set up to keep the peace in Germany?

Answer 9

The Freikorps.

Question 10

What was the Reichstag?

Answer 10

German Parliament

Question 11

List FIVE differences in the Constitution, 1914 versus 1919.

Answer 11

a. Elected president not hereditary Kaiser
b. Chancellor responsible to the Reichstag, not to the Kaiser
c. Reichstag made laws and controlled the government (not the Kaiser)
d. Proportional representation (before only males over 25 could vote)
e. Bill of Rights

Question 12

What is Proportional Representation?

Answer 12

. It’s where the number of seats a party wins in Parliament is worked out as a proportion to the number of votes they win – leading to lots of political parties in the Reichstag – making it harder to get laws passed.

Question 13

What was the Stinnes-Legien agreement?

Answer 13

a. Deal between the Trade Unions and Business leaders – Unions not interfere with private ownership/employers allow legal recognition, 8 hour day and workers committees

Question 14

Name FIVE problems the Weimar government faced, 1919-1923

Answer 14

a. Ineffective Constitution
b. Left-wing rebellions
c. Right-wing rebellions
d. Invasion and hyperinflation of 1923
e. Munich Putsch

Question 15

Which article of the Constitution gave emergency powers to the President?

Answer 15

Article 48

Question 16

Who was leader of the army in the 1920s, and how did he damage the Republic?

Answer 16

Von Seeckt - he was right-wing and did not put down right-wing rebellions

Question 17

Who led the Spartacist Revolt in 1919?

Answer 17

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Leibknecht

Question 18

Where did a Communist ‘People’s Government’ come to power in 1919?

Answer 18

Bavaria

Question 19

What Communist group rebelled in the Ruhr in 1920?

Answer 19

Red Army - a paramilitary group

Question 20

Who led a Freikorps brigade to rebel against the Versailles Treaty, March 1920?

Answer 20

Dr Wolfgang Kapp

Question 21

Which DDP foreign minister was assassinated in 1922, and why?

Answer 21

Walter Rathenau - becase he made a treaty with Communist Russia

Question 22

Why did many right-wing troublemakers get away with their crimes?

Answer 22

Because right-wing judges sympathised with their cause

Question 23

Where did the French invade in January 1923?

Answer 23

. The Ruhr

Question 24

What was ‘hyperinflation’, and what caused it?

Answer 24

Runaway rising prices. It was caused by the government printing money to pay striking workers, who had gone on strike to oppose the French invasion

Question 25

What did Bruno Buchrucker do?

Answer 25

led the Black Reichswehr rebellion in Berlin, October 1923

Question 26

Who founded the Nazi party?

Answer 26

Anton Drexler

Question 27

Which FOUR groups of people did Hitler blame for Germany’s problems?

Answer 27

a. the Allies who enforced the Versailles Treaty
b. The November Criminals who signed it
c. The Communists
d. the Jews (who he said were behind it all)

Question 28

Give SEVEN causes of the Weimar government’s problems

Answer 28

a. Right-wing politicians hated the Versailles Treaty and wanted the Kaiser back.
b. Officials were disloyal and hated the government.
c. Communists wanted world revolution/hated the new government.
d. Army was unreliable.
e. Proportional representation prevented one party getting a majority.
f. Occupation of the Ruhr humiliated the Germans and led to hyperinflation.
g. Printing money to pay strikers.