Political authority 1914-1919

Question 1

What was Burgfriede? When was it?

Answer 1

• August 1914
• All parties (incl. SPD) join forces in pledging support for German war effort
• Trade unions also promise not to disrupt war production with strike action

Question 2

What were war credits? How popular was the vote to allow them in the Reichstag at first?

Answer 2

• Allowed the government to raise money by selling war bonds to the public (which they guaranteed would be repaid with interest)
• Was passed unanimously thanks to Burgfriede

Question 3

What was ‘Siegfriede’? Who supplied propaganda around this? Which demographic supported Siegfriede?

Answer 3

• Literally means ’the blessed peace of victory’. In other words, the glory that would come after the war was over. Siegfriede would be the result of land annexations to establish Germany’s dominance in Europe
• Pan-German League encouraged support for this
• Aristocrats and middle class all liked the idea of new farming lands to the East, industrial sites to the West, and African colonies. Reichstag also supported this idea until 1917, and Bethmann-Hollweg outlined a “programme” for it too. Even some socialists accepted this idea! (though most socialists had thought Germany was fighting a defensive war and so didn’t like the idea of Siegfriede.

Question 4

What made morale decline by 1916?

Answer 4

• Death
• Wartime shortages
• Decline in living standards

Question 5

What did Bethmann-Hollweg try to make the Kaiser promise to keep the socialists on side in the war? When?

Answer 5

• January 1916
• Promises reform to the Prussian Constitution
• Insufficient in preventing the breakdown of Burgfriede

Question 6

What happened in August 1916 that was a political turning point?

Answer 6

Kaiser appointed Paul von Hindenburg as the army chief of staff and Erich von Ludendorff as his deputy

Question 7

What did the Kaiser do to seemingly turn the country into a military dictatorship?

Answer 7

• Surrendered his supreme command to Hindenburg
• Allowed Hindenburg superiority over the Chancellor

Question 8

How did complete political breakdown come about?

Answer 8

• Increasing strikes and disturbances for peace
• Calls for reform of the German constitution and the Prussian Lander
• Escalated after the 1916-17 turnip winter
• Split in the SPD in April 1917 which formed the USPD, a party with a commitment to ending the war

Question 9

What was Wilson’s Fourteen Points?

Answer 9

• Wilson = idealist
• 14 points attempted to fairly deal with the aftermath of war
• A few points deliberately punished Germany (eg. giving Alsace-Lorraine back to France)
• However, he supported the League of Nations monitoring future dispute
• Also endorsed self-determination for races to rule themselves and only general disarmament. Comforted German Generals

Question 10

How did the Reichstag first intervene in the war? When? Who proposed it?

Answer 10

• July 1917
• Passed the Peace Resolution
• Proposed by Matthias Erzberger, Zentrum politician
• Called for an end to war without annexation
• SPD, USPD, Zentrum in favour; Conservatives against

Question 11

How many votes was the Peace Resolution passed by?

Answer 11

212 votes to 126

Question 12

Why was Bethmann-Hollweg replaced? Who replaced him? When?

Answer 12

• Accused of being unable to control the Reichstag
• Replaced by George Michaelis
• July 1917

Question 13

How did Michaelis get round the peace resolution?

Answer 13

He accepted the resolution but accepted it only in the way he interpreted it. This meant he could get more war credits

Question 14

Who led the Fatherland Party? What was it?

Answer 14

Wolfgang Kapp and Admiral Tirpitz