Political Disorder 1919-23: Flashcards
What was the timeline of Weimar instability? - 1918
9 nov - kaiser abdicates
11 nov - 1918 Armistice signed (= peace treaty, WW1 officially ends)
What was the timeline of Weimar instability? - 1919
January - Spartacist Uprisings
Early 1919 - Haasse is assassinated (member of Council of People’s Representatives, associate of Ebert)
February - Newly elected National Assembly, led by Ebert, meets in Weimar (in a theatre) to create a new constitution
28th June - Germany signs the ToV
August - New constitution drawn up and signed in Weimar
What was the timeline of Weimar instability? - 1920
- DAP becomes the Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party
March - Kapp Putsch
What was the timeline of Weimar instability? - 1921-22
- Germany struggles and then fails to pay ToV reparation instalments
Aug 1921 - Erzberger, moderate politician who signed the Armistice, is assassinated
June 1922 - Walter Rathenau, the Weimar foreign minister, is assassinated - In the period 1919-22: 376 political murders (354 by the right). No right wingers sentenced to death but 10 left wingers were.
What was the timeline of Weimar instability? - 1923
8-9 Nov - The Munich Putsch
Economic changes: between 1919-23: gvt income was only 25% of what it needed to run the country. Germany had no gold reserves and the country was falling
What were the problems in Germany by 1923?
- Problems with foreign relations (foreign policy,political)
- Reparation payments (foreign policy, economic, political)
- Hyperinflation (social, economic, political)
- Social and political problems in Germany (social, political, economic)
- Ruhr Occupation (political, economic, social)
What were the problems with foreign relations?
League of nations - Germany join until they proved they were a peace loving country. They joined in 1926.
France and Belgium had occupied the Ruhr
Without Germany’s consent
Whether Germany accepted territorial
losses
What were the problems with reparation payments?
Germany was able to pay its first set of instalments but at the end of 1922 they failed to pay their second instalment. The annual instalments were equal to 2% of Germany’s annual output.
What were the problems with hyperinflation?
The German government said that they would pay their workers wages if they followed the policy of passive resistance. So no new resources were being produced so the government decided to keep printing more money. In the end the German Mark became worthless which led to hyperinflation. By November 1923 a loaf of bread cost 200,000,000,000 marks. Unemployment rates skyrocketed. Makes Weimar government look weak.
What were the social and political problems in Germany?
The Weimar government was very weak at the time. Many of the German people opposed it because of they signed the Treaty of Versailles. The Munich Putsch happened in November 1923 - where Adolf Hitler and the nazis tried to seize power. Due to the hyperinflation it led to severe food shortages and difficulty accessing basic goods.
What was the problem with the Ruhr Occupation?
January 1923 - August 1925
- French and Belgium troops sent troops to the Ruhr; where they would take industrial goods as reparation instalments as they thought that Germany was able to pay the 2nd instalments.
- The government ordered its workers to follow a policy of passive resistance - refusing to work or cooperate with the foreign troops and in return the government continued to pay their wages. The french killed over 100 worker and expelled over 100000 protestors from the region.
