Problems faced at the start of the Weimar Republic Flashcards
what kind of health situation killed 1000s in 1919?
influenza epidemic
other than the government wich other groups were blamed for the loss of the war?
Jewish people and communists
what did the extreme left want
jan 1919 communists ( Liebknecht and Luxemburg) tried to take over Berlin 50,000 workers went on strike in support . this is known as the spartacist revolt
how’d they deal with the Spartacist revolt?
Ebert asked for help from the right wing ex-soilders Freikorps to stop them killing over 100 workers in the process. this caused a split between the social democratic party and the communists
what did the right want ?
march 1920 more Freikorps, led by wolfgang kapp took part in the kapp putch to try to create a right wing government by in protest german workers went on strike forcing kapp to give up
in what year could Germany not pay reparations and what happened because of it ?
in 1923 so to make up for the payments in recourses france and belgium entered the ruhr ( an important industrial coal and oil area
what happened as a result of the invasion of the ruhr?
workers started to strike as told to by government officials meaning that the industry in the area ground to a halt and the money the country made from this industry also stopped so the government printed more money in order to pay the german workers. This caused the inflation rate to raise incredibly dramatically due to the amount of new money its value became less. Paper money was pretty much worthless.
what causes hyperinflation?
when rpoduction can’t keep up with the amout of money in circlation so the money keeps loosing its value
what were the consequences of hyperinflation?
in 1918 an egg cost 1/4 of a mark but by nov 1923 an egg cost 80 million marks
the german currency became worthless and therefore no one wanted to trade with germany causing food shortages and shortages of other goods
bank saving also became worthless hitting the middle classes the worst as they relied on their savings and did not have so many as the rich who could afford to have their savings worth less and the lower classes did not have many savings
basic nessesited were hard to get hold of in 1923
