Right Wing Extremism Posed A Significant Threat To The WR 1919-23

Question 1

3 factors

Answer 1

Right wing extremism

Left wing extremism

Treaty of Versailles

Question 2

Right wing extremism

Answer 2

• Kapp putsch 1920
• Munich beer hall putsch1923
• political assassinations

Question 3

Left wing extremism

Answer 3

Spartacists revolt 1919
Red bavaria
The German October

Question 4

Treaty of Versailles 1919

Answer 4

• Germany had to demilitarise and pay reparations for damage caused by war, creation of war guilt clause
• divisions in germany over whether to sign the treaty led to a political crisis and the fall of the scheidemann government
• belief there was no alternative to signing the treaty, as Germany was too weak to resist for left and centre parties
• belief it was a betrayal and a stab in the back from right wing parties and the army

= deepened political positions

Question 5

Spartacist revolt

Answer 5

—> aim to overthrow the provisional government in order to create a soviet republic
—>5 Jan occupied public buildings, called for general strike, formed revolutionary committee
—> Little chance of success
—> 3 days of violent fighting, 100 dead
—> Spartacist coup easily defeated and leaders LIEBKNECHT and LUXEMBURG were brutally murdered in police custody

Question 6

Red Bavaria

Answer 6

• After collapse of Bavarian monarchy, USPD leader Kurt Eisner took political lead.
• Eisner had trouble to unite socialist parties to implement reforms and was assassinated 21 feb 1919
• Bavarian soviet republic with a ‘red army proposed radical political and economical changes. Led by Eugen Levine
• after a month Freikorps and the army defeated ‘Red army’ with 1000 deaths.
Event known as the White terror.

Question 7

German October

Answer 7

• crisis of 1923, left-wing revolutionary actions came to a head in central Germany
• KPD and SPD formed coalitions in the regional governments of Saxony and
Thuringia
• Communists went further and made military preparations for an uprising with
‘Proletarian Hundreds’ (defence units)
• Overthrown by German army and regional govs were re-created without
Communists

Question 8

Extreme left posed less threat as Weimar believed as main failures were through

Answer 8

• bad coordination : incapable of mounting a unified attack
• poor leadership : shown through Liebknecht and Luxemburg
• concessions : kapp putsch divided extreme left
• repression