Section 1 - The establishment and early years of the Weimar Republic, 1918-24 Flashcards
What began the abdication of the Kaiser?
- End of September 1918, clear to General Ludendorff that Germany was on the brink of defeat. Concluded to avoid a humiliating defeat, he had to ask the allies for an armistice.
- As a part of President Wilson’s Fourteen Points, he would only accept an armistice if Germany’s autocratic government was made more democratic.
What were the October Reforms?
In October the Kaiser began a series of reforms that effectively ended his autocratic rule.
- Appointed prince Max of Baden as the new chancellor.
- Chancellor was responsible of Reichstag and established a new government based on the majority parties in the Reichstag.
- The armed forces were put under control of the civil government.
These were designed to save the Kaiser’s rule.
What was the Peace Note?
What Prince Max wrote to President Wilson asking for an armistice. When Wilson replied, he demanded Germany must evacuate occupied territory, end submarine warfare and democratise its political system. These were too much for Ludendorff to accept
The news of the armistice was a blow to the morale of the German people and their armed forces as it was an admission that Germany lost the war.
The Kaiser was increasingly seen as an obstacle to peace but he refused to abdicate. The crews of 2 ships refused to attack British ships, this naval mutiny was the start of a revolution.
What was the November Revolution of 1918?
The naval mutiny spread throughout Germany. It spread to ports and cities, workers and soldiers councils were established. People wanted the Kaiser to abdicate and a democratic republic to be established.
8 November - a republic was proclaimed in Bavaria and the Bavarian monarchy was deposed.
9 November - SPD called on workers in Berlin to join a general strike to force the Kaiser to abdicate and they threatened to stop supporting Prince Max’s government.
The Kaiser still refused, Max released a press statement claiming the Emperor had abdicated, though he had no authority to act in this way. Prince Max resigned as Chancellor and gave the position to Fredrich Ebert (leader of SPD).
Phillip Scheidemann stood on the Reichstag balcony and declared Germany a republic and General Groener told the Kaiser the army wouldn’t fight for him.
The Kaiser had lost control and had no choice but to actually sign his abdication.
Why did Ebert struggle for power?
After agreeing to the armistice on 11 November, he was determined to establish a new constitution through a constituent assembly as he was aware his government lacked legitimacy (came to power through an act).
Prior to the creation of a new constitution, Ebert urged Germans to keep essential services running and to maintain law and order. However, he didn’t have much authority beyond Berlin where violence/disorder was becoming the norm.
Who were the socialist groups and parties in 1918? (the left)
Spartacist League/German communist party (later KPD):
- Led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg
- Wanted republican government controlled by workers and soldiers councils, welfare benefits, disbanding of army.
- Workers would rally and do demonstrations on the streets.
USPD:
- Led by Hugo Hasse
- Wanted a republic with the Reichstag working with workers and soldiers councils, welfare improvements, reform of the army.
- Grew strength in 1918 as war-weariness grew.
The Social Democratic Party(SPD):
- Led by Friedrich Ebert and Phillip Scheidemann.
- Wanted moderate socialist republic with democratic elections and personal freedoms, welfare improvements.
- Appealed to working class voters, 1912, became largest party in the Reichstag.
What pressure did Ebert’s government receive from the left?
They wanted radical change. The workers and soldiers councils wouldn’t allow Ebert’s government to make key decisions without any reference to them.
22 November - an agreement was reached between the new government and the councils where the government accepted it only exercised power in the name of these councils.
What pressure did Ebert’s government receive from the army and the Ebert-Groener Pact.
The survival of Ebert’s government depended on the support of the army. Many army officers were opposed to democracy and didn’t want Germany to become a republic. Their first concern was to prevent the revolution going any further.
- General Groener assured Ebert that army leadership would support the government. In return, Groener demanded Ebert resist the demands of soldiers councils to democratise the army and defend Germany against communist revolution. (The Ebert-Groener pact)
- For the left, this was a betrayal of the revolution.
- 6 December - 16 killed after Spartacist demonstration was fired on by soldiers
- 23/4 December - sailors revolt against government in Berlin put down by army.
- 6 January - Sparticists launched an armed revolt against government
What were the results of the elections to the Constituent Assembly(the people who were to establish the new constitution)?
- Elections held on 19 January 1919. Women could vote for the first time.
- SPD secured the largest share of the vote and the largest number of seats in the Assembly but didn’t have an overall majority and so would have to compromise with other parties on the constitution and in governing the country.
- Met in Weimar, Ebert was elected by the Assembly as the president of the Republic
- New government, led by Phillip Schiedemann, formed by the SPD in coalition with the Centre and German Democratic parties.
- Workers and soldiers councils handed their powers to the assembly.
- There was a general agreement the constitution should represent a break with the autocratic constitution. It was designed to guarantee the rights and powers of the people.
Who were the main non-socialist parties in the new republic?
- Centre Party: Had a lot of Catholic support. Supported a democratic constitution.
- German Democratic Party(DDP). Support from middle class. Supported a democratic constitution.
- German National People’s Party (DNVP). Support from landowners and some small business owners. Rejected a democratic constitution.
- German’s people’s party (DVP). Support from upper middle class and business interests. Opposed new republic but was willing to participate in its governments.
What were the strengths of the Weimar Constitution,1919?
- Women were able to vote on the same terms as men, they could also become deputies in the Reichstag.
- System of proportional representation enabled smaller parties to win seats in the Reichstag and influence government decisions.
- Full democracy in local and central government. The largest state, Prussia couldn’t dominate the rest of Germany.
- Constitution set out the rights od individuals, e.g ‘all inhabitants enjoy full religious freedom’. Gave illegitimate children the same rights as legitimate ones. Promised ‘ economic freedom for the individual’
- Referendums could be called by the president, Reichstrat and peoples request.
What are the weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution?
Proportional representation: ensured all political stances were represented. Parties were allocated seats in proportion to the % of votes they received.
- The proliferation of small parties: Smaller parties could gain representation in the Reichstag which enabled smaller parties to exploit the parliamentary system to gain publicity.
- Coalition governments: None of the larger parties could gain an overall majority because of proportional representation. To command majority, all parties were coalitions, many which were short lived.
What was the problem of ruling by presidential decree?
- Article 48 gave the President power to rule by decree in exceptional circumstances.
- This was exploited. The first president, Ebert, used Article 48 on 136 occasions, a lot of the time in non-emergency occasions as he simply wanted to override opposition in the Reichstag.
- Presdients could threaten to dissolve the reichstag if refused to agree with presidential decree.
- Democracy was undermined.
What undemocratic institutions survived the new constitution?
- The army: Officer corps of the second reich was allowed to continue intact into the republic resulting in the army not being politically neutral. Military power was used to take down left wing revolts while right conspirators were often supported. General Hans von Seeckt - believed army didn’t owe loyalty to the ‘temporary’ republic, but to a timeless Reich. He believed the army as a whole could intervene in politics whenever he saw fit.
- The civil service: Under the constitution, they were given a freedom of political opinion as long as it didn’t conflict with their loyalty to the state. Government administration was left in the hand of those who were anti democratic. Top civil servants wielded enormous power.
- The judiciary: Constitution guaranteed the independence of the judges. These men were anti democratic and showed their bias in legal judgements. Members of left wing groups trying to overthrow the constitution were punished with great severity, yet right wing conspirators were treated very leniently.
What happened at the peace settlement of Versailles, 1919?
Armistice 11 November 1918, pending the full peace settlement.
January 1919 - conference to settle the peace terms between allied powers and Germany at the Palace of Versailles.
Germans weren’t invited and couldn’t see the terms of the treaty until 7 May. 16 June - gave Germans 7 days to accept the treaty.
Provoked political crisis, coalition government collapsed to due divisions.
28 June - Versailles treaty signed. Imposed harsher conditions than expected.
What were the terms of the treaty of Versailles?
- Territorial Losses: Removed 13% of German territory and all German overseas colonies. Overall, Germany lost 75% of its iron, 26% of its coal and 15% of its arable land.
- Disarmament of Germany: Had to surrender all heavy weapons and remove fortifications. Conscription to German armed forces and was forbidden and army was limited to 100000 men. Forbidden to use tanks, Navy limited to 15000 men and a max of 6 battleships. No air force.
- War guilt: Had to accept responsibility for starting the war. Germany was liable to pay reparations to the allies for the damage done in the war. Amount came to £6.6 billion
- The Rhineland: Permanently demilitarised. Allied occupation based there to ensure Germany fulfilled its treaty obligations.
- The Saarland: Contained rich reserves of coal, separated from Germany and placed under League of Nations control for 15 years. Which therefore supplied countries with free coal.
- Other terms: Austria forbidden from uniting with Germany, Germany couldn’t join new League of nations, Kaiser and Germans put on trial for war crimes.
What were the German reactions to the treaty?
The terms and signing of the treaty was greeted with horror and disbelief. Victory in the war seemed to be a matter of time until late 1918, due to propaganda. Nobody was told how desperate the military situation was on the Western front. Few Germans accepted moral responsibility for fulfilling the terms.
German objections to the treaty focus on a few provisions:
- Due to German territorial losses, many people who considered themselves German were now living in non-German states like Poland and Czechoslovakia. Separation of East Prussia from Germany by the Polish corridor caused resentment.
-War guilt cause - unjust national humiliation. Germans believed they were forced into war.
-Reparations - would cripple German economy.
Didn’t accepted war guilt which justified them.
- Disarming of Germany, exclusion from league of Nations seen as unjust discrimination.
Were the German complaints to the treaty justified?
- The armistice made territorial arrangements clear
- Treaty could have been harsher, yet the allies still needed Germany to be strong enough to withstand spread of communism from Russia.
- Germany enforced a harsher treaty on Russia in the treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918.
- Germany had planned to enforce a harsh treaty on the defeated allies including severe reparations, expansion of German empire and annexation of enemy territory.
- Reparations bill lower than demanded by French.
What was the political crisis of June 1919?
- The rejection of German requests and the demand for acceptance of the treaty within 7 days caused a political crisis. Scheidemann and some ministers wanted to reject the treaty, whereas the majority of the cabinet and SPD believed Germany had no other choice but to sign the treaty.
- President Scheidemann resigned as chancellor and a new coalition cabinet, led by Gustav Bauer, was formed.
- Some high ranking officers were discussing the possibility of resisting the signing of the treaty through military action. General Groener told Ebert that military action would be futile and Germany had no alternative but to accept the treaty.
What was the reaction of pro-republican parties to the signing of the Versailles treaty?
- SPD knew signing the treaty would rebound on them, and asked their opponents to state those who voted for the treaty were not unpatriotic. They believed outwardly complying with the terms whilst negotiating modifications was the most sensible course of action. - policy of fulfilment.
- The treaty turned some people against the Weimar Republic. It alienated moderates who accepted the treaty in promises of a better Germany, but couldn’t accept politicians who seemed to have the country. Treaty associated the republic with weakness and failure.
What was the reaction on the right to the signing of the treaty of Versailles?
Resentment of the Republic was intensified by the signing of the treaty. Led many to join groups committed to the overthrow of the republic. Nationalists believed politicians had betrayed the fatherland and lacked legitimacy. They became ‘November criminals’ who ‘stabbed in the back’. This myth was the justification for nationalist attacks on the Republic and the treaty.
This was also appealing to ex soldiers who suffered in fighting and then experienced humiliation when they returned to Germany. However some of the soldiers, particularly working class ones, supported the democratic system. Some people gravitated towards the Communist parties. Many couldn’t adjust to civilian life and yearned for the purpose from the war years, leading them to join the Freikorps and right wing nationalist groups, so in the early years of the Weimar Republic, democratic politics was under constant threat from nationalist groups.
What were the reactions from Britain to the Treaty of Versailles?
-Prime minister Lloyd George given great reception of his return to Britain.
-Public was satisfied that Germany had lost things that would make them unable to threaten European peace for a while.
- Privately, Prime minister didn’t want Germany to be so weak that it couldn’t resist expansion of USSR, and wanted Germany to be a partner with Britain in the future.
- Many saw the French as greedy, and there was a growing feeling Germany had been treated unfairly at Versailles.
- Influential view, John Keynes, reparations was too high.
What were the reactions from France to the Treaty of Versailles?
- Determined to seek revenge at Versailles as they suffered the most.
- The reparations and demilitarisation of Rhineland were key French demands.
- Many in France thought the treaty was too lenient, see in in the Prime Minister Clemenceau, being defeated in the next election for making too many concessions.
- ‘Not peace, but an armistice for 20 years’
What was the reactions from the United States to the Treaty of Versailles?
- Generally negative reactions
- Widespread opinion the treaty was unfair on Germany. Britain and France wanted to enrich themselves as Germany’s expense
- USA made separate peace w/ Germany in 1921, refused to join the League of Nations and in 1920, retreated from involvement in European affairs.
What financial problems did the war cause?
- The war effort required government spending. In Germany, wartime governments chose to finance the war through increased borrowing and printing of money. Therefore, debt grew and value of currency fell. This was because Germany thought they would win the war and recoup its losses by annexing industrial areas of defeated enemies and forcing them to pay reparations.
- 1919 - debt of 1.44 billion marks. Raising taxes would risk loosing support for the new republic. Reducing spending was difficult as civil servants had to be paid. Couldn’t use these methods.
- Inflation was allowed to continue unchecked. 1920 coalition was using inflation to take short term loans to expand their businesses and then repay them when their value had reduced by inflation. Inflation also lessened the governments burden of debt.
What was the political impact of reparations?
- The ultimatum to accept the treaty terms within 6 days caused a political crisis in Germany. Cabinet of Fehrenbach resigned in protest and was replaced. There was no alternative to acceptance and the new government signed unwillingly and made its first payment soon after.
- Policy of fulfillment - German governments calculated cooperation would win sympathy from the allies and a revision of terms.
- Germany had many postponements throughout the years and in November 1922, asked for a loan of 500 million marks and to be released from obligations for 3-4 years to stabilise its currency. The French were suspicious this was an excuse and refused to agree. Ultimately, this led to French and Belgian forces occupying the Ruhr industrial area of Germany in attempt to extract payment by force.
What was the economic impact of reparations?
- Made the repayment of the huge government debt from the war even more difficult. Gold reserves were inadequate for the amount that had to be payed. Coal reparations were difficult as Germany had many coal reserves taken away.
- Allies wouldn’t let Germany use manufactured goods to pay as it was regarded as a threat to jobs and businesses.
- Could’ve used foreign currency to make the payments by using export trade to other nations, yet allies confiscated its merchant fleet and imposed high tariffs on imports of German goods.
- Allies were forcing Germany to pay reparations but making it difficult for them to do so and so the response was to print more money.
What was the Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr?
- End of 1922, Germany fallen behind in coal reparations to France. This prompted the French and Belgians to send a military force of 60000 men to occupy the Ruhr industrial area in January 1923 to force Germany to comply. Their aim was to seize the area’s coal and manufactured goods as reparations.
- Number of troops grew to 100000.
- The Germans could not fight back as the treaty reduced the size of the German and the Rhineland(part of the Ruhr) was demilitarised.
-Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno instead stopped reparation payments and ordered ‘passive resistance’ where no one living in the area would cooperate with the French authorities. German workers wages would continue if they went on strike while paramilitary troops secretly organised acts of sabotage against the French. - The French set up military courts and punished mine owners, miners and civil servants who didn’t comply with their authority. 150000 Germans expelled form area. 132 Germans shot over occupation. French brought their own workers to operate the Ruhr. However, output in the Ruhr had fell to a fifth of its pre-occupation output.
What were the economic effects of the occupation of the Ruhr?
Catastrophic for Germany economy.
- Paying wages of striking workers drained government finances
- Tax revenue lost from closed businesses and unemployed workers
- Germany had to import coal and pay for it using the foreign currency reserves
- Shortage of goods pushed prices further up
Costs of this amounted to 2x annual reparation payments. And so, the government had to print more money which was the trigger for the hyperinflation crisis.
What happened during the hyperinflation crisis?
Money lost its value. Money was continuously printed. Workers had to collect wages in wheelbarrows and tried to spend it as quickly as possible, before prices rose further.
Food began to run short as speculators hoarded supplies in anticipation of higher prices
There were riots and crowds looted shops. People travelled to countryside to take food from farms, but farmers were trying to protect their livelihoods. Increase in theft. People bartered possessions in exchange for vital supplies.
How did social welfare change after 1919?
- People were motivated by a desire for a better and freer life. There were also more people who needed support as a result of injury of death during the war. One of the key rights set out in the Weimar constitution was that every German citizen should have the right to work or to welfare. This led to a series of reforms:
1919: Limits working day to 8 hours
1919: State health insurance system was extended to wives, daughters and the disabled
1919: Aid for war veterans incapable of working, also for war widows and orphans
1922: National youth Welfare Act - Youth offices set up with responsibility for child protection and decreed all children have a right to education
The social welfare budget increased government spending. More money was printed to pay for these, exacerbated the hyperinflation crisis.
What was the social impact of hyperinflation?
WINNERS:
- Black marketeers (bought up food stocks and sold at inflated prices)
- Those with debt, mortgages, loans (pay off money in worthless currency)
- Enterprising business people (took out loans and repaid once currency devalued)
- Farmers (food was in demand)
LOSERS:
- Pensioners and war widows living on state pensions
- Those who purchased war bonds (patriotically lending money to government in wartime) lost out as interest payments decreased in value.
- Landlords reliant on fixed rents
- Workers (particularly unskilled) and those that didn’t belong to trade unions. Workers wage increases didn’t keep up with rising prices. Increase in unemployment.
- The Mittelstand. prices they charged couldn’t keep up with inflation.
- The sick. Cost of medical care increased. Food prices led to malnutrition. Death rates increased as did suicide rate.
- Many of the middle class became impoverished and their comfortable life destroyed.
Why was coalition government formed and what were the problems of it?
- Governments needed to command majority support in the Reichstag. There were coalitions because no party was ever in a position to form a government by itself with the system of proportional representation…….
What was the Spartacist uprising? (the left)
- January 5 1919, the Spartacus League (Sparticists), led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, staged an armed uprising in Berlin to overthrow Ebert’s government and set up a communist regime.
- Newspaper offices and buildings occupied.
- Poorly supported by working class in Berlin, in whose name they were acting.
- The Freikorps put down the revolt and it was crushed by 13 January. Street fights led to the leaders and other prisoners being killed.
- The brutality of the revolts suppression and Eberts reliance on the army and Freikorps deepened divisions on the left.
What were some left wing uprisings?
January 1919 - Spartacist uprising
April 1919 - wave of strikes in Germans industrisl heartlands
1920 - Communists formed a ‘red army’ of 50000 workers and seized control of the Ruhr. Freikorps strugled to crush the rising.
March 1921 - KPD tried to force a revolution. Crushed shortly after.
What was the Kapp Putsch, 1920? ( the right)
As of the terms of the treaty of Versailles, the government had to reduce the size of the army.
- The defence minister, Gustav Noske, ordered 2 Freikorps units (12000 men) to disband.
- The commanding general (Luttwitz) refused to disband one of them and the government ordered his arrest.
- Luttwitz marched his troops to Berlin in protest and other officers offered their support. He was supported also by Wolfgang Kapp, who wanted to organise a putsch.
