SOCIETY / EXTREMIST THREATS 1918-1924

Question 1

WHEN did the Weimar government extend health insurance and HOW?

Answer 1

1919 - to different social groups, including the disabled or women without their own income

Question 2

WHEN was the Imperial Youth Welfare Act made?

Answer 2

1922

Question 3

WHAT did the Imperial Youth Welfare Act do?

Answer 3

All children had the right to education and each Lander had to set up youth offices for child protection

Question 4

WHEN was a maximum working week set in Germany and to WHAT?

Answer 4

In 1919, the maximum working week was set to 48 hours

Question 5

WHEN was the Spartacist Uprising?

Answer 5

5th - 15th January 1919

Question 6

HOW MANY protested during the Spartacist Uprising?

Answer 6

5,000, led by the KPD and the USPD

Question 7

WHY did the Spartacist Uprising fail?

Answer 7

• They were unable to decide upon any firm direction as its leaders were theorists not strategists
• Ebert ordered the Freikorps to crush the revolt
• Luxemburg and Liebknecht were arrested and shot

Question 8

HOW MANY died during/after the Spartacist Uprising?

Answer 8

17 Freikorps and 156 Spartacists were confirmed to be killed but some socialists say 2,000 - 3,000 demonstrators were shot

Question 9

WHAT were the consequences of the Spartacist Uprising?

Answer 9

Ebert’s request for the Freikorps and army to suppress the revolt split the left and the KPD never forgave him.

Question 10

WHO were the Freikorps?

Answer 10

Paramilitary groups of nationalist, anti-republican (usually) ex-soldiers who often worked with the army and sometimes helped the government (often to stop communist rebellions)

Question 11

WHAT did Major Schulz famously say to his Freikorps troops?

Answer 11

That it was “a lot better to kill a few innocent people than to let one guilty person escape”

Question 12

WHEN was the Raterepublik?

Answer 12

6th April - 3rd May 1919

Question 13

WHAT was the Raterepublik?

Answer 13

Bavarian left-wing rebellion against the Freikorps after their leader was murdered

Question 14

HOW was the Raterepublik ‘resolved’?

Answer 14

1) Almost 30,000 Freikorps and soldiers entered and ‘secured’ Munich in bloody street fighting.
2) Afterwards, a 400,000 strong Citizen’s Defence Force was founded in Bavaria to ‘protect’ the state from the left

Question 15

WHAT is an example of the extreme treatment of the left by authorities during the early Weimar years?

Answer 15

The Hamburg rising (1923) was a KPD rebellion where after the rebels quietly left, 100 were shot and 1,400 were arrested despite only 300 being active participants

Question 16

WHO were Organisation Consul?

Answer 16

A former Freikorps group known as the Ehrhardt Brigade who were one of the disbanded Freikorps groups that caused the Kapp Putsch

Question 17

WHAT were some paramilitary groups for extremist parties?

Answer 17

• The Red Front (KPD)
• The Stahlhelm (DNVP)
• The SA (NSDAP)

Question 18

WHEN was the Kapp Putsch?

Answer 18

12th March - 18th March 1920

Question 19

WHAT was the Kapp Putsch?

Answer 19

Freikorps rebellion where 12,000 men marched into Berlin, unopposed as German Army commander von Seeckt refused to order regular soldiers to fire on them

Question 20

HOW was the Kapp Putsch brought to an end?

Answer 20

Ebert called for the most powerful general strike in German history, bringing the country to a halt

Question 21

HOW MANY went on strike to stop the Kapp Putsch?

Answer 21

12 million workers

Question 22

HOW were the participants in the Kapp Putsch treated?

Answer 22

Very leniently. Only one was punished while over half were granted amnesty (an official pardon)

Question 23

HOW were participants of the Ruhr uprising treated?

Answer 23

Extremely harshly. Many were illegally executed by the Freikorps. It is thought that the Red Ruhr army saw up to 1,000 casualties.

Question 24

WHAT was the Ruhr uprising?

Answer 24

The Ruhr refused to rejoin Germany after Ebert called of the nationwide strikes (after the Kapp Putsch) and declared themselves as an independent state.

Question 25

HOW MANY political assassinations were there between 1919 and 1923?

Answer 25

376

Question 26

WHAT percentage of political assassinations were by each political wing?

Answer 26

95% were by the right wing, against the left while 5% were by the left against the right

Question 27

WHO was Walther Rathenau?

Answer 27

A Jewish politician who had helped arrange the armistice and the Treaty of Versailles who was assassinated by Organisation Consul in 1922

Question 28

WHEN was Walther Rathenau assassinated and what were the consequences?

Answer 28

June 1922:
Many demonstrated in Berlin against his assassination and he became almost a democratic martyr for Weimar