The Impact of the First World War/The Weimar Republic

Question 1

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Answer 1

Ruler of Germany/German Emperor (1888-1918)

Question 2

What is mutiny?

Answer 2

To rise against or refuse to obey (military) authority.

Question 3

What is a republic?

Answer 3

System of government which doesn’t have a monarch.

Question 4

What is a dictatorship?

Answer 4

System in which one person is in total control.

Question 5

What is the Kiel Mutiny?

Answer 5

• On 3rd November 1918 at the main German naval base in Kiel, frustrated German sailors mutinied instead of following orders to attack the British Royal Navy
• The sailors’ mutiny sparked rebellions all over Germany
• In a matter of days it led to the collapse of the German government which forced the ruling monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm II, to abdicate on 9th November
• Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) became Chancellor (the equivalent of Prime Minister in Britain) and took power over Germany.

Question 6

Economic impact of WW1 (Germany was virtually bankrupt)

Answer 6

• Industrial production was about two-thirds of what it had been in 1913
• National income was about one-third of what it had been in 1913
• War left 600,000 widows and 2 million children without fathers, by 1925 the state was spending about one-third of its BUDGET in war pensions
• Acute shortages of food
• Fuel was short and people were cold
• Nearly 300,000 people died from starvation and hypothermia in 1918

Question 7

Political impact of WW1 (Germany had a revolution and became an unstable democratic republic. Groups with extremist political views tried to gain power.)

Answer 7

• Stresses of war led to a revolution in October-November 1918
• There was fighting between right-wing and left-wing groups
• Many ex-soldiers and civilians despised the new democratic leaders
• They believed that the heroic Field Marshal Hindenburg had been betrayed by weak politicians

Question 8

Social impact of WW1 (The war had deepened divisions in German society)

Answer 8

• Huge gaps between the living standards of the rich and the poor
• One and a half million demobilised soldiers returned to society, many disillusioned
• Many German workers were bitter at the restrictions placed on their earnings during WW1, whilst factory owners made vast fortunes from the war
• Angry about losing the war

Question 9

What was the Weimar Republic?

Answer 9

The name given to the German government between 1919 and 1933.

Question 10

Who was the first president of the Weimar Republic?

Answer 10

Friedrich Ebert: First democratically elected President of Germany (1919-1925)

Question 11

Who was the second president of the Weimar Republic?

Answer 11

Paul von Hindenburg (1925-1934)

Question 12

How long was Stresemann the Chancellor of the Weimar Republic for?

Answer 12

3 months from 1923

Question 13

How did a new government, the Weimar Republic, evolve?

Answer 13

• In January 1919 free elections took place for the first time in Germany’s history
• Ebert’s party won a majority and he became the president of the Weimar Republic
• The new government met in the small town of Weimar to start with since Berlin was too violent and unstable

Question 14

What was the Weimar Government like?

Answer 14

• The Reichstag was the German Parliament building
• The new government was headed by President Friedrich Ebert who was elected for 6 years
• The President could make decisions without consulting the Reichstag if there was a state of emergency according to Article 48.
• The Chancellor was usually the leader of the political party with the most seats in the Reichstag
• The people voted for which parties got seats in the Reichstag by the system of Proportional Representation.

Question 15

What’s Proportional Representation?

Answer 15

• Each party got the same percentage of seats in parliament as the percentage of votes it received in an election.
• If a party gained 20% of the votes, they gained 20% of the seats in the Reichstag
• This meant there were lots of small parties in Parliament making it difficult to pass laws and led to weak and often short-lived governments.

Question 16

What was Article 48?

Answer 16

• This gave the president the power to act without parliament’s approval in an emergency.
• However, it did not clearly define what an ‘emergency’ was, so the power was overused, which weakened Germans’ confidence in democracy.

Question 17

How did the Chancellor pass new laws?

Answer 17

He needed the support of half the Reichstag.

Question 18

What two factors did the success of the new Government (Weimar Republic) depend on?

Answer 18

• The Constitution: The new Constitution needed to provide a practical solution to the challenge of ruling Germany.
• The German people: They needed to accept a change from an autocratic German system of government to this new democratic system

Question 19

The threat from the Left: Spartacists (Card 1)

Answer 19

• Left-wing group
• Communist group
• Led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg
• Early in 1919 the Spartacists launched their bid for power
• Set up soviets in many towns
• Not all soldiers were on the side of the Spartacists though
• Some anti-communist ex-soldiers had formed themselves into groups called the Freikorps

Question 20

The threat from the Left: Spartacists (Card 2)

Answer 20

• Ebert made an agreement with the commanders of the army and the Freikorps to put down the rebellion
• Bitter street fighting, heavy casualties
• The Freikorps won and Liebknecht and Luxemburg were murdered
• Another Communists arising started but the Freikorps killed 600 of them
• In 1920 there were more communist uprisings, in the Ruhr, but the Freikorps clashed with them and there were 2000 casualties
• Ebert and many Germans were afraid of Germany ending up in bloody war like Russia
• The Communists still remained a powerful force throughout the 1920s

Question 21

The threat from the Right: The Freikorps

Answer 21

• At the same time, Ebert’s government faced opposition from the right
• The right-wing opponents were largely people who had grown up in the successful days of the Kaiser’s Germany
• They resented the Treaty of Versailles, which they blamed Ebert for agreeing to

Question 22

What does ‘Putsch’ mean?

Answer 22

Rebellion

Question 23

What was the Kapp Putsch?

Answer 23

• In March 1920 Dr Wolfgang Kapp led 5000 Freikorps into Berlin in a rebellion known as the Kapp Putsch
• The army refused to fire on the Freikorps and it looked as if Ebert’s government was doomed
• However, it was saved by the German people, especially the industrial workers of Berlin
• They declared a General Strike which brought the capital to a halt with no transport, power or water
• Soon Kapp fled to the Netherlands since he realised he couldn’t succeed, he died whilst awaiting trial
• It seemed that Weimar had support and power after all

Question 24

What did Germany lose through the Treaty of Versailles?

Answer 24

• 10% of its land
• All of its overseas colonies
• 12.5% of its population
• 16% of its coal and 48% of iron from its industry

Question 25

What size was Germany’s army reduced to?

Answer 25

100,000 men

Question 26

What happened to Germany’s air force and navy?

Answer 26

• Not allowed an air force
• Navy was reduced

Question 27

Did Germany have to accept blame for starting the war?

Answer 27

Yes, Article 231 (The War Guilt Clause)

Question 28

How did Germans react to these terms of the Treaty of Versailles? (Card 1)

Answer 28

• Most Germans were appalled
• Supporters of the Weimar Government felt betrayed by the Allies
• The Kaiser was gone, so they didn’t understand why they should be punished for his war and aggression
• Opponents of the regime turned their fury on Ebert
• Ebert was very reluctant to sign the Treaty, but he had no choice since Germany couldn’t go back to war

Question 29

How did Germans react to these terms of the Treaty of Versailles? (Card 2)

Answer 29

• Many Germans believed that Ebert and his Weimar Republic were forever to blame for the Treaty
• Opponents of the WR believed that the German army had been ‘stabbed in the back’ by the Socialist and Liberal politicians who had agreed an armistice in November 1918 (November Criminals)
• Believed that Germany hadn’t been defeated on the battlefield, but had been betrayed by its civilian politicians who didn’t dare continue the war

Question 30

How much money did Germany have to pay in reparations to the Allies?

Answer 30

£6600 million

Question 31

What was the occupation of the Ruhr? (Card 1)

Answer 31

• The first instalment of £50 million was paid in 1921, but in 1922 nothing was paid
• Ebert did his best to negotiate concessions from the Allies, but the French particularly ran out of patience since they had war debts to pay as well
• So in January 1923 French and Belgian troops entered the Ruhr (quite legally under the TOV)
• They took what was owed to them in the form of raw materials and goods

Question 32

What was the occupation of the Ruhr? (Card 2)

Answer 32

• Disastrous for Germany and the government ordered the workers to go on strike. That way, there would be nothing for the French to take away.
• French reacted harshly, killing over 100 workers and expelling over 100,000 protesters from the region
• The halt in industrial production in Germany’s most important region caused the collapse of the German currency

Question 33

What is hyperinflation?

Answer 33

Process of money becoming worthless, most notable instance was in Germany in 1923.

Question 34

How did hyperinflation affect Germany? (Card 1)

Answer 34

• There were no goods to trade, so the Government printed money
• This paid off debts in worthless marks including war loans
• Great industrialists were able to pay off all their debts too
• With so much money in circulation, but not enough goods to buy with it, prices and wages rocketed
• People soon realised money was worthless
• Workers needed wheelbarrows to carry home their wages!

Question 35

How did hyperinflation affect Germany? (Card 2)

Answer 35

• The price of goods could rise between joining the back of a queue in a shop and reaching the front
• Poor people suffered
• Those who lost most were probably middle-class Germans
• E.g. A prosperous middle-class family would find that their savings, which might have bought a house in 1921, by 1923 wouldn’t even buy a loaf of bread
• Pensioners found their monthly pension wouldn’t buy one cup of coffee
• Government lost support of the middle classes

Question 36

Who became the new Chancellor of the Weimar Republic?

Answer 36

Gustav Stresemann in August 1923

Question 37

What did Stresemann do when he came into power?

Answer 37

• He called off the passive resistance in the Ruhr
• Called in the worthless marks and burned them, replacing them with a new currency called the Rentenmark
• Negotiated to receive American loans under the Dawes Plan
• He even renegotiated the reparations payments

Question 38

Strengths of the Weimar Republic

Answer 38

• A genuine democracy - Elections for parliament and president took place every four years and all Germans over 20 could vote.
• The power of the Reichstag - The Reichstag appointed the government and made all laws. This was very different from its powers before the war under the Kaiser.
• A Bill of Rights - This guaranteed every German citizen freedom of speech and religion, and equality under the law.

Question 39

Weaknesses of the Weimar Republic

Answer 39

• Proportional Representation
• Article 48