The political and economic instability of the early Weimer period 1918-1923

Question 1

What were the revolutionary disturbances by the left wing?

Answer 1

Reb Bavaria
The German October

Question 2

What caused the Red Bavaria?

Answer 2

Collapse of Bavarian monarchy
USPD leader Kurt Eisner took pol. lead, but struggled to unite socialist parties to implement reforms + was assassinated

Question 3

When was Kurt Eisner assassinated?

Answer 3

21st February 1919

Question 4

What was set up by Eugen Levine after the assassination of Kurt Eisner?

Answer 4

A Bavarian soviet republic with a ‘Red Army’ of workers

Question 5

What did the Bavarian soviet republic set up by Eugen Levine proposed?

Answer 5

Radical political and economic changes

Question 6

What is the event, White Terror?

Answer 6

After a month of Eugen Leviine’s republic, Freikorps and army moved in and brutally crushed republic with 1000 deaths in May

Question 7

What were the consequences of the Red Bavaria?

Answer 7

Traumatic episode in a conservative, agricultural Catholic area shifted politics to right wing and it became a haven for extremists

Question 8

What were the events of the German October?

Answer 8

Crisis of 1923, left-wing revolutionary actions came to head in central Germany. KPD + SPD formed coalitions in regional gov. of Saxony + Thuringia, but Communists took it further + mad military preparations for uprising w/ Proletarian Hundreds
Stresemann’s gov. acted rapidly to stop plan for German October revolution, crushed units, regional gov.s created without Communists

Question 9

What are Proletarian Hundreds?

Answer 9

Defence units

Question 10

The actions by the extreme left gave the impression of what?

Answer 10

That Germany was facing a Bolshevik-inspired Red Threat

Question 11

What was a result of the right wing propaganda about the Red threat?

Answer 11

Germans began to have exaggerated fears about the possibility of impending revolution

Question 12

What were the main reasons for the failure of left-wing revolutions?

Answer 12

Bad co-ordination, during chaos of 1923, activities of lw proved incapable of mounting unified attack
Poor leadership, repression suffered by Freikorps removes some of its most able and spirited leaders e.g. Liebknecht and Luxemburg, later leadership suffered from internal divisions + disagreements on tactics
Concessions, Weimer gov.s played on differences in LW by making concessions which split it, e.g. over Kapp Putsch March 1920
Repression, authorities repressed rebels w/ considerable brutality

Question 13

The right wing was drawn together by a growing belief in what?

Answer 13

Anti-democracy
Anti-Marxism
Authoritarianism
Nationalism

Question 14

What were the two major extreme right uprisings?

Answer 14

The Kapp Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch

Question 15

When was the outbreak of the Kapp Putsch?

Answer 15

13th March 1920

Question 16

Who played a central role in the Kapp Putsch?

Answer 16

The Freikorps because by 1920 there was considerable unease in the ranks at the demands to reduce the size of German army (ToV)

Question 17

What were the events of the Kapp Putsch?

Answer 17

When it was proposed to disband two brigades of the army, Wolfgang Kapp nad General Luttwitz exploited the sutuation
Encouraged 12,000 troops to march on Berlin + seize main buildings unopposed where they installed a new gov.
German army didn’t provide resistance to putsch
SPD members called for strike, paralysed capital + spread to rest of country
After 4 days, Kapp and his gov. exerted no real authority and fled the city

Question 18

When was the Great Inflation?

Answer 18

1923

Question 19

What were the fundamental problems the economy faced by 1919?

Answer 19

Loss of resources from territories, result in 16% decline in coal production, 13% decline in arable agriculture land, 48% loss of iron ore
Cost of paying reparations
Growing increase in prices, between 1914 and 1918, real value of mark falling, while prices of basic goods increased nearly 4 fold
Increase in national debt to 144,000m marks compared to 5,000m marks in 1914
Depended on ability to export, between 1914 - 1918, world trade collapsed, after 1919, trade was sluggish