The spirit of pre-weimar germany

Question 1

To what extent did Hidenburg and Ludendorff establish a silent dictatorship?

Answer 1

• German victories at the start of the war made the reputation of Hindeburg as virtually invincible general
• a cult of hero quickly developed around him
• change of leadership in the middle years of the war, it was not a radical civilian politician but the two most successful generals whot took over in 1916
• Hindenburg and Ludendorff established a slient dictatorship:
• military rule (generals control war aims and foreign policy)
• severe curbs on civil liberties
• central control of the economy

Question 2

What evidence is there to demonstrate to what extent Hindenburg and Ludendorff established a silent dictatorship?

Answer 2

• The ‘Hindenburg Programme’ attempted to galvanize and reorganise the german economy to bend it to the overriding purpose of winning the war
• The war office, run by general Wilhelm Groener, coopted the trade unions and civilian politicians in the task of mobilisaiton which was anathema to industrialist and other generals
• Groener was soon disposed of (pushing all civilian politicians aside)
• ludendorff ordered a sysytematic economic expolitation of france, belgium and east-central europe

Question 3

What was the ideological commitment of the Socialists towards the War?

Answer 3

• the idea of siegfriede was repugnant to them; the war to them was purely defensive
• The leaders had hoped to avoid war
• 1914 the social democrats unanimously voted for the war credits because tsarist russia the enemey of democracy and socialism was about to attack the fatherland
• the fact their supporters shared a patriotic desire to defend the fatherland could not be ignoried by the party leaders
• opposed to the influence of the supreme command
• oppposed to the unrestricted submarine warfare
• to resist the government on that account would be undermining the war effort which would likely bring discredit upon the dials of parliamentary democracy
• their path of duty obliged them to continue cooperation with non-socialist parties for the duration of the hostilities

Question 4

What was the position of the Social Democratic Party in 1916?

Answer 4

• the once monlithic party which begun supporting the war mainly as a defensive operation against the threat from the east had been beset by increasing doubt as the scale of the annexations demanded by the government became clear
• 1916 the party split into pro-war and anti-war factions
• the majority continued, with reservations, to support the war and to proagate moderate reforms rather than wholesale revolution

Question 5

What changes and groupings took place among the Socialists?

January 1918 massive strikes and demonstrations

December 1920 many joined the KPD

1922 the remainder re-joined the SPD

Answer 5

1. April 1917 The minority founded the Independant Socialist Party (USPD)
2. The USPD shared with the Spartacus League a hostility to the war, but shared with the SPD a commitment to constitutional methods
3. November 1918 the USPD joined a coalitioin with the SPD
4. SPD and USPD set up Council of People Commissars a new compromise government that gained support of representatives from numerous councils throughout germany
5. protestors expected new government to set up a socialist republic but it was more moderate than its title suggested
6. Decmeber 1918 the national congress of workers and soldiers councils voted 344 to 98 to reject a government based on the councils
7. they instead supported Eberts preference for electing a constituent assembly
8. in December 1918 the USPD left the government
9. December 1918 amongst the minority of USPD a few (from the Spartacus League), led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, founded the Communist party (KPD)
10. the congress of workers and soldiers councils favoured some radical reforms which ebert’s government was not prepared to endorse such as changes to the nature of the army and a socialisation of some industries
11. Ebert’s moderate line aroused left-wing opposition
12. January 1919 the split between moderate social democrats on the one hand and radical socialists and communists on the other becmae an unbridgeable chasm
13. Mach 1919 the foundation of the Third Communist International formalised the split within marxism between communists and social democrats and brought together the more radical pro soviet parties

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Question 6

What was the poistion of the Social Democratic Party in 1918?

Answer 6

• the time seemed ripe for a remodelling of society and a break with the imperial past but german socialists were not fully prepared not united for the revolution
• the majority of the SPD foundit difficult to escape for pre-war categories of thinking and strategy
• a tendancy to play down their revolutionary programme to settle down to work on reforms, including a constitutional monarchy
• October their programme was partially implemented and its completion seemed likely with republic’s proclamation
• ebert intended to restore the conditions necessary to the hoding of elections to a national assembly
• the larger body would then have the responsibility of drawing up the propsed new constitution
• naturally, the SPD anticipated that with collapse of the old state the elections would return the sort of socialist majorities who would restructure german society.

Question 7

To what extent was the war an influence in triggering the Sparticist revolt?

Answer 7

• even before events in petrograd a popular backlash was brewing against the war
• for their radical critics, elite- aristocratic, bourgeois and moderate socialist- had led their countries along a disastrous and pointless path of aggression
• they could no longer countenance belonging to a class that had driven millions of people to their deaths

Question 8

What evidence is there to demonstrate to what extent the the war was an influence in triggering the Sparticist revolt?

Answer 8

• Germany 1917 over 500 strikes involved 1.5 million workers,
• protestors became increasingly politicised showing attention to the unequal wartime sacrifices made by different classes
• by the spring and summer of 1917 they were demmanding an end to the war

Question 9

To what extent was the bolshevik revolution an influence in triggering the Sparticist revolt?

Question 10

What evidence is there to demonstrate to what extent the bolshevik revolution was an influence in triggering the Sparticist revolt?

Answer 10

• superficicially german politics looked strikingly similar to russia’s afrer february 1917

for example:

• workers and soldiers councils
• new provisional government consisting of liberals, moderate socialists (SPD) and a minority of radicals (USPD)
• the sparticists demanded a soviet style revolution - however just a minority and most councils supported a liberal order
• the bolsheviks formed a Communist International (Comintern) to propagate their vision of revolution in the rest of the world. In doing so they could take advantage of the fact that socialist movements in many countries had split over the issues raised by the war
• 1919 soviet republics were declared in Hungary (march), Bavaria (April) and slovakia (june) and seemed to show that there was a real chance that bolshevism would spread

Question 11

Why did the Sparticists revolt in January 1919?

Answer 11

• Bolshevik revolution further strengthened the radical left but it was defeat in the war which was crucial in triggering the revolutions
• January 1919 there were mass protests at the dismissal of a radical police chief Eichhorn which turned into a largely spontaneous uprising
• communist members of the sparticist league tried to take it over in the hope that it would become a communist revolution

Question 12

What were the key events of the Sparticist revolt?

Answer 12

• January 7 1919 launched revolutionary uprising in Berlin
• with support of the army and the Free Crops the revolt was surpressed by force
• January 15 assasination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht after their arrest and imprisonment

Question 13

How was the Sparticist Revolt defeated?

Answer 13

the revolt failed because Germany was not Russia, an autocratic state, it was a federal state which required many seperate states to be overthrown - evolution would be difficult in Germany

Question 14

Why was the Sparticist revolt surpressed?

Answer 14

• Ebert was convinced he was under threat from a new bolshevik revolution and therefore he acted more desively than his russian predecessor. Kerenskii, believing that only an alliance with the military and the old imperial elites would ward off the revolutionary danger and guarantee liberal democracy
• social democrats feared if that if the communists came into power they would meet the fate sufferd by the moderate socialists mensheviks
• democrats conscious that communism was intent on suppressing human rights, dismantling representative institutions and abolishing civil freedoms
• this terror led them to believe communism should be stopped even by violent means

Question 15

What were the aims of the Sparticist Revolt?

Answer 15

• the radical socialists had wanted to seize the opportuniy for a thorough-going reform of the army and for the socialisation of the means of production , in a effect a genuine revolution, not to admiinister affairs on temporary basis pending national elections

Question 16

What were the consequences of the sparticist revolt?

Answer 16

1. spread fear and terror amongst the middle and upper classes
2. ebert’s willingness to ally his government with the right against the workers’ councils in retrospect seems to have been a overreaction that contributed to the damaging polarisation of german politics between the wars
3. exessive brutality used by the SPD aroused bitter resentment and hostility at this early date which helped sustain the communists later view of the social democrats as social fascists a worse enemy than the nazis, -prevented any future coalitions in the left which would have obstructed the rise to power of the extreme right.