Topic 1 Flashcards
Name of the Kaiser that abdicated at the end of WW1?
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Date of the Kaiser’s abdication?
9th November 1918
Date of Constituent Assembly elections?
19th January 1919
What is the meaning of Constituent Assembly?
A group of representitives elected to set up a new constitution
Why was the meeting of the Constituent Assembly held in Weimar?
Berlin was considered a place to dangerous to meet
What type of government had to be formed after the January elections?
A coalition government
What was significant about the Weimar Republic?
Germany had its first democracy
How often was the President elected?
Every seven years
What was Article 48?
A clause that meant that the President could suspend the constitution in an emergency and make laws and keep the Chancellor in office without Reichstag support
How was the Chancellor chosen?
By the President, with majority support of the Reichstag
How often was the Reichstag elected?
Every four years
What was the Reichsrat?
55 representitives from 18 German states. They couldn’t make laws but could approve laws proposed by the Chancellor and the Reichstag
What age could men and women vote in the Weimar Republic?
20 years of age
Why was Proportional Representation a flaw in the Weimar Constitution?
Produced a large amount of parties and made a majority very difficult to win. Caused many coalition governments
When was the Treaty of Versailles signed?
28th June 1919
What percentage of land did Germany lose as a term of the T of V?
13% of their total land
What was the War Guilt Clause in the T of V?
A clause that stated that Germany had to accept blame for starting the war in 1914; this meant that they had to pay compensation to the allied powers
What does the term ‘dolchstoss’ mean?
Stabbed in the back
Who were the November Criminals?
They were the politicians who signed the armistice in 1918
What are the main territorial terms of the T of V?
All colonies were given to the Allied Powers,
Alsace-Lorraine returned to France,
Posen and West Prussia given to Poland,
No union with Austria
What are the main military terms of the T of V?
Army no to exceed 100,000 men,
No tanks, armoured cars or heavy military,
No airforce permitted,
No navy ship greater than 10,000 tonnes,
No submarines permitted,
Rhineland demilitarised
What are the main financial terms of the T of V?
Coal to be mined in the Saar by France,
Reparations fixed at £6.6 billion,
Cattle and sheep given to France and Belgium,
Germany to build merchant ships to replace those sunk by U-boats
Why did the Weimar government make a deal with the army leader, Groener?
Due to a fear of revolution, the government would support the army if the army defended against a revolution
What political ideology did the Sparticist League belong to?
The communist ideology
When did the Sparticist Uprising begin?
December 1918
When did the Spartacists begin their attempts to overthrow the government?
6th January 1919
Who were the Freikorps?
They were paramilitary groups of demobilised soldiers at the end of the war
Who were the leaders of the Spartacist League?
Karl Leibknecht and Rosa Luxemburg
What brought about the Kapp Putsch?
A decision to reduce the size of the army and dispand the Freikorps led to uproar in Berlin
Who were the leaders of the Kapp Putsch?
Ehrhardt, the Freikorps leader, and Wolfgang Kapp, a Berlin politician
What were the main reasons that Kapp stressed for revolution?
The Communist threat, the Dolschstoss theory and the severity of the Treaty of Versailles
When did Kapp successfully seize Berlin?
13th March 1920
How was the Putsch put down in Berlin?
Workers strikes and a lack of support lead to the collapse of the Putsch
Why did the value of German currency fall in the early 1920s?
The Weimar government began to print money to pay reparations, but also their own workers
How much money did Germany have to pay per year in reparations payments?
£100 million per year
When did France invade the Ruhr for the first time?
1921
When did the second occupation of the Ruhr occur?
January 1923
How did German workers resist the French occupation?
Workers in the Ruhr went on strike as protest against the invasion; a number of these people were shot by the French soldiers
Who did hyperinflation benefit?
Businessmen who had borrowed money could pay back easily, higher food prices benefitted farmers
