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germany > weimar > Flashcards

weimar Flashcards

1
Q

what land was lost at versailles?

A
  • all land gained from treaty of brest-litovsk
  • upper silesia
  • alsace and lorraine
  • eupen and malmedy
  • land rich in coal and iron
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2
Q

when was the treaty of versailles signed?

A

june 28 1919

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3
Q

what impact did versailles have on germany’s military?

A
  • rhineland became demilitarised buffer zone
  • germany army limited to 100k men + no tanks or heavy artillery
  • no warships over 10k tonnes and no submarines
  • not allowed an airforce
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4
Q

what were the other terms of versailles?

A
  • agreed that germany would have to pay reparations
  • price was fixed in 2021 at 132k million gold marks
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5
Q

when was weimar created?

A
  • november 9 1918
  • prince max announced wilhelms abdication
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6
Q

what changes were made under prince max?

A

extended vote to all men
- ministers and army responsible to government
- october 28 1918 - navy refused to to sail against british fleet, caused strikes
- november 8 - bavaria broke away from germany and declared itself a republic

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7
Q

when was the council of people’s representatives formed?

A

november 10 1918
led by ebert

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8
Q

what did the copr do?

A
  • faced similar problems as prince max
  • biggest parties - spd and uspd (led by haase)
  • november 11 - signed armistice
  • december 19 - fixed elections for january 19 1919
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9
Q

when was the ebert-groener pact signed and what was it?

A

november 10 1918
- army would support government as long as the government opposed left wing ideas of parties in the reichstag

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10
Q

what was the spartacist union?

A
  • broke away from uspd
  • formed by liebknecht and luxemburg
  • wanted - communist revolution, cancellation of national assembly, all large industrial companies seized, workers militias instead of police and army
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11
Q

when was the spartacist uprising and what happened?

A
  • january 5 1919 berlin
  • took over newspaper offices and formed revolutionary committee
  • crushed by freikorps
  • january 15 1919 - luxemburg and liebknecht murdered by army
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12
Q

how was the weimar constitution created?

A
  • 82.7% of people voted - showed they wanted a democracy
  • spd didn’t get a majority
  • formed coalition with centre party and ddp (germany democratic party)
  • ebert elected president on february 11
  • weimar constitution passed by national assembly on july 31 1919
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13
Q

what parties were there?

A

dnvp - right wing nationalists
dvp - moderate conservatives
centre party - largely catholic
ddp - liberal
spd - socialists
uspd - more radical leftists
kpd - communists

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14
Q

what challenges were there to the constitution?

A
  • unpopular after treaty of versailles
  • stab in the back myth
  • only took 60k votes to get a seat - hard to get a majority
  • 29 different parties in the reichstag in the 1920s
  • 9 different governments between 1919 and 1923
  • president had to use article 48 to rule by decree
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15
Q

how did the gov overcome challenges to the constitution?

A
  • hindenburg elected as president
  • stresemann urged parties to work together - also believed that economic recovery and political relations with other countries were important
  • political violence died down as economy improved
  • 1924-29 - no major political figures assassinated
  • 1929 - stresemann dies
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16
Q

what reasons were there for the collapse of democracy?

A
  • public feeling about weimar government - association with versailles, hindenburg elected as he created stab in the back theory
  • economic problems - government failed to agree on a policy to help with depression, prices/unemployment increase, wages fell, more support for extreme parties
  • coalition failure - hindenburg kept changing chancellors, 109 laws passed from july 1930 until 1932 with article 48
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17
Q

what was the impact of the treaty of versailles?

A
  • germans felt that the gov betrayed the country
  • result of misinfo - germans had no clue how the war was actually going for germany and believed newspapers saying they couldve won
  • reparations enabled resentment towards versailles
  • dawes plan (1924) and young plan (1929) didnt help
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18
Q

what political extremism was there in weimar?

A
  • government opposed by extreme groups for: involvement in versailles, liberal/democratic policies, failure to produce strong gov and strong leader, failure to unite germany
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19
Q

when was the spartacist uprising?

A

4 january 1919

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20
Q

what happened during the spartacist uprising?

A
  • 4 january 1919 - emil eichorn (police chief and radical uspd member) dismissed by police
  • 6 january - armed workers took over key buildings, inspired by russian revolution
  • ebert moved government to weimar for safety
  • freikorps crushed rebellion and executed leaders (liebknecht and luxemburg)
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21
Q

what other left wing opposition was there in weimar?

A
  • bavaria march 1919
  • saxony and thuringia 1921
  • all had communists trying to take power over each state
  • all didn’t have enough support and were put down by the armyw
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22
Q

what right wing opposition was there in weimar?

A
  • motivated by wanting to overturn versailles and restore empire
  • dnvp initially acted as opposition party
  • wealthy landowners, army and industrialists
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23
Q

when was the kapp putsch and what happened?

A
  • 12 march 1920
  • kapp, lüttwitz and erhardt attempted to overthrow the gov
  • took over berlin and the gov fled
  • army did not join the putsch but wouldn’t fight the rebels
  • leaders said they were the new gov and dissolved the national assembly
  • trade unions called a general strike, and the kapp gov fell on the 16th
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24
Q

when was the munich putsch and what happened?

A
  • 8 november 1923
  • inspired by march on rome
  • hitler and the sa surrounded a beer cellar in munich where von kahr and other officials were in a meeting
  • hitler said the gov of bavaria and national gov were deposed and that he and ludendorff would form a new gov
  • locked them in but the prisoners escaped and organised resistance
  • nazis taken prisoner in the morning
25
Q

what concessions did ebert make?

A
  • 10 november 1918 - ebert groener pact
  • 15 november - stinnes-legien agreement with the leaders of the trade unions (legien) and the industrialist (stinnes), ebert offered legislation on hours of work/union representation for support
26
Q

what regional disruption was there in weimar?

A
  • varying control in each region of germany
  • all adopted weimar constitution at different times
  • thuringia didn’t hold elections until end of june 1920
27
Q

how did the government deal with opposition in weimar?

A
  • gov forced to rely on army to manage extremist threat
  • left wing problems dealt with quickly and brutally, harsh court sentences
  • army sometimes didn’t act against right wing threats at all, judiciary less harsh
  • made left wing opponents more angry
  • right wing opponents grew confident due to changing chancellors and depression
28
Q

which political parties supported the weimar constitution?

A
  • spd consistently supported it
  • centre party, ddp and dvp also formed coalitions
29
Q

what public support was there for the weimar consitution?

A
  • people supported it when welcomed with something they liked less
  • 1923 - reichsexecution in saxony, had been imposed and met with cheers
  • 1924-29, public support due to economic improvements
  • 1924 - spd won 131 seats, 1928 - 153
  • however right wing president elected by popular vote after, and then nazi regime
30
Q

what was the state of the economy in 1918?

A
  • june 1914 - 6 billion marks in circulation, 33 billion by december 1918
  • 150 printing firms with 2k printing presses to print banknotes
  • wages and savings lost value, prices increased
  • lack of trade, end of production of armaments
  • farm production dropped by 20%, industrial output halved
  • black market developed
31
Q

what social welfare was there post ww1?

A
  • retraining schemes and loans for soldiers leaving the army
  • national committees to oversea care in the länder
  • 1920 - 1.5m disabled veterans, 2m survivors not classified as disabled
  • 1924 - gov still supporting 800k disabled veterans, 420k war widows, 1m children and 200k parents of dead soldiers
  • 10% of population receiving federal welfare payments
32
Q

what debt and reparations were there post ww1?

A
  • 1918 - owed 150 billion marks, 3x what it did in 1914
  • reparations contributed to debt
  • 1921 - reparations negotiations, paid in goods such as coal and wood until 1924
33
Q

what happened to the ruhr post ww1?

A
  • january 1923 - germany failed to pay reparations in full
  • 1921 - london ultimatum of the allies said ruhr would be occupied if reparations failed
  • french invaded with belgian troops
  • german gov told officials to not listen to non-germans, urged passive resistance from workers
  • french cut off ruhr from the rest of germany, set up border w armed forced, took control of post/telegraphs, brought in their own workers
  • later in 1923, gov ended passive resistance and began negations with french
34
Q

what happened with hyperinflation post ww1?

A
  • may 1 1922 - newspaper cost 1 mark, 100k marks by 1 september 1923, 700 billion marks by november
  • reliance on black market and bartering
  • notgeld - emergency money, issued by towns regions and business
  • 750k federal and regional gov employees lost their jobs
  • fixed payments suffered - welfare and pension
35
Q

what did stresseman do in 1923?

A
  • august 1923
  • stresemann (dvp) was chancellor
  • used emergency decrees on august 10 to avoid decision making in reichstag
36
Q

how was the currency recovered?

A
  • october 1923 - rentenmark introduced, people who had savings objected to it
  • overseen by schacht - president of reichsbank in december 1923
  • august 1924 - reichsmark overseen by schacht as well
37
Q

how did foreign policy help economic recovery?

A
  • dawes plan - 1 september 1924, temporary, 132 million marks with 1m-2.5m marks a year for 5 years
  • young plan - 1929, permanent, 37 million marks over 58 years
  • stability, but relied on loans
  • 1 december 1925 - locarno treaty, germany accepts demilitarisation of rhineland and western borders
  • 27 august 1928 - kellogg briand pact outlawing war
38
Q

how were businesses recovered?

A
  • 1924 - more bankruptcies than in the last 5 years
  • big businesses formed cartels to fix prices and stabilise economy
  • 1925 - IG Farben set up, united chemical bases cartels
  • factories rebuilt with latest mass production assembly lines
  • 1925 - chemical industry producing 1/3 more than 1913, 2/3 more by 1930
  • strikes and lockouts were common, despite emergency decree on 30 october 1923 to settle disputes between employers and employees in state arbitration boards
  • 60k cases taken to arbitration boards by 1928
39
Q

how was trade recovered?

A
  • worldwide shift to isolationism
  • tariffs on foreign goods
  • germany suffered higher tariffs due to war guilt, but produced steel and chemicals that other countries needed
  • 10 september 1926 - germany joins league of nations
  • german exports back to 1913 levels of 10 billion marks by 1926
  • 34% higher than 1913 in 1929
40
Q

how was agriculture recovered?

A
  • 1920s - 1/3 to a 1/4 of all workers were in agriculture
  • bigger farms invested in new machinery and farming techniques
  • small farms were in debt and couldn’t pay interest on loans or taxes
  • big landowners, eg hindenburg, had big enough influence to block reforms that redistributed lands to poorer tenants - 1918 reich settlement law
41
Q

how did hyperinflation influence government spending?

A
  • subsidised grain production and industry
  • spent heavily on social welfare - housing and benefits for the poor
  • funded by loans and high taxation
  • 1913 - lowest tax band was made up of 47% of taxpayers, 62% in 1926 and 55% in 1928
  • rise meant that gov had to borrow money instead of raising taxes
  • gov had its own bank for federal and regional funding
  • disputes between workers/businesses affected productivity and drove wages up until depression in 1930
42
Q

what was the impact of the depression on weimar?

A
  • industrial production was half of 1928 levels by the end of 1932
  • unemployment rose from 6% to 30%
  • wages fell by 20-30%
  • gov failed to cope bc it didn’t make decisions quickly, hindenburg hesitant to govern by decree
  • coalition collapsed, replaced by bruning in 1930, suggested cuts in gov spending, wage cuts and higher taxes
  • reichstag rejected, but hindenburg put them into place in july 1930 by governing by decree
43
Q

did brunings economic policies work?

A
  • brunings policies brought deflation, but didn’t devalue the currency
  • 1 july 1931 - hoover moratorium (intl agreement) suspended need for germany to pay back loans for a year
  • december 1931 - bruning made emergency decree for wage cuts, ret cuts and tax rises, reparations wouldn’t be paid for 1932
  • deepened recession
  • industrial production, prices and exports all fell by 50%
  • unemployment peaked in 1932
44
Q

what were von papen and schleichers economic policies?

A
  • replaced bruning in late may 1932
  • tax concessions, subsidies for businesses to create jobs
  • gov caught up in political problems, didn’t focus on economy to create coherent policies
  • schleicher in december 1932
  • drew up list of public works, budget of 500 million rentenmarks, but didnt last long enough
  • unsuccessful policies led to unpopular gov, rise in support for extremist parties such as the nazis
45
Q

what were living standards like during ww1?

A
  • most food produced went to army
  • alternative foods, such as k-brot made from potato’s and oats
  • high rates of infant mortality and stillbirths
  • one district of berlin - 90% of all children 2-6 were undernourished
46
Q

what were living standards like post ww1?

A
  • benefits for the poorest - regulated pensions, coped with large number of people dependent on those who died during the war
  • increase in living standards until hyperinflation
  • women and single parents did work by the piece - badly paid, had to get their children to help
  • 8 hour working day established in 1918 disappeared by 1924
  • families lived in cramped housing - shared toilets/washing facilities
  • poorest shared one room, no running water
  • 1925 - 130k homeless in berlin, 45k paid to just sleep in a bed with no other facilities
  • men lost jobs as clerical workers - businesses preferred to hire women due to lower wages
47
Q

what was the role and status of women in weimar?

A
  • 1900 german civil code - women couldn’t vote, single women could study for a profession but couldn’t take exams, married women had no legal status
  • kinder kuche kirche
  • 1913 - krupp had no female employees, 28k by 1918
  • 75% of women were in work by the end of ww1
  • 12 november 1918 - women given the vote
  • 90% female turnout at first elections
  • 112 women elected to reichstag between 1919 and 1932
  • article 109 - women had equal rights
  • reichstag split - some (spd members mostly) believed women had equal rights, others thought they should be wives/mothers
  • falling birth rate (128 births per 1k women to 59 in 1933) and increasing divorce rate was a concern
48
Q

what was it like for women in work?

A
  • women expected to give up jobs to returning soldiers
  • 1925 - workforce was 36% female, similar to prewar level of 34%
  • workforce expanding, so more women were in work even though percentage was the same
  • more white blouse jobs
  • paid 33% less than male counterparts
  • single women working was accepted - seen as temporary
  • women could qualify as lawyers - 54 in 1925 to 251 in 1933
  • 1925 - 2.5k female doctors, doubled by 1933
  • hostility in the workplace
  • 1925 - over 250k women did poorly paid work at home to look after children, doubled by 1935
  • 50% of women did poorly paid manual labour in 1925
49
Q

what were new women?

A
  • independent
  • found work in white blouse industries - offices and shops
  • revealing clothes, short hair, smoked, drank, took advantage of contraception for sexual freedom
  • city based, criticised by politicians and media
  • loved by advertising/film industries
  • faced wage/sexual discrimination
  • many settled down and got married
50
Q

how did the depression affect women in the workforce?

A
  • rise in unemployment led to hostility towards working women
  • women faced less unemployment as they had lower wages than men
  • 1932 - 46% of men unemployed, 33%% of women
  • 30 may 1932 -bruning passed decree allowing dismissal of married woman in government service if their husband was earning
51
Q

what was compulsory education in weimar?

A
  • compulsory grundschule for all children aged 6-10
  • parents could remove their children from religious education - approved in the north, objected in the south
  • parties couldn’t agree on re - centre party fought to keep confessional schools + religion in curriculum
  • non confessional schools set up
  • 1931 - 29k protestant schools, 15k catholic, 97 jewish, 9k common, 300 secular
52
Q

what happened with the bill for common schools?

A
  • 1927 - bill proposed that said common schools could be set up if at least 40 childrens parents wanted it - could be taught re in their own faith
  • supported all over germany - esp by reich parents league
  • some didn’t like it - wanted religion to be taught by religious bodies, not school
  • bill sent back and never came back to reichstag as they couldn’t agree
53
Q

what forms of education were there past the age of 10?

A
  • paid for
  • hauptschule, realschule, or gymnasium - depending on future career aspirations
  • students who wanted to go to university had to pass abitur exam
  • 1928 survey of fathers of uni students - 28% worked in civil services 2.3% were working class
54
Q

what cultural experimentation was there in weimar?

A
  • bauhaus, neue sachlichkeit
  • art elite culture - most experimental, modernism/expressionism then shifted to new objectivity, valued by wealthy people
  • gov subsidised culture - brought culture to small towns, theatre orchestra museums libraries
  • popular culture - non subsidised, widely enjoyed, diverse, young people in urban areas liked jazz and usa inspired media, traditional music/plays still popular, cinema took off during weimar with ‘dark’ subjects
55
Q

how did people react to cultural experimentation?

A
  • constitution saïd free speech
  • criminal code had paragraph 184 - banned obscene film, publications etc
  • gov used censorship to protect under 16s from pornographers, but people could paint/sing/write more freely
  • expressionism flourished, but there were also critics
  • right wing worried about decadence, increasing influence of jewish artists and increasing americanisation of culture
56
Q

what were attitudes like towards ethnic minorities?

A
  • generally accepted, low level discrimination, received lower wages
  • welcomed by city based liberals
  • article 113 - groups that spoke diff languages couldn’t be stopped from using language/preserving identities
57
Q

what were attitudes like towards jews?

A
  • 1% jewish population in 1918, falling birthrate meant it was 0.76% in 1933
  • lived in cities, 1/3 were in berlin
  • influence on culture, 5 jews held cabinet posts in gov
  • walter ratheneau - foreign minister in 1922, assassinated shortly after, gov banned antisemitic organisations
  • german peoples offensive and defensive alliance - had 170k members when it was disbanded in 1923
  • people blamed jews for losing ww1 and depression
  • 85k jewish soldiers fought in war, 12k died - groups set up to fight antisemitism Reich Fed. of Jewish Front Soldiers
58
Q

what were attitudes like to other ethnic minorities?

A

gypsies discriminated against as they moved around and didn’t work or pay taxes, insular communities
- 1926 - bavaria passed a series of laws against gypsies to control their movement and get them into school/work, said they should carry id cards in 1927
- 1925 - 200k polish speakers in germany, 500k more who spoke both languages
- hostility towards poles as they fought against germany in the war - 30k left between 1925 and 1933
- 1923 - french army who occupied ruhr had black units from french colonies, 500 mixed race children born and were known as ‘Germany’s shame’
- black musicians and writers accepted in the cities

germany (4 decks)

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