Weimar and Nazi Germany Flashcards
When was the Treaty of Versailles signed?
28th June 1919
What was Article 48?
Where the Weimar president could suspend constitution in an emergency.
When did the Kaiser abdicate?
9th November 1918
What was the voting age in the Weimar republic?
20 for both men and women
What was the ‘stab in the back theory’?
The theory that Jewish German authority figures signed the treaty which was a stab in the back and a disrespect to the effort of the working man
What were some terms of the Treaty of Versailles?
- Army capped at 100,000
- $6.6 billion in reperations
- Rhineland demilitarised
- No military aircraft/land vehicles
- all colonies given to allied powers
- No union with Austria
What was the Spartacist uprising?
On 6 January 1919, the spartacists bargain their attempt to overthrow Ebert and the Weimar Republic to create a communist state. Ebert and his defence minister used the Reichswehr(regular army) and Freikorps(ex-war soldiers) and repelled the rebellion swiftly
Who was Friedrich Ebert?
The first chancellor of the weimar government until his death in 1925
What was the Kapp Putsch?
In March 1920, the government decided they would reduce the army size and disband the Freikorps. With leading Berlin politicians Wolfgang Kapp, the Freikorps leader Ehrhardt drew a plan and successfully seized Berlin due to an outrage. The government were forced to move to Dresden and Stuttgart and told the Reichswehr(regular army) to put down the rebellion but the they said “The Reichswehr does not fire on the Reichswehr”
The Putsch collapsed soon after due to a lack of support as the government told civilians to not support them. Over 400 Reichswehr officers had been involved but very few were punished
What caused the hyperinflation of 1923?
The government printed more money in order to pay workers in the Ruhr during the French and Belgian occupation alongside the $6.6 million debt
At its peak what was £1 in marks?
1,680,800,000,000,000
1.6 quadrillion
Who benefitted from the hyperinflation of 1923?
- People with debts from the bank
- Farmers as food was in high demand
- Foreign people in Germany who found them self with huge masses of money due to only having a few pounds
How did German workers in the Ruhr,during French and Belgian occupation, resist?
They burned down factories, went on strike, flooded mines and sabotaged pumps
What was the Dawes plan?
Dawes, the US vice-president at the time, helped devise a plan that had the following steps:
- Reparations would begin at 1 billion marks for the first year and increase over a period of four years to 2.5 billion per year.
- The Ruhr to be evacuated by Allied occupation
- The german Reichsbank would be reorganised under allied supervision
- The USA would give loans to Germany to help its economic recovery
What was the Rentenmark?
Due to the mark being destroyed in 1923, Stresemann introduced this temporary currency. It gradually restored confidence in german currency and was gradually converted to the Reichsmark the following year, 1924, now backed by gold reserves
