Weimar’s political Problems 1919-22 Flashcards
State of Left wing politics after ‘revolution’
After the revolution of 1918-19 socialist politics remained in a state of confusion.
• The SPD was committed to parliamentary democracy.
• The Communist Party (KPD), taking its lead from Bolshevik Russia, wanted to overthrow the Weimar Republic and establish a one-party socialist state which would then restructure Germany’s social and economic fabric.
• The USPD pressed for the creation of a socialist society but within a democratic framework.
In December 1920 the USPD came to an end. Its members either joined the KPD or the SPD. By 1920 the KPD was a mass party with some 400,000 members.
State of right wing politics after revolution
Right-wing political forces rejected the Weimar system and its democratic principles. They demanded strong government and vied with each other to attack the Versailles settlement.
The conservative right:
Conservatives, many of whom wished to restore the monarchy, generally supported the Nationalist Party (DNVP). Conservatives continued to exert influence in the army, the civil service, the judiciary and education.
The radical right:
Radical right-wing groups had little sympathy with the conservatives. These groups - nationalistic, anti-democratic, anti-socialist and anti-Jewish - wanted to destroy the Republic. Ex-soldiers, many of whom had belonged to Freikorps units, were particularly attracted to the radical right.
Kapp Putsch and why it failed
Dr Wolfgang Kapp, DNVP Reichstag deputy, and General von Luttwitz were determined to overthrow the government. In March 1920, when the government ordered the disbanding of Captain Ehrhardt’s Freikorps unit, 5,000 Freikorps marched into Berlin to assist Kapp and Luttwitz. Kapp declared that the Weimar government was overthrown. Despite requests from the government to put down the putsch, the Reichswehr did nothing to support Germany’s legitimate government.
Nevertheless, Kapp’s putsch collapsed. It is usually claimed that this resulted from a general strike.
However, the Communists initially refused to support the SPD-initiated strike which only got going when the putsch was on its last legs.
In reality, the putsch collapsed because:
• Reichswehr leaders, while not crushing, did not back
litics remained
Kapp
ry democracy.
• Most government bureaucrats refused to obey Kapp’s orders.
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After four days, Kapp and Luttwitz fled abroad and thrhardis men left Berlin. In some respects, the failure of the Kapp Putsch was a success for the Republic, but the fact that it had occurred highlighted the right-wing threat.
Leanings of Reichswehr and why
Most army officers were conservative. Given the small size of the army after 1919, officers could hand-pick recruits, often selecting men who had served in the Freikorps. Consequently, the Reichswehr would act to crush a Communist revolt, but there was no guarantee that it would put down a right-wing putsch.
Continued unrest examples (after Kapp P)
• In the Ruhr industrial area, Communists tried to seize power in March 1920. More than a thousand workers were killed as the army brutally suppressed the revolt.
• In March 1921 the army suppressed a Communist revolt in Saxony.
• Right-wing groups assassinated leading politicians whom they considered traitors.
Info on unfair judicial treatment
The judiciary meted out unequal justice.
• Those involved in the Ruhr uprising were severely punished.
• Those who supported the Kapp Putsch were let off virtually scot-free.
• Between 1919 and 1922 there were 376 political assassinations - 22 by the left and 354 by the right. Ten left-wingers were sentenced to death. Not one right-wing assassin received the death sentence. Of the 354 right-wing murders, 326 went unpunished.
Info on weak gov 1919-22
The 1920 elections were a disaster for the Weimar coalition parties - SPD, Centre and DDP. Before the election they had commanded 78 per cent of the Reichsta seats. Now those parties had only 45 per cent of the seats.
The result was a series of weak, short-lived coalition governments.
Communist 1923 action
As the economic crisis deepened, Communist support
increased.
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• In October Communist leaders planned general strikes in Saxony and Thuringia, hoping to spark revolution.
President Ebert acted firmly and the insurgency was suppressed almost before it began.
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• The army and police crushed a workers’ revolt in
Hamburg.
Munich Putsch
. The Beer Hall Putsch, in Munich in November 1923, was an attempt by the small NSDAP (Nazi party), led by Adolf Hitler, to seize power in Bavaria and lead a march on Berlin to overthrow the government. Several factors contributed to this attempted putsch:
• The occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian forces in 1923 resulted in a wave of anti-French feeling and an unusual degree of national unity. However, when the government abandoned the policy of passive resistance to the occupation in September, the nationalist right was outraged by what they saw as an act of betrayal.
• Many middle-class people, who had always believed in the virtues of hard work, careful spending and saving, had their values and confidence in the future shattered by the hyperinflation crisis. Hyperinflation therefore damaged middle-class confidence in the government and the republic as a whole.
• In Bavaria, a right-wing state government declared a state of emergency and nationalists agitated for a ‘march on Berlin’ to overthrow the federal government.
• One of the leading figures in this agitation was Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party).
On 8 November 1923, Hitler and his Stormtroopers (SA) took over a Munich Beer Hall, where a right-wing political meeting was taking place, and forced the State Commissioner (von Kahr) and the local army commander (von Lossow) to agree to join a march on Berlin. The Putsch failed because Hitler failed to secure the support of the police, and the army commander changed sides. A Nazi march through Munich on 9 November was fired on by the police and Hitler was arrested. The Nazis were banned and Hitler imprisoned (but only for nine months).
Why Weimar democracy manages to survive its early problems by 1924?
Weakness of its opponents
Actions of Ebert
Actions of Stressemen
Support for the rep
• popular German resentment was channelled more towards the French than towards Weimar itself.
• despite the effects of inflation, workers did not suffer to the same extent as they did when there was long-term mass unemployment (see page 42).
• although there was distress and disillusionment in 1923, disaffection with Weimar had not yet reached critical proportions.
Weakness of Weimar’a opponents info
early years of Weir
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left-wing forces. But it survived- in marked contrast to its collapse 10 years later. How had it managed to survive its early problems?
The weakness of Weimar’s
opponents
Despite the ambivalence that many Germans felt for the Republic, there was no widespread support for right-wing or left-wing extremists.
The failure of the right
The Kapp Putsch in 1920 had quickly collapsed.
The Nazis had little support outside Bavaria in 1923, nor did they have sufficient support within Bavaria.
• Right-wing radicals and conservatives rarely did well in elections.
• Right-wing groups were far from united.
The failure of the left
• Most German workers supported the SPD, a moderate socialist party that was opposed to revolution.
• More extreme socialists were divided, for example, between Independent Socialist and Communist.
• The army, with the help of Freikorps units, was willing to take strong action against left-wing threats to the Republic.
• The judiciary passed harsh sentences on left-wing activists.
• Left-wing attempts to seize power were invariably badly-planned and poorly organised.
Actions of Ebert 1923
Ebert, a moderate socialist, was prepared to take strong action against the Communists. He had called in the army and Freikorps to deal with the Spartacists in 1919.
He did the same in the early 1920s whenever the Communists threatened the Republic. He also stood firm against the Kapp Putsch and ruled under Article 48 during the Munich Putsch.
Actions of stresseman 1923
In August 1923 a government led by Gustav Streseman, leader of the People’s Party (DVP), came to power.
This government took decisive political action to confront the crisis. Stresemann:
• called off passive resistance in the Ruhr
• promised to resume reparation payments
• set in motion plans to introduce a new currency.
Support for the Weimar Republic
The fact that the Republic survived 1923 suggests that it was not merely ‘a fair weather system’. Its survival was perhaps a sign of political strength and credibility. Given that the extremists on the left and right lacked mass support, there was no clear political alternative to the Republic.
Between 19-23 how many political assassinations left and right and punishments
Left: 22
Ten left wing put to death
Right: 354
One put to desth
