Transcript WEIMAR GERMANY POWERPOINT

•Before 1918, Germany was
•After Germany lost
an empire led by the Kaiser
WWI, the Kaiser abdicated (gave up his throne), creating a power vacuum
•An
interim (temporary) government was established in 1918, under the leadership of Freidrich Ebert, a social
democrat who was appointed German Chancellor and was later voted
President
•The early meetings of this new government were held in a town called
Weimar – which gave rise to the name ‘Weimar Republic’ to describe the
new German government
•Above left: Freidrich Ebert
•Above right: Coat of Arms of Weimar
Germany
•Democracy is a form of government where people elect their leaders. In 1919, Germany became a democracy for the first
time where the majority of Germans voted for the SPD – The left wing Social Democratic Party
•A constitution – or political rulebook – was written for Weimar Germany outlining how the country would be run. Main
points of the Constitution:
-THE REICHSTAG: The Reichstag was the German parliament. The German people were to vote for members of
parliament . The political party that gained votes large enough to win a majority formed the government.
-THE CHANCELLOR: The leader of the majority political party in the Reichstag was called the Chancellor (Prime Minister),
who was supported by ministers from that party t run Germany on a day to day basis
-THE PRESIDENT: To keep check on the actions of the new government, a President was elected by the German people.
The relationship between the Chancellor and the President is similar to the relationship between the Governor General and
Prime Minister in Australia today.
-RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE: The Constitution had a section that guaranteed the basic rights of the German people, like the
right to economic freedoms, right to vote, religious freedom, localised self-government and freedom of trade unions.
HOWEVER...
Germany had no tradition of democracy
in 1919 and there was no reason to
suggest at this point that it would survive
for long.
•Many former German soldiers were of the opinion that they had not lost World War I
•They believed that the army had been cheated – or ‘stabbed in the back’
•As a consequence of this many Germans looked for people to blame:
-Some lay the blame in the hands of the Kaiser.
-Others, many others, looked to the new Government. They had immediately accepted the
terms of the Treaty of Versailles. For many Germans this showed that they were largely to
blame.
-Other theories that were popular amongst the former soldiers were that it was the result
of Communists or Jews.
A 1919 Austrian postcard
depicting the "stab-in-theback" legend, which blamed
Jews for Germany's defeat
in World War I.
From the historian John Wheeler-Bennett on the origins of the ‘stab in the
back’ legend:
‘One evening in the summer of 1919 while dining with the head of the British
Military Mission, Major General Sir Neil Malcolm, Ludendorff was explaining how
the Supreme Command had been ‘betrayed’...General Malcolm asked ‘do you
mean General that you were stabbed in the back?’ Ludendorff’s eyes lit up and he
leapt upon the phrase like a dog on a bone. ‘Stabbed in the back’, he repeated.
Yes, that is it exactly. We were stabbed in the back.’’
The German government was pressured to sign the Treaty of Versailles in
1919, which required Germany to:
•Accept the blame for WWI
•Give up its overseas colonies
• Give some of its own territory
•Dramatically reduce the size and capacity of its military
•Pay the overall war debt for WWI
This created a deep sense of humiliation and loss of national pride
amongst some Germans, who blamed the Government for signing the
treaty.
The Weimar Republic faced opposition from a range groups in its early days, especially from
extreme left wing and right wing groups:
•The
Spartacist Uprising
-On January 1st 1919, a group of communists who called themselves Spartacists rose up in
an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic and establish a communist state.
-The newly formed Weimar Government deployed the army to bring the revolution to an end,
and these were aided by the Frei Corps, a right wing military group
-Order had been restored to the streets of Berlin by the 13th of January.
•The Kapp Putsch:
-In March 1920, the Frei Korps (the right wing military group that helped the Weimar Government put
down the Spartacist Uprising) aimed to overthrow the Weimar Republic and to establish a military
dictatorship from Berlin under the leadership of extreme right wing politician Wolfgang Kapp.
-This was triggered by the government’s attempt to carry out the military requirements of the Treaty of
Versailles
-The German army refused to support and protect the government against this threat, sympathising with
the rebels
-As a result the Chancellor, President Ebert and their ministers were forced to flee Berlin
-The Kapp Putsch failed because the Berlin working class staged strikes against the leaders of the Kapp
Putsch - paralysing the city of Berlin. The leaders of the Kapp Putsch fled the city and the legal
government returned.
•The Munich Putsch:
-On November 8th 1923 Adolf Hitler and a group of extreme right wing politicians and their
supporters marched through Munich and attempted to overthrow the Weimar Government.
-This was triggered by economic problems and discontent over the signing of the Treaty of
Versailles
-As a result, the police suppressed the uprising and 16 Nazi supporters were killed.
-Hitler was trialled for treason and was imprisoned – but only for 9 months.
-At his trial, Hitler was allowed to make long speeches explaining his reasons. This
transformed him from being a little known politician into a champion of the right wing. His
imprisonment, for just 9 months, allowed him time to assess his methods and provided an
opportunity for him to write his autobiography Mein Kampf –outlining the Nazis’ aims.
•Germany struggled to pay its war debts to its neighbours, including France
•As a result, in January 1923 the French occupied the Ruhr – the industrial ‘heart’ of
Germany
•While this region was occupied by the French, Germany could not
benefit from its
industrial output, because the French took the profits from this region
•This, combined with Germany’s own war debts and the fact that Germany was
forced to pay war reparations under the Treaty of Versailles, led to economic
problems and total collapse of the German currency, the deutschemark.
ECONOMIC PROBLEMS:
•After 1919, the Treaty of Versailles required Germany to pay its own war debts and the debts of other
countries
•Germany also lost large amounts of land and its overseas colonies
after WWI - leading to a loss of cheap
imports from its colonies. As a result, the cost of raw materials, like fuel for instance, rose.
•The French occupied the Ruhr
in 1923- so Germany could not profit from its industries in this region
•Germany was shunned from trading with the international community
ALL OF THIS LED TO....
HYPERINFLATION: an increase in the cost of goods in an economy, where the value of the currency
declines.
•As a result, people rushed to pull their hard-earned savings from banks,
which had become worthless overnight
•Several
workers went on strike in the early 1920s – which further crippled
the economy and fuelled fear of communism amongst the Middle Class
•The Middle class was particularly affected – as many people lost their life
savings and were forced to sell their houses and assets
•This created anger and discontent amongst the Middle Class
and other
groups- making them more receptive to extremist political parties like the
Nazis and Communists.
“Abruptly the Mark plunged down, never to stop until it had reached the
fantastic figures of madness, the millions, the billions, the trillions...to
repair a broken window now cost more than the whole house had formally
cost, a book cost more than the printer’s shop with a thousand
presses...For a hundred dollars one could buy a row of six storey
houses...and factories were to be had for the equivalent of a
wheelbarrow.”
Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday, translated by Helmut Riperger, New
York, 1943, p. 311.
From 1924-1929, Germany experienced a period of stability because:
•In 1922 Germany could no longer pay its war reparations and hyperinflation
was occurring, so the United States loaned Germany some money to stabilise
its economy and a new currency was introduced. Germany’s reparations were
also scheduled to be paid over a longer period – this was called the Dawes Plan
of 1924
•As a result, inflation was conquered and the economy began to recover
•Germany began to trade with international countries again
•Extremist political parties declined in influence
Gustav Stresemann, leader of the moderate
right wing German People’s Party and
Chancellor of Germany in 1923 and foreign
minister from 1924-1929.
Stresemann is considered the ‘strong man’
of the Weimar Republic because:
•He played a key role in rebuilding
Germany’s prosperity
•He signed Germany up to the Dawes Plan in
1924
BUT...
•Unemployment
•The
•
and poverty were still high
farming and heavy industries (steel, etc) were struggling
Growing prosperity was based on USA loans –
what would happen if USA wanted the money back ?
In October 1929 the Wall Street Stock Exchange in the USA crashed
Consequently, the United States could no longer loan Germany any money
By 1931, the Reichsbank had no foreign currency
Banks in Germany closed down as foreign investors withdrew their money
Customers lost their savings
From 1929-1932 the value of German exports dropped because their overseas trading
partners cut back on their imports
As a result of the decline in German exports, German companies fired several workers to stay
afloat
This led to a rise in unemployment
Number of unemployed in Germany
following the Great Depression
DecemberJanuary 1929:
900, 000
December
1930: 3 million
July 1931: 5.5
million
January-February
1932: Over 6
million
**Agriculture was
particularly affected by
this
•The Weimar Republic faced many problems.
Perhaps the greatest danger was 'the
weakness within' - the constitution gave the President, the states and the army too much
power, whilst proportional voting meant that the Reichstag was divided and weak. In 1919–
23, extremists on both the Left (especially the Spartacist revolt) and the Right (especially the
Kapp Putsch) tried to overthrow the government.
•The worst crisis occurred in 1923, when the French invaded the Ruhr to try to force Germany
to pay reparations. This led to hyperinflation and a number of rebellions (particularly Hitler's
Munich Putsch)
•After WWI, Germany was in a desperate situation. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles
crippled the economy and prevented German recovery after the war. This in turn led to the
new, Weimar, government being unable to restore pre-war conditions. Animosity towards
those who signed the treaty grew and many German people looked for people to blame for
the crisis, leading to theories of ‘the stab in the back’. The new government, already under
fire, was likely to fail in its duty to provide security, prosperity and comfort given the
conditions that it had inherited.
With the collapse of the traditional order at the end of the First World War the
newly created Weimar Republic faced enormous challenges in building a successful
and workable democracy in Germany. Find examples of these challenges and fill
the table:
Challenge
Specific example with
date
Reparations
Inflation
Challenges from the Left
Challenges from the Right
Political instability
The Great Depression
6 million unemployed in
1932 following the Wall
Street Crash of 1929
How significant was this
challenge? High, low or
medium?