Weimar Constitution - created from Mind Map

Seite 1

Germany lost WW1

Forced to accept blame

Pay £6.6billion of reparations

November 1918

Dictatorship

Violent unrest in Berlin

Forced Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate

No elections

Monarchs

Early 1919

A new government was formed

Made Germany a democracy

Led by the SDP

Friedrich Ebert - 1st German President

Wasn't invited to the peace conference

Ebert refused to sign the Treaty

But eventually did

Germany couldn't afford another conflict

Too weak

Social Democrat Party

Moderate group of socialist

Schekemann - 1st chancellor

Discontent

1000s of Germans were poor and starving

Germans denied they lost the war

Blamed Communists, Jews and the Government

Government seen as weak and ineffective

Influenza epidemic killed thousands

"November Criminals"

Signed Armistice and TofV

Nickname

For loss of war

Treaty of Versailles made living conditions worse

Government structure

Reichsrat

Reichstag

President

Could delay law passing from Reichstag

Like the House of Lords

Like Houses of Parliament

German parliament

Proportional Representation

Number of seats a party wins is worked as a proportion of the total number of votes they receive

Elected every 7 years

Appoints own chancellor

Problems

Difficult to make decisions

Hard to pick chancellor

Had to accept Treaty of Versailles

Lots of Reichstag parties

Had to have support from Reichstag

Made the government hated

Loss of land

the "war guilt" clause

Freikorps

eg Ruhr - Germanys industrial area

Took the blame

Because of troubles in Germany

Cultural Achievements

Berlin

Advances

Bold and new developments

Critical Thinking

Not everyone approved

Centre for Culture

Art

Architecture

Music

Literature

Film

"Metropolis"

Bauhaus School of design

Berholt Brecht

Everything changed..

Nazis...

Weimar Constitution