Allie's wouldn't make
peace with Germany until
democratic government
28th October 1918
German Navy chiefs ordered Kid
Port warships to be put to sea for
battle
2 ships worth of sailors refused,
this was mutiny
600 Arrests
Mutiny spread to workers and they
took over Kiel
Revolution spread to all over Germany
Socialist's took over
Germany became a republic
Abducation
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Forced to abducate
10th November 1918 -
Fled to Holland
New Democratic Weimar
Republic
'Weimar' - town in which the government
hid during the 1919 Berlin violence
First President -
Friedrich Ebert (social
democratic party)
Article 48
In times of emergency, the president could rule by
degree without consulting the Reichstag
No specification of an
emergency so led to dictators
Proportional
Representation
Votes for each party were
turned into a percentage of seats
A party could only rule if
the party got 50% of votes
Coalitions occurred and this caused
problems and disagreements
Made the Government inefficient and
the government would rarely get
anything done due to disagreements
and although some coalitions were
based on certain ideas they were
fundamentally different
Signing of the
Treaty of Versailles
"Stab in the back" Theory
The treaty was very harsh and took
money, land and army from the Germans
The allies over valued the
Saarland and took away
Germany's industry which
stopped them from being
able to pay the ToV
The public felt the government had betrayed
them and "stabbed them in the back"
Opposition to the
Weimar Republic
Inside the Reichstag
KPD (Communist)
Supported by the working class
Policies
Against the republic
In favour of a workers revolution
DNVP (Nationalist)
Supported by Middle and Upper Class
Policies
Against the republic
Strongly nationalist
Strong central government
NSDAP (Nazi)
Supported by Nationalists and Conservatives
Policies
Against the republic
Strong government
Outside the Reichstag
Spartacists
Rosa Luxemburg
Karl Liebknect
Started a communist
revolution on 6th January 1919
The free corps destroyed the
Spartacists and arrested, then
killed, both their leaders
Free Corps/ Kapp Putsch
Ex-Soldiers
Wolfgang Kapp
Supported Ebert to fight
off the Spartacists
They turned on Ebert and took control
of Berlin but for only 100 hours, as all
workers went on strike