Weimar Constitution

Germany lost WW1
1. Forced to accept blame
2. Pay £6.6billion of reparations
3. November 1918
  1. Violent unrest in Berlin
    1. Forced Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate
4. Dictatorship
  1. No elections
  2. Monarchs
Early 1919
1. A new government was formed
  1. Wasn't invited to the peace conference
    1. Ebert refused to sign the Treaty
      1. But eventually did
        Germany couldn't afford another conflict
        Too weak
2. Made Germany a democracy
3. Led by the SDP
  1. Social Democrat Party
    1. Moderate group of socialist
4. Friedrich Ebert - 1st German President
  1. Schekemann - 1st chancellor
Discontent
1. 1000s of Germans were poor and starving
  1. Influenza epidemic killed thousands
2. Germans denied they lost the war
  1. "November Criminals"
    1. Signed Armistice and TofV
    2. Nickname
3. Blamed Communists, Jews and the Government
  1. For loss of war
4. Government seen as weak and ineffective
  1. Treaty of Versailles made living conditions worse
Government structure
1. Reichsrat
  1. Could delay law passing from Reichstag
  2. Like the House of Lords
2. Reichstag
  1. Like Houses of Parliament
  2. German parliament
  3. Proportional Representation
    1. Number of seats a party wins is worked as a proportion of the total number of votes they receive
3. President
  1. Elected every 7 years
  2. Appoints own chancellor
Problems
1. Difficult to make decisions
  1. Lots of Reichstag parties
2. Hard to pick chancellor
  1. Had to have support from Reichstag
3. Had to accept Treaty of Versailles
  1. Made the government hated
    1. Loss of land
      1. eg Ruhr - Germanys industrial area
    2. the "war guilt" clause
      1. Took the blame
    3. Freikorps
      1. Because of troubles in Germany
Cultural Achievements
1. Berlin
  1. Centre for Culture
2. Advances
  1. Art
  2. Architecture
  3. Music
  4. Literature
  5. Film
    1. "Metropolis"
3. Bold and new developments
  1. Bauhaus School of design
  2. Berholt Brecht
4. Critical Thinking
5. Not everyone approved
  1. Everything changed..
    1. Nazis...

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Weimar Constitution

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	Created by Ben Robinson about 11 years ago