Germany in Transition

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The Weimar Republic

Kaiser was in charge of the Government and the army.

Kaiser was obsessed with the military - he spent millions building a strong army.

The German people liked this form of Government - they felt being told what to do was a sign that the Government was strong.

The Kaiser ran away into exile 2 days before the war ended.

Effects of WW1 on Germany

Political Effects - Reichstag Parties previously had no real power experience.

Psychological Effects - Worked extremely hard and made sacrifices to win the war. They were assured by leaders they would win and felt that the weak politicians in the New Weimar Republic had cost them the war.

Financial Effects - Germany had borrowed money to pay for the war, and was now effectively bankrupt.

"Stab in the Back" - It was actually the army that signed the surrender. The public assumed the politicians had stabbed the army in the back.

Proportional Representation

Fair voting system.

Number of seats are directly proportional to the % of votes.

This leads to lots of tiny parties getting seats so no government ever had the majority, decisions needed other parties to agree but they often did not.

Article 48

The President could make decisions and laws without having ask the Reichstag to vote on it.

This was designed to protect Germany in an emergency, however the clause was open to abuse.

Major Strengths and Achievements of the Constitution

All Germans had the right to vote at the age of 20.

The President was very strong and could protect the Republic in a crisis.

Free speech, freedom of newspapers, freedom of trade unions, and anyone could form a political party - very modern for the timA

Major Weakness of the Constitution

Proportional Representation meant that whatever party was in power, was always weak.

Article 48 would later be abused by Hitler.

The right to create their own party and to vote allowed people like the Nazis to

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Treaty of Versailles 1919

The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed at the end of WW1.

Germany was bankrupt and some were starving, The Weimar government assumed the treaty would be light not to cost Germany any more lives.

The Germans assumed the winning powers would want to help keep the new democratic government in place.

Woodrow Wilson(USA President) wanted a fair treaty based on his '14 points'

Lloyd George - UK

Wanted Germany to be punished harshly and receive money from them, but wanted Germany to be able to recover.

Wanted Germany to lose their navy and colonies as they were a threat.

They had self interest in mind- wanted Germany and Britain to be trading partners.

Did not want Germany seeking revenge in the future (25 years) as they thought the treaty was too harsh.

Wilson - USA

Believed the war was everyone's fault.

Believed Germany should be punished in a way that would lead to reconciliation and not revenge

Wanted A League of Nations that would help promote peace

The USA joined the war late and had not suffered as much loss as the allies.

Clemenceau (The Tiger) - France

Wanted to crush Germany and forever prevent them from being a world power.

Wanted them to pay massive reparations and have no army. Wanted to demilitarised zone in Rhineland,

Wanted Germany broken down into smaller, weaker states.

France had suffered the most during the war so Clemenceau was under ressure from France to make Germany pay.

The statesman of Italy, Orlando, can be referenced in a source. With him involved they care called the 'Big Four'

Without Orlando, the allies are known as 'The Big Three'

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Treaty of Versailles Terms and Effects

Land

13% of land was lost. 10% of industry and 15% of agriculture.

Alsace and Lorraine given to France.

Saar Coalfields (Germany's coal production) given to France for 15 years.

This created huge money problems - as industry and agriculture was taken from an already bankrupt country.

Army

Army reduced to 100,000 men

No airforce and a limited navy

Rhineland to have French troops for 15 years.

This caused humiliation for Germany as they were no longer a country to be feared,

Money

Germany to pay Britain, France and USA £6.6 Billion in reparati00ons in annual instalments.

Germany was already nearly bankrupt from the war and they had almost no chance of being able to meet the payments.

Blame

Germany must accept complete blame for starting WW1.

This caused anger for the Germans as they believed they were not the only ones to blame for the war.

Problems

Made Germany weaker and bankrupt

The Weimar was blamed for signing the treaty although it was the army that told them to sign it as they would be unable to stop an allied invasion of Germany.

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Political Extrmists

January 1919 - The Spartacists

Extreme Left Wing Communists

Aimed to overthrow the Weimar Republic and create a Communist Government in Germany

Tried to start a revolution in Berlin, took control of newspapers but failed to capture anything else

The Weimar Government used the Freikorps (right wing ex soldiers) defeat them

They murdered the leaders of the uprising.

March 1920 - Kapp Putsch

Freikorps, extreme right wing

The leader was Wolfgang Kapp, a Freikorps commander

They wanted to overthrow the Weimar Republic and create a military dictatorship and ignore the treaty

They marched into Berlin and took it over, the Government were forced to run away.

President Ebert appealed to ordinary workers to help - they went on strike which was very successful and caused the Kapp to pull out of Berlin within days.

None of the leaders were punished as judges were more sympathetic to the right wingers.

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The Munich Putsch

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1923 - Year of Crisis

Invasion of the Ruhr - January 1923

Ruhr - Major industrial area in Germany

Germany did not pay their second reparation payment so French and Belgian troops invaded the Ruhr to take what was owned, they would do this by taking over the steel production as the Ruhr contained over 80% of Germany's steel production.

Response of the German Government was passive resistance, the workers in the Ruhr went on strike. The Government would pay the workers their wages in order to continue the strike.

This led to economic problems as Germany had no money to spend now that production was at a halt.

The Weimar Republic tried to help by printing more money for them to live on. The money became worthless as it had no value.

By 1923 Germany was in crisis - people burned their money as it was cheaper than fuel. They would also use it for wallpaper.

The Government as blamed and support for extremist parties grew.

Hyperinflation

Due to the printing of paper money, the money started losing it's value which is the cause of inflation.

Although it was causing inflation, they continued to print money which led to hyperinflation.

By November 1923 you needed 130,000 million marks to buy one dollar.

Prices went up so fast that workers had to rush to the shops after being paid, as prices would go up. At one point billion marks was barely enough for a loaf of bread.

Effects of Hyperinflation

Pensioners - Their pensions and savings became worthless.

Workers - Had few savings so were not as affected, jobs stayed mostly secure.

Middle Class - Savings made worthless. Businessmen could not buy goods from abroad as German money was worthless.

The Rich - Largely unaffected if their money was in property. Saw the Government was incompetent.

Hatred of Jews - Some Jewish families kept their money in foreign banks, so they were unaffected . This led to the hatred of Jews.

Munich Putsch - People like Hitler saw a chance to overthrow the Weimar. He launched the Munich Putsch in November

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Gustav Stresemann and Crisis Recovery

Gustav Stresemann was Chancellor of Germany in 1923, after that he was the Foreign Minister which was a challenging job.

At first he opposed of the Weimar but he changed his mind when he realised the alternative was anarchy.

He was Nationalist so did not like the democracy.

He set out to solve Germany's problems.

French Invasion of the Ruhr

The Dawes Plan, 1924

Sent Ruhr workers back to work (Cancelled strike)

The Germans borrowed money from the USA to pay the reparations. With the reparations Britain and France could pay off their war loans to USA.

The act allowed for the reparations to be lowered for five years as a temporary measure.

This meant that workers were being paid again, helping the economy as production was back in progress.

To enforce payments the French would continue to control Germany's railways, cusom duties and the Reichbank. Germans were not happy with this but it was a compromise.

It was seen as a defeat and giving in to the French. Germans also lost a large amount of their steel production.

People critiised for being too soft but he was unable to ask for lower payments without them wanting something in return.

Hyperinflation controlled 1923

Stressemann stopped the Government printing money and he replaced the old currency with a new Rentenmark worth 3,000 Milliion old marks.

This stabilised inflation and made German's money have worth again.

However, the damage was already done as people had lost all their savings.

Germany had gone through a year of misery and blamed the government

Foreign Affairs

Locarno Treaty 1925 was signed between Germany, Italy, Britai, France and czech-Solvakia

Germany agreed to keep it's borders - can not expand

This pleased the other countries but upset the Nationalists

In 1926 Germany was allowed to join the League of Nations and became a world power again but they were still restricted to some degree

Germany was accepted in diplomatic circles and allowed to make links

Everyone was able to benefit from the relations as Germany was rich in iron so other people wanted them as trading partners

Strasemann was seen as a pragmatic politician but also to some extent an idealist

Strasemann won a Noble Peace Prize in 1926 due to the Lacrano Treaty