1919-23

• by 1919:

  • many german were poor and starving and an influenza epidemic has killed thousands of people.
  • many germans blamed the lose of the war on november criminals and others blamed the lose of the war include communists and jewish people.
• extreme left-wings rebellions and riots:

  • known as spartacist revolt
  • jan 1919: communists led by karl liebknecht and rosa luxemburg tried to take over berlin- took control of important buildings like newspaper headquarters and 50,000 workers went on strike in support of the revolution
  • ebert asked for help from the right-wing freikorps (ex-german soldiers) to stop rebellion.
  • over 100 workers were killed, freikorps use of violence caused a split on the left between the social democrats and the communists.
• extreme right-wings rebellions and riots:

  • march 1920: some of the freikorps took a apart in the kapp putsch (means revolt) led by wolfgang kapp. wanted to create a new right-wing government.
  • freikorps marched into berlin to overthrow the weimar regime- german workers opposed the putsch and staged general strike, berlin was paralysed and kapp forced to give up.
  • putsch failed but threats to government remained
  • 1922: former freikorps members assassinated walter rathenau (jewish foreign minister).
• germany couldn't pay reparations:

  • 1923: germany couldn't meet the reparations payments set out in the treaty of versailles.
  • France & Belgium decided to take germany's resources instead- occupied the ruhr (richest industrial part of germany)
  • gave them access to germany's iron and coal reserves
  • occupation led to fury in germany - caused a huge strike in the ruhr
  • Germany tried to repair their debt problem by printing more money but plunged the economy into hyperinflation
• hyperinflation: when production cannot keep up with the amount of money in circulation so the money lost value
• consequences of hyperinflation:

  • german currency became worthless
  • nobody wanted to trade with germany- food shortages got worse
  • bank savings also became worthless
  • hardest hit were the middle classes.