germany under spd

• why was there widepsread discontent in germany?

  -1919 thousands of Germans were poor and starving. An influenza epidemic had killed thousands

  -many germans felt betrayed by the November criminals

  -others who were blamed for losing the war included communists and jews

  -the government was seen as week and ineffective
• what happended in the spartacist revolt?

  -january 1919,communist led by karl liebknecht and rosa luxemburg tried to take over berlin. They took control of important buildings and 50000 workers went on strike in support.

  -ebert asked for help from the right wing freikorps(ex german soliders) to stop the rebellion

  -the freikorps use of voilence caused a split on the left between the spd and the communists
• what happended in the kapp putsch?

  -march 1920 the freikorps led by wolfgang kapp marched into berlin to overthrow the weimar regime.

  -however german workers opposed this pusch and staged a general strike. Berlin was paralyzed and kapp was forced to give up

  -even after this failed threats to the goverment still remained. eg: 1922 some former freikorps members assassinated walter rathenau ( he was foreign minister and was jewish)
• what happended when germany couldn't pay its reporations in 1923?

  -france and belgium occupied the rhur.this gave them acces to germanys iron and coal reserves.

  -The German government ordered workers to follow a policy of ‘passive resistance’ 

  -This worsened the economic crisis in Germany. Government income from the Ruhr, one of Germany's most industrialised areas, was down. The Government started to print more money in order to pay the striking German workers in the Ruhr.
• what were the events of hyper inflation?

  -Germany started printing more money

  -this made german money lose all its vaule

  -nobody wanted to trade with germany so shortages of food and goods got worse

  -bank savings also became worthless (middle class)