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• 9th November 1918 - Kaiser forced to abdicate.
• 11th November 1918 - Armistace
• 3rd November 1918 - Mutiny at Kiel.

  People realised that by Max for an Armistace they were being lied to about how well the war was going.
• 10th November 1918 - Ebert-Groener pact.

  Groener promised that army leadership would support the government.
• 19th January 1919 - Elections for the first constituent assembly.

  Ebert was elected first president.

  Phillip Scheidemann led the first government formed by SPD.
• Strengths of the constitution:

  Women allowed to vote

  Proportional representation (even smaller parties could win votes)

  Full democracy in local areas aswell as central government
• Weaknesses of the consitution:

  Proportional representation (small parties could exploit for publicity)

  Coalition governments (never a majority)
• Article 48 - 136 occasions by Ebert but not always used for genuine emergencies
• Undemocratic institutions - The army:

  Hans Van Seeckt believed the army didn't owe loyalty to the Republic (as he regarded it as temporary) but to a timeless Reich.

  Believed the army as a whole could interfere with politics when deemed fit.
• Undemocratic instutuitions - The Civil Service:

  Given a guarantee of their "well - earned rights" and freedom of expression aslong as it didn't interfere with their loyalty to the state.
• Undemocratic institutions - The Judiciary:

  Article 54 guaranteed the independence of the judges.

  Most judges where strongly anti-democratic and biased.
• Treat of Versailles - Terms:

  Removed over 13% of German territory (Alsace Lorraine to France)

  Disarmament - Army limited to 100,000 men, navy limited to 15,000, 6 battleships, no air force.

  Article 123 - Germany had to accept all responsibility for starting the war.

  The Saarland placed under League of Nations control for 15 years.

  Anschluss with Austria is forbidden.

  Germany not allowed to join League of Nations.
• Treaty of Versailles - German rejection of the Treaty:

  Wilson’ s 14 Points stressed self determination but millions of people who considered themselves German were now living in non-German states.

  Article 123 - seen as humiliating.

  Reparations - Germany didn’t accept war guilt that had led to the reparations.

  Allied occupation

  Disarming was seen as an injustice.
• Treaty of Versailles - Justified.

  The treaty wasn’t as severe as it could have been.

  Didn‘t punish Germany as much as they had punished USSR in Treaty of Brest-Litvosk in 1918.

  Reparations bill was much lower than demanded by the French.
• Political crisis - June 1919:

  Treaty turned some supporters of the Republic against the Republic.

  Those who voted for the treaty named the “November Criminals” - “stab-in-the-back myth”.

  Many returning soldiers couldn’t adapt to civilian life so they joined groups such as the Friekorps.
• Reactions to the Treaty from abroad:

  Britain - wanted Germany weak enough to be unable to resist the expansion of the USSR Westwards but wanted Germany as a trading partner again.

  France - Believed they had suffered the worse damage and the Treaty was too lenient.

  USA - Believed the Treaty had been unfair on Germany.
• Economic Problems:

  War debt of 1.44 billion marks

  Could either reduce spending or increase taxes.

  Bur civil servants need to be paid and increasing taxes would alienate support for the new Republic.
• Economic Problems:

  Prices had doubled between 1918 and 1919.

  Quadrupled again 1919-1920.

  Where 14x higher than in 1913.
• Economic Problems:

  1929 - unemployment was only 1.8% compared qith 17% in Great Britian.
• Economic Problems:

  November 1922 - Germany asked for a loan of 500 million marks and to be released from its obligations for 3 to 4 years in order to stabilise its currency.

  This was not allowed.
• Economic Problems:

  Germany’s gold reserve was inadequate to allow them to pay the gold part of the reparations and so was the coal.

  The allies wouldn’t allow Germany to increase its exports.
• The Hyperinflation Crisis Of 1923:

  January 1923 - Germany had fallen behind in reparations payments so France and Belgium sent over 60,000 men to occupy the Ruhr to force Germany to comply.

  During 1923, the number of troops increased to 100,000.
• The Hyperinflation Crisis Of 1923:

  Around 15,000 Germans were expelled from the area for not complying with the rules.

  132 Germans were shot in 8 months.
• The Hyperinflation Crisis Of 1923:

  May 1923 - only a third of the average monthly deliveries in 1922.

  Output in the Ruhr had fallen to a fifth of its pre-occupation level.
• The Hyperinflation Crisis Of 1923 - Economic issues from the occupation:

  Paying wages/providing goods for striking workers.

  Tax revenue lost from unemployed.

  Had to import coal and pay with limited gold reserves.

  Shortages of goods increased prices.
• The Hyperinflation Crisis Of 1923:

  15th November 1923 - 1 mark. = 4,200,000,000,000 dollars.
• The Hyperinflation Crisis Of 1923 - Winners:

  Black-marketers bought up food stocks.

  Debts/loans could be paid off with worthless currency.

  Rents were easier to pay.

  People with foreign exchange.

  Farmers as food was in high demand.
• The Hyperinflation Crisis Of 1923 - Losers:

  Pensioners/war widows with pensions.

  People who had given “war bonds” .

  Landlords reliant on fixed rents.

  Unskilled workers would struggle to get employment.

  The Mittelstand.

  The sick.
• The Hyperinflation Crisis Of 1923:

  End of 1923 - 29.9% of the workforce fully employed.
• Problems of a coalition government:

  February 1919 - November 1923 = 10 coalitions.

  Scheidemann, Bauer, Müller, Fehrenbach, Wirth, Wirth, Cuno, Stresemann, Stresemann, Marx.

  Cabinets collapsed over simple issues like which flag to use for the Weimar Republic.
• Growth Of Poltical Extremeism - Left - Spartacists Uprising:

  5th January 1919.

  Liebknecht and Luxembourg.

  Occupied offices and some public buildings.

  13th January = crushed, Liebknecht and Luxembourg executed.
• Growth Of Poltical Extremeism- Left:

  March 1919 - Spartacist rising in Berlin.

  April 1919 - Strikes in Germany's industrial heartlands, workers wanted shorters hours etc.

  1920 - "Red Army" of 50,000 workers seized control of the Ruhr. This was crushes but over 1000 workers and 250 soldiers killed.

  March 1921 - KPD tried to force a revolution starting in Saxony - 145 killed.

  1923 - Strike activity centred in Saxony and Hamburg.
• Growth Of Poltical Extremeism- Right - The Kapp Putsch:

  Due to TofV terms, some Friekorps units needed to be disbanded.

  February 1920 - 2 units composing of 12,000 men ordered to disband.

  Luttwitz (commanding General) refused and marched his troops in Berlin.

  General Hans Von Seeckt and Ludendorff remained non-commital as they knew the dangers of voicing support.

  Ebert got forced to withdraw to Dresden.

  Baker called on army to suppress troops but 'troops do not fire on troops'
• Growth Of Political Extremism - Right - Political Assassinations:

  Hugo Hasse - October 1919 - USPD member - shot in front of the Reichstag.

  Matthias Erzbeger - August 1921 - had signed TofV - his widow received death threats.

  Walther Rathenau - June 1922 - he was Jewish and a minister in the Republic.
• Growth Of Political Extremism - Right - Political Assassinations:

  Between 1919 - 1923 there were 376 political assassinations.

  22 by the left, 354 by the right.

  July 1922 - Law for the Protection of the Republic.

  26 right wing murderers went unpunished and only 1 got very severe punishment.

  10 left wing murderers were sentenced to death.
• Growth of Political extremism- Right - The Beer Hall Putsch:

  8th November 1923 - 2000 SA surrounded a beer hall and announced a revolution had begun.

  Kahr and Von Lussow held at gunpoint and had to agree to the march on Berlin.

  However, they didn’t really support it and the SA couldn’t get control of the Munich army barracks.

  9th November, the attempted the Putsch anyway, it failed, Hitler dislocated his shoulder and was arrested, (sentenced for 5 years in prison but only served 9 months) and Ludendorff handed himself in.