Main Political Parties

• Far Left Parties (communists)

  Wanted a worker’s revolution like Russia in 1917

  Wanted to seize control of the government (revolution, confiscate property and land from the ruling classes and create state-controlled economy
• Left wing parties wanted greater equality in society


  Socialists wanted to achieve this by distributing the wealth more fairly (increasing taxes on the rich and business or by nationalising industries and banks)

  Liberals wanted to create greater equality by introducing reforms and protecting people’s rights and democratic freedoms

  Centre-left parties like the socialists and liberals supported the Weimar democracy
• Right Wing parties wanted to conserve the traditional class system and allow private enterprise to flourish (Capitalism)


  Conservative parties wanted to achieve this through the support of the German army, the established churches and by protecting the privileges of the ruling elites such as landlords and industrialists
• Far Right parties

  Anti Weimar nationalists

  Wanted a strong government and a powerful army and were very anti-communist. Some nationalists (like the Nazis) also had racist and anti-Semitic people
• November 1932

  Nazis had 33% of the votes and had 196 seats

  SDP 20% of the votes 121 seats
• March 1933

  Nazis had 44% of the votes and had 288 seats

  SDP 18% of the votes and had 120 seats
• Spartacists

  Communists led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg

  Party was much like Lenin’s Bolshevik, which had taken power in Russia

  Wanted a Germany ruled by workers’ councils or soviets
• January 1919

  Spartacists launched their bid for power

  Joined by rebel soldiers and sailors, set up soviets in many towns

  Not all soldiers were on the side of the Spartacists (Freikorps)
• Spartacist rising was soon followed by another rebellion in Bavaria in the south of Germany

  Ebert used the same tactics as he had on the Spartacists

  Freikorps crushed the revolt in May 1919 (~600 communists were killed)
• Ebert made an agreement with the commanders of the army and the Freikorps to put down this rebellion in Bavaria (south Germany)

  Bitter street fighting and heavy casualties followed

  Eventually the Freikorps won and Liebknecht and Luxembourg were murdered
• 1920

  More communist agitation in the Ruhr industrial rea

  Police, army and Freikorps clashed with the communists (2000 casualties)
• Ebert’s ruthless measures against the communists created lasting bitterness between them and the Socialist Party

  But it gained approval from many Germans

  Ebert was terrified that Germany was heading in the same direction as Russia (Experiencing bloody civil war at that time)

  Many Germans shared his fear

  Even so despite these defeats the communists remained a powerful antigovernment force in Germany throughout the 1920s
• January 15th 1919


  Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht died
• Right Wing Threats

  Right wing opponents consisted of mostly people who had grown up in the successful days of the Kaiser

  They resented a new Germany and above all they deeply resented the ToV and blamed Ebert for agreeing to it
• In March 1920, Dr Wolfgang Kapp led 5000 Freikorps into Berlin in an event known as the Kapp Putsch
• The army refused to fire on the Freikorps, putting Ebert's government in jeopardy
• The German people, especially the industrial workers of Berlin, saved Ebert's government by declaring a general strike
• The general strike brought the capital to a halt with no transport, power, or water
• After a few days, Kapp realized he couldn't succeed and fled the country
• Kapp was hunted down and died while awaiting trial
• Political assassinations were frequent during this time
• The other rebels involved in the Kapp Putsch went unpunished by the courts and judges
• Ebert's government struggled to deal with the political violence in Germany
• Summer of 1922


  Ebert’s Jewish foreign minister Walther Rathenau was murdered by extremists
• November 1923

  Adolf Hitler led an attempted rebellion in Munich (Munich Putsch)

  Both Hitler and the murdered of Rathenau received short prison sentences

  Seemed that Weimar’s right wing opponents had friends in high places