The impact of WW1 on Germany

• When Germany went to war


  1914
• Germany's political system was already under a huge amount of strain when it went to war in 1914
• During the war the political parties in the Reichstag had made a truce in order to support Kaiser Wilhelm III and unite behind a common commander
• The Kaiser was no strategist so the campaign and country was led by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff who ran Germany as a military dictatorship
• Despite the Reichstag meeting, the high command ignored it
• They brought Germany almost to the point of collapse both economically and militarily in the face of growing social unrest and political discontent
• When US troops and supplies poured into Europe

  October 1917
• Revolution from Above


  1. Ludendorff suggested to the Kaiser that unrest might be calmed by a change in government

  2. The two military leaders stepped down so that a new government could be made
• The new government was led by Prince Max of Baden and held a majority in Reichstag
• It inherited a country that was closer to losing the war than ever before
• Despite being a democracy it still had a Kaiser and was headed for failure
• There were 2 aims to the stepping down: To appeal to the US president for a fair peace deal, and to attempt to persuade the Allies that Germany was becoming democratic, encouraging sympathy for the creation of the Treaty of Versailles
• They created a constitutional monarchy with all real power passed to Reichstag, this was the Weimar Republic led at first by President Friedrich Ebert


  9th November 1918
• The Treaty of Versailles was signed, officially ending the war between Germany and the Allies


  28 June 1919
• Effects of the Treaty of Versailles

  • Germany lost land in Europe and all of its colonies
  • Land was taken away and given to France, Denmark, Belgium and Poland
  • Germany had to return taken land to Russia
  • Germany lost land gained in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
  • Germany lost Upper Silesia, Alsace and Lorraine, Eupen and Malmidy
  • Germany was forbidden to unite with Austria
  • Germany's military was restricted to 100,000 men, no tanks, heavy artillery, air force or submarines, only 6 capital marine ships
  • Germany was forced to pay reparations of 132,000 million gold marks
  • Germany had to accept full responsibility for starting the war
• The Treaty of Versailles cast a huge shadow over German politics for the next 21 years
• Reparations


  Payments made by Germany to the Allies for damage caused during World War I
• The amount of reparations was 132,000 million gold marks, agreed in 1921
• Germany had no say in the amount of reparations and was blackmailed into accepting by the fear of being invaded by the Allies
• War Guilt Clause


  Clause 231 of the Treaty of Versailles that stated Germany had to accept full responsibility for starting the war
• Europe couldn't recover while Germany remained poor
• New countries like Czechoslovakia were made from different nationalities and were unstable
• Germans called the Treaty of Versailles a "diktat" and hated it, which led to the successful rise of Hitler and ultimately World War II
• Reasons for German hatred of the Treaty of Versailles

  • Didn't accept defeat
  • Lost their colonies
  • Suffered an economic crisis
  • Often had to move to live in new countries
  • Couldn't afford the reparations
  • Lost industrial areas and couldn't rebuild
  • Lost pride
  • Felt vulnerable with such a small army
• Germany's economy had been hit hard after World War I
• Loss of territories


  Meant coal production declined by 15% and a loss of half of iron-ore deposits
• Made economy less profitable and tax revenue dropped
• With other countries also recovering, money generated from international trade was no longer a viable option
• Unemployment was at an all-time high after the war, with 1,100,000 unemployed in February 1919, but it dropped by 50% in the following years