weimar part

• impact of WW1 on Germany

  2 million troops dies and 4 million were wounded

  governments debt increased to 150 billion marks

  750000 germans died from food shortages

  many resorted to riots and violence

  workers were striking due to bad conditions
• November 9th 1918


  kaiser Wilhelm abdicates
• what did the kaiser do on the 9th of november 1918

  Abdicate
• what happened on the 9th of november after the kaiser abdicated

  the German republic was declared
• what happened on November 10th 1918

  Ebert suspended the old Reichstag and formed the council of the peoples representatives
• After the kaiser abdicated the SPD made a new republic
• The SPD promoted a peaceful transition
• when was the armistice signed

  november 11th
• the armistice was the first major decision of Eberts republic
• The treaty of Versailles became a big burden for the country
• the president was the head of the republic
• the president was elected every 7 years
• how often is the president elected

  Every 7 years
• what did the president do

  choose the chancellor

  could pass laws by decree

  could suspend constitution
• who were the Reichstag

  the most powerful house

  controlled taxes

  elected by the people at least every 4 years
• who were the reichsrat

  represented specific regions in Germany

  elected every 4 years

  each region had a certain number of reps depending on size
• weimar republic allowed women and men to vote
• weimar republic allowed proportional representation
• Weimar republic did not allow one person too have too much power
• Weimar republic allowed Reichsrat to regulate Reichstag's power by delaying laws
• Weimar strengths

  proportional representation allowed small parties to get seats

  women could also vote ... electorate got bigger

  voting age dropped to 21

  no person could have too much power
• weimar republic led to coalition governments
• weimar republic didn't have strong governments and they often fell apart
• Article 48 made weimar republic weak
• Weimar republic wasn't popular amongst the public
• the council of peoples representatives consisted of 6 centre politicians
• the treaty of Versailles weakened the German economy
• terms of treaty of Versailles

  army is limited to 100,000 which caused unemployment and effected economy

  navy was limited to 6 battle ships

  air force was banned

  Rhineland was demilitarized

  germany had to pay reparations

  lost territory
• stab in the back theory

  Germans believed that the army was betrayed by politicians and forced to surrender
• who were the spartacists

  left wingers les by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht who came from independent socialist party
• who were the Freikorps

  right wingers who were ex soldiers and had 250000 members and were very nationalist
• in january 1919 Spartacists took over the government newspapers and telegraph and tried to organise a general strike in berlin
• who stopped Spartacist uprising

  the freikorps
• March 1920 - kapp putsch
• what happened during kapp putsch

  Head of army refused to stop putsch so Wolfgang Kapp led friekorps rebellion however due to workers strikes led by ebert and lack of support they failed
• political assassinations

  376 took place in the early years of the republic
• right wing supporters used to political assassinations to weaken the republic
• conservatives judges were ...

  biased and sympathetic to conservative right wing cause and gave them light punishments
• what were the challenges in 1923

  hyperinflation , occupation of the ruhr
• what is hyper inflation

  when the price of goods increase significantly