pre germany

• Kaiser Wilhelm II German ruler from 1888-1918

  Germany parliament; Reichstag —> body state representatives: Bundersrat

  Kaiser held the power & could appoint/ dismiss the chancellor or ignore the Reichstag & Bundesrat to make his own decisions
• Challenges Kaiser faced:

  Kaiser wanted to rival Britain (very powerful) by industrialisation & military strength

  Germany industrialised

  More people to move to cities (1910 60% of Germans lived in cities)

  Overcrowding, poor condition, disease, low wages

  • more support of socialists ( protect right of workers) 1912 socialists were the largest party
  • Join trade unions (organise strikes to improve pay)
• successes

  1913 Germany overtook Britain 17% : 15% in goods

  Rapid economic growth full employment

  Germany made more steel

  Dealt with socialist by;

  1888 Old Age Pensions for workers & sickness & accident insurance

  Increased appeal of monarchy

  but wasnt successful as it didnt stop appeal of socialism
• concerns

  • landowners & factory owners were rich
  • Rapid urbanisation
  • join trade unions
• Navy policy: series of laws to strengthen Germany’s navy

  Weltpolitik: world policy (foreign policy to transform Germany into world power)
• Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted to build a global empire (Weltpolitik)

  Kaiser wanted a large navy to take over more countries & protect countries —>naval laws to increase size of german navy

  Taxes raised, money borrowed to pay for this –>remained in debt
• Admiral Von Tirpiz argued Germany needed to rebuild large battleships to compete with British navy. He became secretary of state of the Navy several laws passed
• 1st Naval law: commissioned 19 battleships & 50 cruisers

  2nd naval law: doubled the fleet size (19 to 38 battleships)

  3rd naval law: commissioned6 large cruisers

  4th naval law: reduced age battleships replaced from 20-25 years

  5th naval law: commissioned 3 more battleships
• WW1 1914 - 1918


  When first broke out, been very popular in Germany -> thought it was great fun & expected to win but was a nightmare for soldiers & civilians
• Impacts of WW1:


  Food shortages: British blockade

  British navy stopped supply of ships getting to Germany -> cause terrible food shortages

  1915 bread rationing also shortages of clothes, medicine & fuel
• Impacts of WW1


  Disease and Illness:

  During 1918 Spanish Influenza swept across Europe, nearly half a million citizens, 200,000 soldiers killed in the summer

  Food shortages made them weak, unable to fight the disease
• Impacts on WW1:


  War weariness:

  1915, 500 women gathered in front of Reichstag wanting their men back from the trenches

  1916, 10000 workers protested, shouting “Down with war, down with the government"
• Impact of WW1


  Unexpected defeat:

  start war: German expected to win 1918 General Lundendorff said Germany could never win war, they should surrender, Kaiser Wilhelm refused
• Impact of WW1


  Mutiny revolution:

  28th October, navy ordered to attack British ships, sailors refused, didn’t want to fight anymore, mutiny spread others refused

  Support for socialist & communist increased, wanted to overthrow kaiser

  9th November 1918 Kaiser abdicated
• Freidrich Evert, one of the leaders of Germany largest political party, SPD (socialist) took Kaisers place as leader, promise to hold elections

  11th November 1918, 11am Germany signed armistice, surrendering from WW1

  Consequence: the shock defeat & armistice made Germans lose confidence, pride in the country
• By end of WW1:


  Germany virtually bankrupt, huge debt to countries(eg USA)

  Deep divisions in rich & poor

  60,000 war widows, 2 million Germans without fathers

  Kaiser abdicated, new government take over
• Treaty Of Versailles: 1919

  June 1919 Germany signed Treaty of Versailles
• Treaty of Versailles consequences: Land


  Germany lost 13% of its land, 6 million living there

  Much of the lost land had important raw materials

  German troops were not allowed in the Rhineland (sat on the French border) France wanted to feel safe

  Overseas colonies were taken away
• Treaty Of Versailles consequence: Army


  Reduced to 100,000 troops

  Navy cut to 15,000 sailors, 6 battleships

  No submarines, tanks or airforce
• Treaty of Versailles consequence: Money

  1921 Reparations were set to $6.6 billion
• Treaty Of Versailles consequences: Blame

  ‘war guilt clause' included the treaty - Germany had to accept responsibility for starting war

  -> This allowed alloues to demand compensation for all damages caused
• Treaty Of versailles: Germans hated the treaty


  They thought it was too harsh -treaty took away large areas of land, losing people, factories, farms & mines

  Hated the treaty it forced Germany, without discussion, many Germans called it ‘diktat' (dictated peace)

  Germans felt they didn’t lose the war, but betrayed by the new politicians, when the Kaiser left referred as November Criminals
• Proportional representation: voting system percentage of votes = percentage of seats at the Reichstag
• Consequences of Proportional Representation:

  Many parties were gaining seats but no party was strong enough to rule they needed coalitions of parties
• Article 48: in an emergency the President didn’t need and agreement of Reichstag to act
• Sparticist Uprising 1919


  January 1919 led by Rosa and Karl wanted Germany ruled by communist & hoped for a revolution like Russia

  Tried to seize power, organised a general strike, 100,000 workers attended, seized the government newspaper, communication offices
• Spartacist Uprising 1919


  Ebert dealt with army commander - killing German communist leaders, allowed old army more freedom

  Also enlisted help of freikorps (ex soldiers hated the spartacist & wanted to bring back the kaiser)
• Sparatcist Uprising 1919


  Spartacists ruthlessly put down the Freikorps, many died.

  Leader of the Spartacists died, Weimar Germany survived, taken a lot of violence -> relying on the Freikorps made him look weak
• Kapp Putsch, March 1920


  Freikorps grew strength after Spartacist revolt

  March 1920, government tried to disband the Freikorps -> Freikorps lost control

  Freikorps didn‘t want to be want to be unemployed again -> became against the governmet

  5000, Freikorps marched to Beelin & declared a new government

  Weimar fled to Berlin, encouraged Berlin workers to go strike

  The strike made Berlin to a standstill -> difficult for government to operate essential services

  -> collapsed Putsch 4 days later , Weimar government restored
• During WW1 Kaiser spent huge amounts of money, borrowing money led to country debt

  Printing more money decreased its value, leading to inflation
• Inflation & inability to pay reparations 


  Printing more money lead to inflation - money devalued & prices increased

  Treaty Of Versailles made Germany pay $6.6 billion in reparations by 1984

  End of 1921, Germany state they were unable to pay reparations