chap 2 (history)

• Germany's defeat in the war finally came

  November 1918
• Abdication


  A ruler gives up his or her throne or position of authority
• The Kaiser was forced to abdicate on 9 November 1918
• The New York Times: 'KAISER AND CROWN PRINCE ABDICATE; NATION TO CHOOSE NEW GOVERNMENT; MAX IS REGENT; ARMISTICE DELAYED'
• Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), became the new leader of the Republic of Germany


  10 November 1918
• Germany was now a democratic republic
• Ebert signed the Armistice with the Allies on 11 November 1918 and the fighting stopped
• Ebert appointed a Council of People's Representatives to run Germany until a new constitution was written and elections could be held
• Social Democratic Party (SPD)

  Formed in 1863, represented workers and campaigned for better pay, working conditions and living conditions
• The SPD was usually the largest party in the Reichstag and its members were bitter opponents of the Kaiser and his allies
• Republic


  A form of government in which a state is ruled by representatives elected by the citizens
• Constitution


  The system of beliefs and laws by which a country or state is governed
• The Weimar Republic was established in August 1919 in the town of Weimar where the German National Assembly met, as Berlin was seen as too dangerous and unstable
• Friedrich Ebert, the first president of the Weimar Republic, was sworn in on August 19
• Weimar Constitution


  • Germans over the age of 20 could vote, with women being included for the first time
  • Party representation in the Reichstag would be determined by proportional representation
• Strengths of the Weimar Government

  • Proportional representation meant that any party taking part in the elections would gain seats in the Reichstag equal to the number of votes it received
  • Laws had to be approved by the Reichstag, the Chancellor could not just push them through which prevented the abuse of power
• Weaknesses of the Weimar Government

  • It was hard for one party to gain a majority, even parties opposed to democracy could gain seats
  • Governments ended up as coalitions which made it challenging for the Reichstag to pass laws, leading to weak and often short-lived governments
  • Article 48 could be used to preserve and protect democracy, but a president with a different attitude towards democracy could misuse and exploit it, threatening the constitution
• The early elections to the new Reichstag in January 1919 were relatively peaceful with a voter turnout of over 80 per cent
• Ebert's SPD was the largest party, so he became President, but he did not have enough Assembly members to form a government on his own and formed a coalition
• The Treaty of Versailles undermined the Weimar Republic and poisoned the attitudes of many Germans towards it, eventually bringing the Republic down
• Many Germans chose to believe in the Dolchstoss theory, that the German army had been 'stabbed in the back' by the socialist and liberal politicians who agreed to the Armistice in November 1918
• Ebert and his government faced opposition from both the left-wing and right-wing groups, many of which attempted to overthrow the Weimar government
• Spartacist Uprising, 1919


  1. Spartacists, a left-wing communist group, fought for power

  2. Ebert made an agreement with the army and the Freikorps, an anti-communist band of WWI veterans, to put down the rebellion

  3. Bitter street fighting and heavy casualties followed, eventually the Freikorps won
• Kapp Putsch, 1920


  1. Wolfgang Kapp, a right-wing leader, led 5,000 Freikorps into Berlin in a rebellion

  2. The Weimar government ordered the German army to attack the Freikorps, but the army refused

  3. Germany's trade unions and their 12 million industrial workers declared a general strike, crippling the country

  4. Kapp realised he could not succeed and fled the country
• Besides Kapp, no other rebels were punished, and political violence from the right wing continued after the Kapp Putsch, but they were rarely punished
• Germany's economy was consistently plagued by economic performance and inflation which would have long-lasting effects on the future of the Weimar Republic
• The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to pay reparations of 66 billion pounds, which the Germans protested was unaffordable
• When Germany failed to make a payment in January 1923, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr valley, Germany's most important and valuable industrial region, and began to take what was owed to them in the form of raw materials and goods
• The Weimar Republic had some support and power after all
• Besides Kapp, no other rebels were punished. The courts set many rebels free
• Political violence from the right wing continued after the Kapp Putsch, but they were rarely punished
• Putsch


  The German word for rebellion
• The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to pay reparations of 66 billion pounds. The Germans protested that this was unaffordable, but their pleas were ignored when Germany failed to make a payment in January 1923
• French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr valley, Germany's most important and valuable industrial region, to take what was owed to them in the form of raw materials and goods
• The German government ordered the workers to go on strike and not to co-operate with the French. The sudden halt in industrial production caused the German currency to collapse
• The government continued to print banknotes but they were practically worthless, since printing more money caused the value of currency to decrease. The flood of money led to hyperinflation, with prices of daily needs rising rapidly
• Hyperinflation caused great hardship for the Germans. The middle-class Germans lost the most. The German economy was destabilised to the extent that personal savings were wiped out and unemployment was widespread
• The situation gave the government's opponents yet another problem to blame it for. Many opponents linked the problem to the hated Treaty of Versailles signed by the Weimar politicians
• In November 1925, the new Chancellor, Gustav Stresemann, replaced the German mark with a new currency called the Rentenmark. Stresemann also negotiated the reorganisation of reparations through the Dawes Plan in 1924 and the Young Plan in 1929
• These firm and decisive actions allowed Germany to stabilise its finances by reducing its debt. The period 1925-1929 was commonly associated with the Golden Age of Weimar where the economy recovered and democracy had a chance of taking root