New Germany

• Navy Laws


  A series of laws introduced from 1856-1912 that rapidly increased the size of the German navy and army
• How the Navy Laws were implemented

  1. Taxes were increased

  2. Money was borrowed

  3. Germany remained in debt for a very long time
• Germany was defeated by 1918 due to poor diet and flu epidemic
• In October 1918, Army General Ludendorff advised the Kaiser to make Germany more democratic so the Allies would negotiate with them
• The Kaiser's response to Ludendorff's advice


  1. Allowed main political parties to form a new government

  2. Transferred some of his powers to the Reichstag
• The people were still not happy with the changes
• The events that led to the end of the monarchy

  1. 28 October 1918 - Germany navy in Kiel mutinied

  2. Soldiers sent to deal with the protests joined in

  3. In 6 days, workers' and soldiers' councils were governing towns and cities all over Germany

  4. Kaiser realized he had lost control and his army generals refused to support him

  5. 9 November 1918 - Kaiser abdicated and secretly left Germany

  6. Ebert, leader of SPD, took over temporarily and promised to hold elections and end the war
• 11 November 1918 - Germany surrendered and WWI was over
• Germans had suffered during the war, with millions of ordinary Germans being poor and hungry
• Many Germans believed they could have won the war and criticized the Weimar politicians (the "November Criminals") for agreeing to the armistice and accepting harsh punishments in the Treaty of Versailles
• The Weimar government was seen as ineffective and unable to deal with Germany's problems
• The Red Rising in the Ruhr in March 1920


  1. Left-wing workers in the industrial Ruhr stayed on strike after the Kapp Putsch

  2. They took over several towns

  3. The government sent soldiers and some Free Corps units to deal with the rebellion, killing over 1000 workers
• From 1919-1922, there were over 350 political murders, mostly carried out by right-wing extremists who wanted to eliminate those responsible for the Treaty of Versailles
• Assassinations


  • Matthias Erzberger, the man who signed the armistice in 1918, was shot dead by a right-wing group in August 1921
  • In 1922, they also killed Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau and threw acid on Philipp Scheidemann, an important Weimar politician