Early Years of Weimar

• What were the October Reforms? Name 2 ideas created. 

  -Recommendations by Ludendorff that ended autocratic rule 

  -Appointed Max of Baden as Chancellor 

  -Armed forces put under government’s control 
• What was the Peace Note? 

  A letter Prince Max wrote to President Wilson in October asking for an armistice. 
• What impact did the Peace Note have on soldiers and sailors? 

  Many soldiers and sailors lost respect for their officers and the beginning of naval mutiny.  
• What actions did the SPD take during the November Revolution? Name 1. 

  -9th November, SPD called for workers to join a strike against the Kaiser 

  -SPD threatened to withdraw support from Prince Max’s government unless the Kaiser abdicated 
• What actions did Prince Max take in reaction to the SPD?  

  Prince Max had announced the abdication and resigned himself. 
• Who gained the role of Chancellor from Prince Max and when? 

  Friedrich Ebert, leader of the SPD, on the 9th November – the day it was announced that Germany was a republic.  
• What is the Reichstrat? 


  The second chamber of German parliament, each state represented in proportion to its population and could provide advice on laws but overridden by Reichstag. 
• What was the Ebert-Groener Pact? 

  Groener told Ebert that the army leadership would support the government in return Ebert should resist demands of soldier’s councils to democratise the army. 
• Name 3 weakness of the constitution  

  -System of proportional representation (small parties) 

  -Coalition governments 

  -Presidential decrees 

  -Survival of undemocratic institutions 

  -The existence of Article 48 
• Who became the new Commander in Chief of the army in 1920?  

  General Hans von Seeckt. 
• What was Article 48? 


  The power of the President to rule by decree in exceptional circumstances.