The Weimar Republic

• Ebert-Groener Pact: Groener agreed to suppress lingering revolutionary activity in return for Ebert's promise to resist Bolshevism and that the government would maintain the authority of the army and its existing military officers


  10 November 1918
• Stinness-Legien Agreement: Stinnes represented big business, Legien represented trade unions. Employers recognised the legality of the unions and agreed to introduce an eight-hour day. The unions promised to maintain production and end unofficial strikes. An arbitration board was also set up to mediate its future conflicts


  15 November 1918
• Spartacist Rebellion broke out due to dismissal of prominent USPD officials. Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg gave speeches to encourage the workers' rebellion and inspire them to overthrow the SPD government before the new elections could take place. Noske, the Defence Minister, acted with great severity, using bands of Freikorps. There was savage street-fighting in which more than 100 workers were killed. Liebknecht and Luxemburg were captured and were both killed by Freikorps units


  January 1919
• Workers had been frustrated that the 'new' government of the Weimar Republic seemed to ready to compromise with the right
• This led to a wave of strikes in Halle and the Ruhr valley in 1919 (industrial areas supplying around 80% of the country's coal). Strikers demanded workers' control over industry, a government based on workers' soviets and shorter hours. The Weimar government called on the Freikorps and army to suppress these activities
• In March 1920, a general strike in Berlin helped to defeat a right-wing coup. Communists formed a 'Red army' of 50,000 workers and seized control of the Ruhr, producing a state of virtual civil war against the regular army and Freikorps
• Treaty of Versailles accepted out of necessity by the Reichstag by 237 to 138 votes


  June 1919
• Key terms of the Treaty of Versailles

  • Placing the war guilt solely on Germany's shoulder
  • Territorial adjustments that ignored 'self-determination' for German peoples
  • Germany had to supply free coal to France, Belgium and Italy and surrender 90% of its merchant fleet to the Allies
  • Demand for disarmament (German army was restricted to 100,000 men, while the navy was reduced to just 15,000)
  • Reparations (£6.6 billion)
• The Germans referred to the treaty as a 'diktat', 'dictated' to Germany without consultation
• The government started to reduce the size of the army and disbanded some of the Freikorps unites in accordance with the demands of the Treaty of Versailles


  January 1920
• Defence Minister Noske ordered two Freikorps units, stationed 12 miles from Berlin and comprising 12,000 men to disband. The Kapp Putsch rebellion began when General Walther von Lüttwitz, the commanding general, refused and the government ordered his arrest


  February 1920
• Lüttwitz, Kapp and the Freikorps leader, Erhardt, marched their troops to Berlin and Kapp proclaimed himself chancellor. Ebert's government ordered the Reichswehr, the regular army, to crush the rising

  March 1920
• This provided a number of lessons: the army was not to be trusted and without the army's support, the Weimar government was weak. The leniency shown by right-wing judges towards those brought on trial, when only one defendant was punished, contrasted strongly with the harsh treatmet suffered by the left wing
• Finance Minister, Erzberger, was assassinated by two members of the terrorist league 'Organisation Consul'


  August 1921
• Foreign Minister, Walther Rathenau, also met his death at the hands of the same organisation


  June 1922
• Reichstag passed a 5 year law, 'For the Protection of the Republic', placing severe penalities on those involved in conspiracy to murder. It outlawed extremist organisations and Organisation Consul was forced to disband


  July 1922
• Inter-Allied Commission declared that the Germans were in debt with timber and coal payments. The French, angered by the 1922 Treaty of Rapallo (where Germany and the USSR, the two 'outcasts of Europe' signed a treaty of friendhsip and economic coorperation), took action and, in 1923, French and Belgian troops advanced into the Ruhr to take coal, steel and manufactured goods from Germany as reparations


  1923
• The government, under Chancellor Cuno, responded with 'passive resistance' whereby Germans refused to work for the French. The workers were given strike pay and told not to cooperate with the French
• The loss of tax revenue and export earnings from the Ruhr added to the already enormous pressures on the Republic's finances while shortages pushed up prices. Germany had to import coal and pay for it from the limited foreign currency reserves within Germany and international confidence in the value of the Mark collapsed. The government met the damand for strike pay by printing more money, and by the end of 1923, German money was not worth the paper it was printed on
• Ebert was forced to use his emergency powers under Article 48. He transferred power to the Länder to regional military commanders in September 1923 and appointed a new Reich Commissioner
• The Küstrin Putsch: Stresemann (Chancellor from 1923) brought passive resistance to an end. There was an attempted right-wing putsch at Küstrin, near Berlin. Illegal paramilitary groups within the German Army, called the Black Reichswehr, aimed to replace Stresemann's government with a dictatorship


  1923
• The Beer Hall Putsch: The Bavarian government opposed Stresemann's ending of passive resistance. Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) attracted 55,000 members by November 1923. Hitler secured the support of Ludendorff and on 8 November 1923, he burst into a Munich beer hall. Hitler filled the hall with SA men and announced that 'the national revolution' had begun. His plan was to march on Berlin and to install Ludendorff as the new Commander in Chief. However, their support evaporated overnight and the SA were unable to gain control of the Munich army barracks. The Nazi Party was banned and Histler was imprisoned for 9 months thanks to right-wing judicial leniency. In 1928, the Nazi Party received just 2.6% of the vote and gained only 12 Reichstag seats


  1923
• To ensure a constant supply of money, the government put more into circulation, abadoning the link between paper money and gold reserves. The circulation of paper money increased from 2000 million Marks-worth in 1913 to 45,000 million in 1919. At the same time, the National Debt grew from 5000 million to 144,000 million Marks
• It had been suggested that allowing some post-war inflation was economically wise. It stimulated economic activity, and compared with Britain, unemployment rates were quite low. By 1921, there was only 1.8% unemployment in Germany compared with nearly 17% in Great Britain. Also, the 1920 coalition was dominated by the Zentrum, which was supported by many powerful German industrialists. These elites were able to benefit from inflation by taking short-term loans from Germany's central bank to expand on their businesses. They could subsequently repay these with inflated currency. They were also able to make seemingly generous wage agreements that could be paid with worthless money
• However, there were danger signs by 1920. Prices doubled between 1918 and 1919 and quadrupled between 1919 and 1920, reaching a point 14 times higher than they had been in 1913. Inflation had exceeded 100% for most of 1920. By November 1923, the currency was worthless
• Schacht, the Reich Currency Commissioner, introduced the Rentenmark, valued at 1 Rentenmark to 1 trillion old Marks. This new currency was backed by land and industrial resources (rather than by gold) and its supply was strictly limited. It was therefore regarded as safe and consequently held its value. Schacht also took over the leadership of the Reichsban and a range of fiscal measures were adopted to reduce inflation. The number of companies that went bankrupt in Germany rose from 233 in 1923 to over 6000 in 1924, but this helped to make the economy more efficient and faith in the Reichsbank returned


  November 1923
• The Dawes Plan: stated that the reparations payment of £6.6 billion remained but the amount to be paid each year would be reduced until 1929, when the situation would be reappraised. This demonstrates the acceptance by the Allies that Germany's problems with the payment of reparations were real. Germany was also to pay 1000 trillion Marks immediately (a fraction of what had been expected before), and this sum would be raised by annual increments over five years to 2500 million Marks per year. After this, the sum paid would be related to German industrial performance. Most importantly, Germany should receive a large loan of 800 million Marks from the USA to help get the plan started and allow for heavy investment in the German infrastructure

  1924
• Locarno Treaties: German was no longer diplomatically isolated and treated as an equal member. The occupation of the Ruhr or annexation of the Rhineland were no longer legitimate French options. Indicated a new era of peaceful cooperation had begun


  1925
• Germany was accepted into the League of Nations as a permanent member of the council which enabled it to restore is status of great power, the equal of Britain adn France


  1926
• Kellog-Briand Pact: Condemned access to war as a means of solving international disputes. Stresemann signed this as an equal alongside 64 other states


  1928
• The Young Plan: reduced the totla reparations bill by 75% while also reducing the annual payments by extending the period of the payments to 59 years. Loants to support the economy would continue from US banks


  1929
• By 1929, Germany was producing 33% more than before the war and had regained her mantle as the second-highest producing industrial nation after the US. For example, heavy industry made some recovery. By 1927, coal production had reached 79% of its pre-1913 level, pig iron 68% and steel 86%. By 1925, there were around 3000 cartel arrangements in operation
• The German economy grew just 4% between 1913 and 1929 whereas the US economy grew by 70%. Unemployment never fell below 1.3 million and had reached 3 million by February 1929
• The situation of German farmers worsened due to a global gain surplus and price slump in 1925-26. In 1928, farmers initaited a series of small-scale riots - called the 'farmers' revenge' - in protest against foreclosures and low market prices. Also, by 1929, German agricultural production was less than three-quarters of its pre-war levels. The NSDAP made extensive use of the slogan Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) to win support from disgruntled farmers by emphasising the important on agriculture
• State involvement in welfare was vastly extended in the years of the Weimar Republic. The principles of a welfare state were written into the second section of the Weimar Constitution; an acknowlegment of the long-standing socialist promises to redistribute wealth and provide for the working classes. For example, in 1918, workers were granted an eight-hour day, all restriction on trade unions were abolished and a system of industrial tribunals was established to provide arbitration between employers and employees
• 1922 Youth Welfare Law declared that every German child had the "right to education, spiritual, physical and social fitness", the government created institutions and social workers to accommodate children who were illegitimate, homeless, abandoned or at risk
• 1927 Unemployment Insurance Law: required workers and employees to make contributions to a national scheme for unemployment welfare. Unemployment insurance extended protection to 17.25 million workers, which was greater than in any other country
• The government of the Länder used foreign loands from 1924 to improve hospitals, schools, roads, building and electricity supplies. Article 155 of the constitution declared that the state must "strive to secure healthy housing to all German families, especially those with many children". Between 1924 and 1931 more than 2 million new homes were built, while almost 200,000 more were renovated or expanded. By 1928, homelessness had been reduced by more than 60%
• German workers benefited from increases in the real value of wages. In 1927, real wages increased by 9% and in 1928 they rose by a further 12% making Germany's industrial workforce the best paid in Europe
• Women had the vote in the Republic and in 1920, 111 women were elected to the Reichstag. Continuing war time trends, the overall number of women in employment rose from 31.2% in 1907 to 35.6% in 1925. However, the image of the 'emacipated women' of the 1920s could be an exaggeration. Political parites on both the left and right still believed a woman's place was in the home and it was assumed that they would stop working when they married. Even the BDF (League of German Women's Associations) was quite moderate and encouraged women to undertake social work, as more fitting to their 'natural qualities'