key dates

• 1918


  • end of WW1
  • Germany economy in ruins - 16% of war expenditure raised from taxation , rest = borrowed
• 1919


  • weimar constitution established
  • Ebert elected as president
  • weaknesses - Article 48 made it so president could be dictator and PR made it impossible for 1 party to form majority government
• 1919


  • creation of German workers' party (DAP) by Drexler
  • Nazi ideology developed in 1920s - racism , nationalism
  • Spartacist Revolt in Berlin - crushed by Friekorps
• January 1919 elections


  SPD - wins 37.9% of votes

  • 3 main democratic parties - support of 76.1%
• March 1919


  communist uprising in Bavaria , crushed by Friekorps
• June 1919

  Treaty of Versailles

  • reduced army to 100,000
  • lost Rhineland
• early 1920s

  376 political murders

  • 354 committed by Right, 10 sentenced by death all from Left
• 1920s


  KPD wanted one party communist state
• Feb 1920


  • 25 point programme
  • drawn up by Hitler and Drexler
  • nationalisation of all businesses
• 1920 elections


  SPD - 21.7% of vote

  KPD - 2.1% of vote

  USPD - 17.9% of vote

  • 3 democratic parties had 48% of vote
• March 1920


  • Kapp Putsch
  • right wing uprisonh
  • formation of the Ruhr Army (50,000 workers) to counter it , Hitler arrested
• Jan 1923


  • Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr
  • passive resistance proclaimed by Streseman
• Jan - Nov 1923

  • period of hyperinflation
  • Nov 1923 - 200billion marks to the dollar
  • benefitted people with loans to pay back as values of loans decreased
• Nov 1923


  Rentenmark introduced - currency brought new confidence to government
• Invasion of Ruhr - 1923
• Rentenmark replaced by Reichsmark in 1924
• Dawnes Plan - 1924
• 1929 - Young Plan introduced - reduce reparations by 20%
• 1930 - wall street crash
• 1929 - German agricultural output less than 75% of 1913 levels
• Real wages grew

  1927 - 9%

  1928 - 12%
• 1919 - 23

  • 6 coalition changes
• Nazi Party in 1923 members were 20,000
• 1925 - Hindenburg elected President