1918-1929

• Germany and World War One

  - The First World War started in August 1914

  - Britain fought against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey (the Central Powers)

  - The USA joined the Allies in April 1917 and by early 1918 the German army was being pushed back on the Western Front

  - At the same time, the British naval blockade had resulted in shortages of food and the deaths of 750,000 civilians: defeat was imminent!
• The Revolution of 1918

  - In early October 1918, a new government was formed by Prince Max of Baden - this was Germany's first parliamentary cabinet.

  - Prince Max approached President Wilson of the USA, but he said he would not discuss peace while the Kaiser was still in control.

  - In late October 1918, sailors in Kiel refused to put to sea and attack the British navy as they felt such a move would be suicidal. - Unrest began to spread across Germany.

  - 9th Nov: Kaiser realises he has little support and abdicates

  - 11th Nov: President of the newly declared German Republic accepted the Armistice.
• The setting up of the Weimar Republic

  - Elections for a new Constituent Assembly were announced for 19th January 1919

  - Following the elections, it was decided that Berlin was too dangerous to meet in and so members met in the more peaceful town of Weimar

  - Elections results meant no party had a majority and a coalition was formed between the SPD, ZP and DDP. (moderate, left)

  - The Assembly had two tasks: draw up a new constitution and formulate a peace treaty with the Allies
• The Weimar Constitution: Democratic inclusions

  - President: Elected every seven years (democratic), chose the new chancellor, can use Article 48

  - Chancellor: Chosen by President, had to have support of the majority of the Reichstag

  - Reichstag: 421 members (1919) -> 647 members (1933) who were elected every four years and could make laws (democratic), controlled tax

  - Reichsrat: 55 representatives from 18 German states who could not make laws, just approve them. (democratic)

  - Voters: men and women over 20 (democratic)
• The Weimar Constitution: Undemocratic inclusions

  - Article 48 - Said the President could suspend the constitution in an emergency and rule without the support of the Reichstag (undemocratic)
• Strengths of the Weimar Constitution

  - Very democratic: men and women over 20 could vote when Britain in comparison was 21 for men and 30 for women

  - Head of government (the Chancellor) had to have the support of most of the Reichstag meaning there were checks and balances on power

  - A strong president could still keep control over government and protect Germany in a crisis

  - Voting by proportional representation (x% of votes = x% of seats) was very fair
• Weaknesses of the Constitution

  - P.Repr produced a large number of parties and made it difficult to create political stability. Was very hard for one party to win a majority and so coalition governments were common.

  - It was unclear who had the most power as whilst the Reichstag made laws, Article 48 allowed the President to do as he wished in an emergency and led to the abuse of power

  - Challenge from the army: Leaders of the army wanted the Kaiser to return as they knew their status would be maintained under him

  - Challenge from civil service and judiciary: Many judges and civil servants did not want Weimar as they were right wing
• Why was it so difficult for the Weimar Republic to succeed?

  1) Time of national crisis: work force depleted, factory production down 40%, abdication of the Kaiser, widespread starvation due to British Blockade

  2) First time Germans had experienced democracy and there was a lot of mistrust in the system, not least due to the fact that the German public hadn't known they were going to lose the war and blamed the new government! Nickname = November Criminals

  3) Political polarisation. Extreme right wanted tradition and strong rule under the Kaiser, whilst the extreme left wanted extreme Communist rule and had been inspired by the Russian Revolution in 1917.
• What was the Treaty of Versailles?

  - Peace treaty signed on June 28th 1919

  - Main reason amongst public for unpopularity of Weimar Republic

  - Germans had expected the peace settlement to be based on Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Point Plan and thought they'd be involved in peace negotiations.

  - Actual terms horrified the Germans: terms were crippling

  - The French, led by Clemenceau, wanted revenge and sought to make sure Germany could never threaten France again.
• What were the key terms?

  - 6.6 billion reparations

  - 13% loss of land

  - 48% loss of iron production

  - Absorption of 6 million citizens into other countries

  - Article 231 (War Guilt Clause) meant that Germany had to take the blame for starting to the war

  - Germany were also denied entry to the League of Nations, showing them to be a pariah (outcast) in Europe.
• Other territorial terms of the ToV

  - All colonies given to the Allies

  - Alsace Lorraine given to France

  - No union (Anschluss) with Austria
• Military terms of the ToV

  - Army not to exceed 100,000

  - No tanks, armoured cars or heavy artillery

  - No military aircraft

  - No naval vessel greater than 10,000 tons

  - No submarines

  - Rhineland demilitarised
• Financial terms of the ToV

  - Coal to be mined in the Saar by France

  - Reparations at 6.6 billion

  - Ships over 1600 tons to be given up

  - Cattle and sheep given to Belgium and France as reparations
• The 'stab in the back' theory

  - Germans believed the Treaty to be shameful and humiliating: they called it a Diktat (dictated peace)

  - They needed a scapegoat and found this in the Weimar Government who they believed should not have signed the treaty: they called them the November Criminals

  - Criticism was ironic as German cabinet had initially rejected the terms of the treaty, but the Allies simply informed the government that refusal to accept the terms would result in a renewal of hostilities and invasion of Germany

  - Even so: Dolchstoss theory (stab in the back) was popular
• How was the Weimar Republic challenged from left and right?

  The SPD worked with other moderate parties and had around 80% of seats in the Reichstag. However, there were extreme left and right wing parties who did not support the Weimar Republic. Breakaway political groups tried to overturn the Weimar Republic by leading uprisings against them...
• What did the extreme right want?

  Extreme right-wing groups wanted a return to a strong government, with a strong army, headed by a powerful leader like the Kaiser. They supported capitalism - the private ownership of land and business - and championed families, law and order and traditional values. The National Party (DNVP) was the main right-wing party in 1919.
• What did the extreme left want?

  Extreme left-wing groups wanted Germany to be controlled by the people. They opposed capitalism and wanted public ownership of land and business. The German Communist Party (KPD) was the main left-wing party in 1919.

  - Had been inspired by Russian Revolution of 1917 and believed they could be successful.
• The Spartacist Uprising (January 1919)

  - Left wing uprising led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg which aimed to establish a Communist State.

  - 4th Jan: Ebert sacked a popular police chief called Emil Eichorn and workers took to the streets in protest. The Spartacists saw this as their chance to uprise.

  - 6th Jan: 100,00 workers take to the streets of Berlin and seized the government's newspaper and telegraph offices showing the government was losing control.

  - Ebert put down the rebels by asking reorganised bands of demobilised soldiers from the army (the Freikorps) to put down the rebellion.

  - 250,000 Freikorps easily put down the rebellion and drove the rebels off the streets by 13th January. Both leaders were killed.
• The Kapp Putsch (March 1920)

  - Right wing uprising led by nationalist politician Wolfgang Kapp

  - By March 1920 Freikorps units near Berlin were due to be disbanded: Fearing unemployment, the Freikorps turned their arms against the republic and five thousand armed men marched on Berlin

  - Ebert ordered the head of the Reichswehr to fire on the rebels, but he replied 'Reichswehr does not fire on Reichswehr'

  - Rebels soon controlled the city and put forward Wolfgang Kapp as their leader, asking the Kaiser to return from exile

  - Weimar government fled for their lives to Stuttgart as they could not put the revolt down, instead asking socialist workers to strike.

  - Socialist workers agreed and without essential services e.g. gas, water and transport, the revolt failed.
• Political Assassinations and Right Wing bias

  - Frequent political assassinations made governing harder still e.g. Hugo Haasse, one of Ebert's council of representatives was murdered in 1919 and Matthias Erzberger who had signed the Armistice was shot and killed in August 1921.

  - Between 1919 and 1922 there were 376 political murders of mostly left wing or moderate politicians. Not a single ring wing murder was convicted due to ring wing bias in the courts.
• Where was the Ruhr?

  - The Ruhr is an area in Western Germany, located next to the Rhineland.

  - It is where 80% of Germany's steel was produced, and it contained a huge amount of industry and factories.

  - In early January the Weimar Republic defaulted on their reparations payments and on January 11th 1923 French troops invaded the Ruhr to seize material goods in lieu of money.
• What caused the crisis?

  Germany's biggest problem was that its government was bankrupt: its reserves of gold had all been spent in the war.

  The ToV made things worse. It deprived Germany of wealth-earning areas such as the coal-fields in Silesia.

  It also made the German government pay 6.6bn in reparations.

  Germany asked for reductions, but some Allied countries, especially France, needed money to pay war debts to the USA.
• Events of the crisis

  11th Jan - 60,000 French and Belgian troops march into the Ruhr to seize control of all mines, factories, railways etc and seize goods and machinery, believing the Germans will work for them

  - Weimar Republic encouraged workers to refuse to work (passive resistance)

  - Production in the Ruhr came to a stop and so the French brought in their own workers, but this simply led to violent clashes

  - Helpless to resist the French as they had a limited military + French action was technically legal, the German gov printed more notes in order to pay the workers
• THIS LED TO HYPERINFLATION!

  Hyperinflation - extreme inflation where the value of money becomes all but worthless.

  In Jan 1914 £1 = 14 marks

  By Jan 1922 £1 = 764 marks

  By Jan 1923 £1 = 71,888 marks (date demonstrates the trigger was the Ruhr crisis)

  By November 1923 £1= 1.68 billion marks
• Hyperinflation: losers

  - People with savings or fixed incomes found themselves penniless and blamed the Weimar Politicians, encouraging them to instead look to more extreme political parties

  - Hyperinflation produced extreme effects e.g. people burned notes as firewood as they burned longer than the money that firewood would burn, people took their wages home in wheelbarrows and children played with money in the street or it was simply thrown away

  - Undermined middle class confidence in moderate government as their savings were WIPED
• Hyperinflation: winners

  - Businessmen who had borrowed money from banks were able to pay off these debts

  - Serious food shortages led to a rise in prices of necessities, especially food, which helped farmers.

  - Foreigners who were in Germany suddenly found that they could change them for millions of marks and afford things that ordinary Germans could not.
• How was the crisis solved?

  In late 1923, Gustav Stresemann became Chancellor and began to steady things, introducing a new temporary currency tied to property prices, the Rentenmark

  - The following year, loans from the USA + new currency enabled economic recovery
• Who was Gustav Stresemann?

  Lived between 1878-1929

  - Excellent speaker and administrator who been credited with the recovery of Weimar Republic 1924-1929

  - Served as chancellor 1923 and became foreign secretary until his death

  - 1926, awarded Nobel peace prize
• Reasons for recovery: The Dawes Plan

  Renegotiation of reparations payments by Stresemann who realised Germany could not afford the payments demanded.

  - The plan was approved in August 1924 and named after US vice-president Charles Dawes.

  
  

  Key Terms of the Plans:

  - Reparations to begin at 1billion marks and increase over 4 years to 2.5bn

  - Ruhr was to be evacuated in 1925

  - US would give loans to Germany
• Reasons for recovery: US loan

  Under the Dawes plan, US companies and banks loaned the US nearly $3000 million over 6 years and helped Germany to recovery economically and meet their new reparations payments.
• Reasons for recovery: The Rentenmark

  - This was the new, temporary currency introduced by Stresemann in November 1923 to replace the worthless old currency.

  - Rentenmark was issued in strict amounts and tied to property values.

  - This was later replaced in 1924 with the Reichsmark, which was permanent and whose value was rooted in gold reserves.
• Reasons for recovery: The Young Plan

  - Despite the 1924 Dawes Plan, the German gov still regularly complained about the level of payments.

  In 1929 a new plan for payments was agreed: the reparations figure was reduced from 6.6 billion to 1.85 billion and Germany was given 59 years to pay.

  
  

  Left wing = pleased

  Right wing = (Adolf Hitler: the burden has been passed onto the unborn!)
• Reasons for recovery: Political Stability

  - 1924-29 saw greater political stability. No one party ever won a majority, but the moderate SPD always secured the most votes (approx 30%) and increased their vote share.

  - Extremist parties also saw less support (e.g. the Nazis won 32 seats in May 1924, but 12 in May 1928)
• Was German recovery only superficial?

  Largely agree:

  - Whilst Stresemann's achievements in the years 1924-29 were admirable, especially considering the extent of economic crisis in 1923, German recovery does appear to have been largely superficial.

  Shown by:

  - Recovery depended almost entirely on the USA and the German economy crashed with US stock market in 1929

  - Many sections of the German economy failed to recover or only saw minimal improvements e.g. farmers, industrial workers

  - Lower middle classes never fully recovered from the effects of hyperinflation/never regained trust in moderate government.
• What was the Locarno Pact?

  Stresemann was determined to improve relations with France and Britain, partly in order to restore Germany's international prestige, but also to gain co-operation in reducing the worst features of the T.O.V e.g. reparations

  - In 1925 Germany signed the Locarno Pact with Britain, France, Belgium and Italy. By this agreement, the countries agreed to keep existing borders between Germany, Belgium and France.
• League of Nations

  - In order for the Locarno Pact to come into operation, Germany had to become a member of the League of Nations.

  - In September 1926, Germany was given a permanent seat on the Council of the League of Nations. This confirmed Germany's return to Great Power status and gained considerable prestige for Stresemann.

  - It was a bold move because many Germans regarded the League as the guardian of the hated T.O.V. Moreover, Stresemann used Germany's position in the League to bring about the Young Plan.
• Kellogg-Briand Pact

  In 1928 Germany signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact along with 64 other nations.

  It was agreed that they would keep their armies for self defence and solve all international disputes by 'peaceful means'.

  The pact showed further improved relations between the USA and the leading European nations and fully confirmed that Germany was once again one of these leading nations.
• Was 1924-29 a Golden Age? Wages

  -German workers benefited from increases in the value of real wages.

  - By 1928 there had an increase in real wages of over 10% which meant that Germany had some of the best paid workers in Europe.

  - However, many of the middle classes did not share in the increased prosperity as they had been bankrupted by the hyperinflation of 1923.

  - They did not experience a rise in wages and could not claim many of the benefits of the welfare state provided by the Weimar Republic.
• Was 1924-29 a Golden Age? Unemployment

  - Unemployment fell generally

  - However, it remained high among those who worked in the professions, such as lawyers, civil servants and teachers.

  - In April 1928 almost 184,000 middle-class workers were seeking employment and almost half of them did not qualify for unemployment relief from the state.
• Was 1924-29 a Golden Age? Housing

  - Governments attempted to deal with a critical shortage of housing. They employed architects and planners to devise ways of reducing housing shortages.

  - Between 1924 and 1931 more than two million new homes were built, while almost 200,000 more were renovated or expanded. By 1929 the state was spending 33 times more on housing than it had been in 1913.

  - By 1928, homelessness had been reduced by more than 60 per cent.