Weimar Republic 1918-29

• world war 1 lasted from 1914-1918
• War was devastating for who ?

  germany
• German people were suffering severe hardship
• The allies did What to Germany ?

  naval blockades - prevented food and essential food imports =starvation
• Public opinion turned against kaiser Wilhelm II - ruled German empire like a king
• Kurt Eisner encouraged general uprising - mass strikes in Munich
• By november 1918 , huge public protest was held in Berlin , members of SPD called for kaisers resignation
• When did kaiser Wilhelm abdicate ?

  9th november 1918
• On same day that kaiser abdicated two different socialist parties - social Democratic Party and independent social Democratic Party declared republic
• What is a republic ?


  country ruled with no monarch , power held by people instead
• Germany was made of 18 states and each one had its own government
• On 10th November all state leaders had been appointed by monarch left their posts , new revolutionary state governments took over instead
• What did the signing of armistice include ?


  ceasefire- 11th November to end ww1 was agreed , allies signed an armistice with Germany
• armistice ?


  truce
• Who were the allies ?


  britain , France , USA
• The new republic was under pressure to sign , government didn’t think Germany could continue fighting why ?

  its people were starving , military low
• Who didn’t support the armistice and why ?

  right-wing Germans - they saw truce as betrayal , they believed Germany could still win war
• What did the socialists do ?


  set up temporary government
• After the abdication of kaiser , Germany was disorganised true or false ?


  true
• The temporary national government consisted of who ?


  SPD and USPD
• What was the temporary national government called ?

  council of people’s representatives
• How long did the council of people’s representatives control Germany for ?

  until january 1919
• Why was the weimar Republic designed ?

  give German people a voice
• germany was now a democracy what does that mean ?

  people would say how country was run
• Who was the first president of Weimar Republic ?

  friedrich ebert
• With Philip scheidemann as chancellor
• Who was the leader of the SPD ?

  Ebert
• What was the SPD?

  moderate party of socialists
• in February 1919 members of the new reichstag met at Weimar to create a new constitution for Germany
• The Weimar constitution made Germany more democratic
• What was reichstag ?

  new German Parliament, members elected every 4 years using proportional representation
• What is proportional representation ?

  where the proportion of seats a party wins in a parliament is roughly the same as the proportion of total votes they win
• Who was the president elected by ?

  German people
• president

  Was elected every 7years , chooses the chancellor and is head of the army , they can dissolve the reichstag , call new elections and suspend constitution
• What was the reichsrat?

  Second house of parliament, consists of members from each local region , can delay measures passed by reichstag
• The constitution

  allowed women to vote for the first time and lowered voting age to 20
• But the constitution had weaknesses -
• Proportional representation meant that even parties with small number of votes were guaranteed to get into reichstag -meant difficult to make decisions because so many parties - with different point of views
• When a decision couldn’t be reached , president could suspend constitution and pass laws without reichstags consent
• Main problem of proportional representation was ?

  difficult to make decisions , due to too many parties with different viewpoints