Nazi Germany

• In 1918, Germany was under a dictatorship of the Kaiser. Kaiser Wilheim II ruled Germany from 1888. He refused to give the people of Germany rights and freedom.
• The Kaiser's abdication allowed a new state to emerge. Germany became known as the Weimar republic.
• First action of the Weimar republic

  Sign an armistice to end WWI
• 1914-1918: 2 million soldiers died and 4 million more were wounded.
• Germany's debt trebled from 50 billion marks in 1914 to 150 billion marks in 1918.
• As a result, Germany experienced a wave of civil unrest. In October 1918 the German navy mutinied in the ports of Kiel and Hamburg.
• There were many protests in Berlin on the 7th November 1918- the Kaiser had lost support of the country.
• President


  Head of Weimar republic, elected every 7 years, played no part in day-to-day policies, chose the chancellor
• Chancellor


  Head of the government in the Weimar republic, chose all government ministers
• Reichstag


  Created Germany's laws on matters such as taxation, elected by the people every 4 years
• Reichsrat


  Representatives from local government that were elected every 4 years
• Electorate


  All men and women over 21 could vote
• Strengths of the Weimar constitution

  • The people gained more rights such as voting
  • Proportional representation ensures the Reichstag represented smaller parties. One seat was equivalent to 60,000 votes
  • The system designed stopped people from taking complete power. The president chose the chancellor, but the public elected the president
  • The Reichstag and Reichsrat worked together. The Reichsrat could challenge laws unless 2/3 of the Reichstag voted against the intervention
• Weaknesses of the Weimar constitution


  • An increase in elections weakened the public's enthusiasm to vote. During the 1929-1930s fewer people voted in elections
  • The use of proportional representation meant no single party won a majority in the Reichstag. There were 9 coalition governments between 1919-1923
  • Article 48 meant that the chancellor could ask the president to pass emergency laws without the support of the Reichstag. Ebert used article 48 63 times in 1923-1924
  • The extremist parties continued to violently attack the Weimar republic
• The allies banned Germany from attending peace talks in January 1919. The Weimar republic had no choice but to sign the treaty, this brought anger to the German republic.
• The people believed that the government had begun as a failure.
• Some people didn't believe in signing the armistice because Germany had not lost the war on the battlefield. (this belief was known as the stab in the back theory)
• Military terms of the Treaty of Versailles

  • The Rhineland became dematerialised- this made them vulnerable to an invasion from France
  • Germany's army was restricted to 100,000 men- many ex-soldiers became unemployed
  • Navy was restricted to 6 battleships and no submarines
  • Germany was not allowed to have an air force
• Territorial terms of the Treaty of Versailles


  • France was given an area of the Saar with its coalfields- Germany lost 15% of their coal resources
  • Alsace-Lorraine became part of France again- Germany had no buffer to France anymore
  • France and Britain ruled all 11 of Germany's colonies in Africa and the far east as mandates- they had fewer items to trade with other countries
• Political and economic terms of the Treaty of Versailles

  • Germany couldn't join the league of nations- Germany felt excluded from the world politics
  • The 'war guilt' clause made Germany accept full responsibility for deaths and destruction during wartime. This clause caused the most anger as they felt it was unfair
  • Germany had to pay reparations of 132 billion gold marks (6.6 billion). This would be enough to bankrupt Germany, especially as the territorial terms reduced their ability to trade
• The Spartacist uprising ended on the 13th January 1919. On the 16th January 1919 Luxemberg and Liebknecht were killed by the Freikorps.
• The Freikorps believed that the government had committed a dolchstoss by signing the armistice and the treaty of Versailles. After the army released the Freikorps from military duty in November 1918, they kept their weapons.
• By March 1919 there were roughly 250,000 Freikorps. In March 1920, Ebert planned to disband the Freikorps units in Berlin. Fearing unemployment, 5,000 Freikorps members attempted to overthrow the government (led by Wolfgang Kapp).
• Ebert tried to use general Seeckt (head of the Reichswehr) but it was unsuccessful as he saw the Freikorps as fellow soldiers.
• They declared that they would invite the Kaiser back to govern Germany. A general strike was called by the workers with the Weimar government's encouragement.
• Berlin lost gas, electricity, and water supplies.
• There was no public transportation.
• After 4 days, Kapp left Berlin- he couldn't govern the city without essential services- he and his conspirators fled to Sweden. Kapp died in 1922 before his trial for conspiracy and treason began.
• Germany began the process of paying reparations, but it soon became clear that Germany was failing to meet their monthly repayments. The USA received a large proportion of Germany's monthly reparations bill indirectly from Britain and France. This was because the USA requested that Britain and France pay back the money the USA lent them in WWI.
• By 1922, France accused Germany of not sending the amount of coal required by the treaty of Versailles. French and Belgian troops entered the Ruhr in January 1923.
• The Ruhr was Germany's most valuable industrial area.
• The soldiers seized coal, manufactured products, and machinery.
• As a result the workers went on strike and sabotaged machinery. The French responded by bringing their own workers into the Ruhr. The Weimar government couldn't force the French soldiers out because the German army had 100,000 men and the French had 750,000 soldiers.
• Impacts of the French occupation of the Ruhr


  • The Weimar government insisted on paying wages to the working strikers
  • Germany had an absence of coal production. They had to import coal from other countries
  • Germany had fewer products to trade internationally, countries lost confidence in the mark as a currency
• Positive impacts of hyperinflation


  • Working classes: some workers coped as they were paid in essential items rather than the mark, people had hoarded goods and sold them for a high price
  • Middle classes: people who had mortgages rent or loans could pay off the money they owed as the debt became worthless
  • Businesses: loans businesses took out were easily paid
  • Foreign visitors: visitors saw that their currency was worth more than the mark. Could buy more items with the German currency
• Negative impacts of hyperinflation

  • Working classes: many people resorted to stealing food to survive, unemployment rose, and some workers died from starvation
  • Middle classes: lost life savings, insurance policies and pensions, government lost their backing. Middle classes looked to extremist parties for solutions
  • Businesses: couldn't pay their workers, so they were forced to close or make redundancies
  • Foreign visitors: Germans disliked visitors profiting from their suffering
• Short-term impacts of hyperinflation

  • In 1923, the public saw the Weimar republic as weak
  • Many people blamed the government (middle classes suffered the most)
  • There was a growth in support for extremism. The Nazi party attempted a Putsch in Munich in 1923
• Long-term impacts of hyperinflation

  • Despite successes 1924-1928 the public had lost trust of the Weimar politicians in a time of crisis
  • It haunted the German republic. Some lost family members to poverty and starvation
  • Unemployment rates remained high throughout the 1920s- Hitler's promise for more jobs persuaded more people to vote for the Nazi party in the 1930s
• Gustav Stresemann became chancellor in 1923 and as a chancellor his 3 main aims were to: 1. Bring inflation under control, 2. Regain Europe's respect, 3. Minimise the support for extremist parties.
• The treaty of Versailles in 1919 was not being fulfilled as Germany could not meet the pay demands, so hyperinflation in 1923 led the allies to consider reducing Germany's reparation bill.