effects of WWI

• Impact on the German people

  News of impending defeat in late October/early November 1918 was a shock, despite the increasing food shortages caused by the naval blockade, as Germany had defeated Russia, and German troops were still in Northern France and Belgium. During the war the army commanders had been telling the people that they were close to victory.

  The navy disagreed with an armistice and ordered the fleet to sea, but this led to a mutiny, which was followed by the establishment of soviets in many cities across Germany.
• The Kaiser abdicated


  9 November
• Power went to


  A Council of People's Representatives, a temporary government under Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the largest political party, the SPD, until a national assembly could be elected
• It appeared as if Germany was on the verge of revolution
• Ebert and the SPD did not want a revolution like in Russia because

  • It would lead to civil war
  • It would disrupt demobilisation
  • It would disrupt the distribution of food
  • It would hinder peace negotiations
• How Ebert was able to prevent a revolution

  1. Maintained the support of the army by not reforming it or creating a new force

  2. Kept the support of industrialists, who negotiated with trade unions the Central Working Association Agreement, which gave workers an eight-hour day and established workers' councils in large companies

  3. The working class was divided between the communists (KPD), who wanted a Soviet style of government, and supporters of the SPD, who wanted a parliamentary system
• Economic impact

  The war had a considerable economic impact on

  Germany, with the following results when it ended in 1918:

  • Industrial production was only two-thirds that of 1913

  • National income was one-third that of 1913.

  • There were 600,000 widows and 2 million children without fathers, with the result that by 1925 the state was spending one-third of its budget on war pensions.
• Social impact

  The war deepened divisions within German society, with huge gaps in the living standards between rich and poor.

  This situation had been made worse by the restrictions placed on workers' earnings during the war, while factory owners had been able to make large profits. During the war, many women had worked in factories and some believed that this had damaged family values.
• he establishment of a republic

  Following the Kaiser's abdication, Ebert signed an armistice and announced that the Republic would guarantee:

  • freedom of speech

  • freedom of worship

  • better working conditions.

  A new constitution was drawn up, but the change in government from an autocratic system to a new democratic government created opposition and challenges (see page 12). This helped to create the stab-in-the-back' myth, which claimed that Germany had been betrayed by politicians such as Ebert and that it was this that prevented Germany from winning the war.