Germany (1&2) xoxo

• Kaiser Wilhelm's aims


  • Keep as much power as he could
  • Make Germany a world power
• Kaiser Wilhelm's power


  • Proposed new laws
  • Controlled the army
  • Appointed the Chancellor
  • Job for life (hereditary)
• Limits on Kaiser Wilhelm's power

  • Reichstag could approve new laws
  • Reichstag controlled taxation and spending
• 1/3 of Germans voted for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) by 1912 as they wanted improvements in their living and working conditions
• Weltpolitik


  World policy - Increasing the size of the German army and building modern battleships (Navy Laws)
• Weltpolitik was very expensive causing taxes to rise and high levels of debt
• By 1918 Germany was running out of money and supplies as Britain was blockading Germany, meaning few supplies arrived
• 750,000 people died due to a lack of food
• The German army was being pushed back to Germany, whilst mutiny broke out in the navy based at Kiel and riots began across Germany over their long working hours and rising food prices
• Ebert


  Took over temporarily until new elections could be organised after the Kaiser abdicated
• Ebert signed an armistice to end the fighting on 11 November, 1918
• Many German soldiers felt they had been 'stabbed in the back' and called Ebert's government the 'November criminals'
• The Treaty of Versailles officially ended WW1 in June 1919, even though the fighting stopped in 1918
• Terms of the Treaty of Versailles

  • 13% of land lost
  • 10% of population lost
  • Overseas colonies taken
  • Land given to France, Poland, Belgium and Denmark
• Restrictions on German armed forces

  • 100,000 soldiers and 15,000 sailors only
  • 6 battleships
  • No tanks, planes or submarines
• Article 232


  Germany must pay £6.6 billion in reparations, starting in 1922 with yearly instalments in goods and gold until 1988
• In November 1922 Germany announced that it could not afford to pay the reparations payments
• In January 1923, 60,000 French and Belgian soldiers marched into the Ruhr, occupying the area for 10 months and taking what was owed to them
• The German government told the workers in the Ruhr to not cooperate, and all workers took part in passive resistance meaning they went on strike and some set fire to factories and deliberately flooded mines
• To pay the workers striking in the Ruhr, the Weimar republic printed more money, leading to hyperinflation where a loaf of bread cost 201 billion marks
• Hyperinflation meant wages could not keep up with inflation, savings were wiped out, but people in debt could pay off loans easily and it could lead to big profits for businesses
• Weimar Constitution


  New constitution drawn up in 1919 which set out how Germany would be ruled after the abdication of the Kaiser
• Key features of the Weimar Constitution

  • President elected every 7 years, with power to choose Chancellor and use Article 48 in an emergency
  • Chancellor responsible for day-to-day running of country, head of government
  • Reichstag - Germany's parliament, members elected every 4 years, needed majority to pass laws
  • German people voted for President and Chancellor, everyone over 20 could vote
  • Proportional representation system meant coalition governments were often needed
• Not everyone supported the Weimar Republic, with extremist parties like the communists wanting a Communist Revolution
• In January 1919, 100,000 workers went on strike after Ebert sacked the police chief in Berlin, and the Spartacists tried to take over government offices
• The Freikorp were created to put down the Spartacist uprising, with the leaders killed
• In 1920, the government announced it would reduce the army and disband the Freikorp units, but they refused and 12,000 soldiers marched to Berlin, taking over the city and installing Kapp as the new leader
• The Weimar Republic urged Berliners to go on strike, making it impossible for Kapp to rule, and the Weimar Republic survived
• In 1923, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party tried to overthrow the government with the help of a famous army general, Ludendorff, in the Munich Putsch
• Munich Putsch


  • Hitler and Nazis had 55,000 members and their own private army (SA)
  • Believed they could get support of Bavarian leader and 420,000 armed men
  • Putsch quickly failed as Lossow and Karr did not support Hitler
  • 14 Nazis died in the violence, Hitler and Ludendorff were arrested
• Hitler was put on trial and used it for propaganda, with the judges being sympathetic and sentencing him to 5 years in prison
• Hitler spent 9 months in prison writing his book Mein Kampf
• Gustav Stresemann


  One of Germany's most brilliant statesmen, tasked with fixing the German economy and foreign policy
• Stresemann's actions


  • Introduced the Rentenmark to deal with hyperinflation
  • Promised to start paying reparations again, leading to the French and Belgians leaving the Ruhr
  • Improved relations with other countries, signing the Locarno Pact and joining the League of Nations
  • Signed the Dawes Plan to provide $200 million in loans to help German businesses
  • Signed the Young Plan to reduce overall reparations and give Germany more time to pay
• Stresemann's policies introduced prosperity and stability to the Weimar Republic in the mid-1920s
• Cultural changes in Weimar Germany

  • New architecture like Bauhaus
  • Anti-war books and films
  • Flourishing art, music and cabaret
  • Berlin famous for naked dances and nightclubs
• Some traditional Germans did not like the path that Weimar society was taking, seeing it as a moral decline
• In October 1929, the Wall Street Crash in the USA crashed the economy, causing individual and government hardship
• Putsch


  Violent attempt to overthrow the government
• Reichstag


  Germany's Parliament