Germany Depth Studies: WEIMAR YEARS

Germany Depth Studies: WEIMAR YEARS

At the end of October 1918, the German navy mutinied. Rebellion spread throughout the country. In November Germany was forced to drop out of the First World War. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and fled the country.

A new Republic was declared. In January 1919, elections were held for a new Reichstag and in February 1919, in the town of Weimar, a new government was agreed.

Freidrich Ebert was elected President of the new Republic.

Germany did not just get a new government. The Allies made sure that Germany got a different kind of government. Before 1914, the government of Germany was almost a military autocracy; after 1919, it was a parliamentary democracy.

The Weimar constitution was designed to make sue that no one person accumaltes too much power but resulted in no one having sufficient power. Propotional representation became the reason why no party one an absolute majority and elections were held often and governments were built on flimsy political alliances.

PROBLEMS OF THE WEIMAR GOVERNMENT

1. Ineffective Constitution

The Weimar Constitution did not create a strong government:

Article 48 of the constitution gave the President sole power in ‘times of emergency’ – something he took often.

The system of proportional voting led to 28 parties. This made it virtually impossible to establish a majority in the Reichstag, and led to frequent changes in the government. During 1919-33, there were twenty separate coalition governments and the longest government lasted only two years. This political chaos caused many to lose faith in the new democratic system.

The German states had too much power and often ignored the government.

The Army, led by the right-wing was not fully under the government’s control.  It failed to support government during the Kapp Putsch or the crisis of 1923.

Many government officials – especially judges – were right-wing and wanted to destroy the government.  After the Kapp Putsch, 700 rebels were tried for treason; only 1 went to prison.  After the Munich Putsch, Hitler went to prison for only 9 months.

2. Left-wing Rebellions

The Communist KPD hated the new government:

In Jan 1919, 50,000 Spartacists    rebelled in Berlin, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Leibknecht.

In 1919, Communist Workers’ Councils seized power all over Germany, and a Communist ‘People’s Government’ took power in Bavaria. They were defeated by the freikorps a pramillitary organization consisting of soldiers who were a part of the army prior to the treaty of versailles

In 1920, after the failure of the Kapp Putsch, a paramilitary group called the Red Army rebelled in the Ruhr.

3. Right-wing terrorism

Many right-wing groups hated the new government for signing the Versailles Treaty (June 1919):

The Kapp Putsch: in March 1920, a Freikorps brigade rebelled against the Treaty, led by Dr Wolfgang Kapp.  It took over Berlin and tried to bring back the Kaiser.

Nationalist terrorist groups murdered 356 politicians.  In August 1921 Matthias Erzberger, the man who signed the armistice (and therefore a 'November criminal'), was shot.  In 1922, they assassinated Walter Rathenau, the SPD foreign minister, because he made a treaty with Russia.

4. Invasion-Inflation: the crisis of 1923

The cause of the trouble was Reparations – the government paid them by printing more money, causing inflation.  In January 1923, Germany failed to make a payment, and France invaded the Ruhr.  This humiliated the government, which ordered a general strike, and paid the strikers by printing more money, causing hyperinflation:

In Berlin on 1 October 1923, soldiers calling themselves Black Reichswehr rebelled, led by Bruno Buchrucker.

The Rhineland declared independence (21–22 October).

In Saxony and Thuringia the Communists took power.

5. Munich Putsch

On 8–9 November 1923, Hitler’s Nazis tried to take control of Bavaria (the Munich Putsch)

RECOVERY PERIOD

1.  Freikorps

Against the Communists, the SPD Defence Minister, Gustav Noske, used bands of Freikorps.  They were right-wing and enjoyed putting down the Communist revolts of 1919–1920.

2.  Army

The Army, led by von Seeckt, was also right-wing, and enjoyed putting down the Communist.

3.  Strikes

The Kapp Putsch was right-wing, so the Freikorps and Army refused to help the government.  However, Ebert appealed to the workers of Berlin (who were left-wing), who went on strike.  Berlin came to a standstill and the Putsch collapsed.

4.  Stresemann's Achievements  (DIFFERS)

a.  Dawes Plan, 1924

Stresemann called off the 1923 Ruhr strike and started to pay reparations again – but the American Dawes Plan gave Germany longer to make the payments (and the Young Plan of 1929 reduced the payments).

b.  Inflation controlled, November 1923

Stresemann called in all the old, worthless marks and burned them.  He replaced them with a new Rentenmark (worth 3,000 million old marks).

c.  French leave the Ruhr, April 1924

Stresemann persuaded the French to leave.

d.  Foreign Affairs

In 1925, Stresemann signed the Locarno Treaty, agreeing to the loss of Alsace-Lorraine.  In 1926, Germany was allowed to join the League of Nations.  Germany had become a world power again.

e.  Economic Growth

Germany borrowed 25,000 million gold marks, mainly from America.  This was used to build roads, railways and factories.  The economy boomed and led to prosperity.  Cultural life also boomed (the Roaring Twenties).

f.  Reforms

Stresemann introduced reforms to make life better for the working classes - Labour Exchanges (1927) and unemployment pay.  Also, 3 million new houses were built.

g.  Strength at the Centre

Stresemann arranged a 'Great Coalition' of the moderate pro-democracy parties (based around the SDP, the Centre party and Stresemann's own 'German people's Party', the DVP).  United together, they were able to resist the criticism from smaller extremist parties, and in this way, he overcame the effects of proportional representation - the government had enough members of the Reichstag supporting it to pass the laws it needed.