2. the Failure of the Weimar Republic (1)

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The Weimar Republicand its Reasons for

Failure


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What was the Weimar Republic?

The Weimar Republic was set up after the Kaiserhad

been overthrown in 1918.

In January 1919, an elected parliament (the Reichstag)

met for the first time in the city of Weimar, hence the

name for the new republic. It was led by the leader of the

Socialists (the largest party in parliament), Friedrich

Ebert, who became president of the new German

republic.


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The Weimar Republic lasted from 1919 until the Nazis

gained control in 1933. The first five years of the republicwere the worst with riots, strikes, shootings and attempts

to overthrow the government.

There were several reasons for the unrest, including thefact that people were worried that Communists would

take the revolution a stage further and take away

peoples property. They also felt that the Socialists had

stabbed them in the back by signing the Treaty of

Versailles.


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Putsches and murders

The early years of the Weimar Republic saw many

putsches (sudden revolutionary uprisings) in Germany.The Free Corps were often involved. These were anti-

communist volunteer groups formed by demobilized

servicemen. The unemployed and those angry at

Germanys defeat in World War I were particularly

attracted. Industrialists who feared the rise of Communism

often gave money to the Free Corps.

Read the putsches on the next slide. Write a

summary of the events.Explain why these putsches did not succeed in

overthrowing the government.


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The Kapp Putsch

On 13 March 1920, rebels led by Wolfgang Kapp

marched into Berlin. The rebels had the support of theFree Corps, the Berlin police and some of the army,

but not the workers. The government fled. Kapp hated

the government for signing the Treaty of Versailles. He

wanted to make the German army stronger and regain

land lost to Poland.

The workers supported President Ebert and the

government, and so organized a general strike. Within

a day Berlin was paralysed as there were no trains orbuses, water, gas or coal. Government officials refused

to provide Kapp with money. Kapp gave in after 100

hours and fled to Sweden.


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On 21 March 1920, the workers in the Ruhr Valley,

Germanys richest industrial area, stayed out on strike andformed a Communist Red Army 50,000 strong.

The Ruhr Rising

Hard fighting involving government troops was needed

before order was restored. Over 2,000 workers wereshot.


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The murder of Walther Rathenau

On 24 June 1922, Germanys Foreign Minister Walther

Rathenau was killed by a group called OrganizationConsul, with an automatic pistol and a hand grenade.

Rathenau was a popular minister and a million people

marched through Berlin in mourning the day after his

killing.

Organization Consuls aim was to eliminate (kill) all

politicians who had accepted the Versailles Treaty.

Rathenaus murderers were captured and sentenced

to an average of four years in prison.

Why do you think Rathenaus murderers got such

short prison sentences?


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Crisis in the Ruhr

In 1919, Germanys debt was 144,000 million marks.

Reparations made matters worse, and by December 1922the national debt had reached 469,000 million marks. The

government asked the Allies for permission to suspend

reparation payments, but the Allies refused.

By the end of 1922, the Reparations Commission

declared that Germany had failed to deliver promised

coal and timber to the Allies. In response, French

engineers were sent in to the Ruhr on 11 January 1923

to secure coal production. They were backed up by60,000 French and Belgium soldiers.


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Wilhelm Cuno, who led the centre-right government from

November 1922, encouraged the workers of the Ruhr tooffer passive resistance. Cuno also ordered the

immediate suspension of reparations payments.

In response, the French and Belgium soldiers arrestedmine owners and took over the mines and railways.



The effects of passive resistance

The amount of coal delivered to France and Belgium was

considerably reduced.The German government had to pay millions of marks in

compensation to miners who had lost their income.

The government started to issue more banknotes.

By August 1923 there were 663 billion marks in

circulation, which led to hyperinflation. There were not

enough gold reserves to back up the amount of marks in

circulation. This meant that the currency was worthless.

Do you think the policy of passive resistance worked?

How else could the government have handled the

situation?



Hyperinflation

Hyperinflation happens when the amount of the money

in the economy increases, pulling prices up, and thespiral of printing money and price rise goes out of

control.Bread Prices in Germany:

1918 0.63 marksJanuary 1923 250 marks

September 1923 1,5000,000,000 marks

November 1923 201,000,000,000 marksThe currency collapse had a hugely damaging effect on

many groups of society. It made savings, pensions,

government loans, mortgages and many salaries worthless.



The logistics of hyperinflation

Berlin, August 11, 1922 One of the comedy-tragedy

episodes of the visit was the payment by the Germangovernment of their railway expenses This was done in

20-mark notes, and it required seven office boys with huge

waste-paper baskets full of these notes to carry the full

sum from the office down to the railway station.

from Lord DAbernons diary.

In 1923, paper

money was worth

so little thatchildren built play

forts with bricks of

currency!



Stabilization of the currency

September 1923 reparations were resumed and the

French agreed to study the problem of the German

economy.

November 1923 the Rentenmark was established to

replace the old mark. Printing of this new currency was

strictly limited. In the same month, 700,000 state

employees were sacked in order to reduce the state

budget.

In August 1923, a new government was formed, led by

Gustav Stresemann. Measures were immediately taken to

stabilize the economy:

At the end of November, Stresemanns government

collapsed and was replaced by one led by Wilhelm Marx

of the Centre Party. Stresemann continued to serve as

foreign minister until 1929.



The Stresemann years (192429)

Gustav Stresemann was chancellor in 1923 and foreign

minister 192429. The weaknesses of the Weimar Republiccontinued during this period, but due to Stresemanns

diplomacy, Germanys situation improved.

In 1924, Stresemann became Germanys foreign minister.

His first success was to draw up the Dawes Plan inagreement with Britain, France and the USA. This allowed

Germany to pay what it could actually afford in reparations.

As Germany was paying reparations again, foreign business

became more willing to invest money to help build up theGerman economy. Over the next five years, Germany was

lent 25,000 million gold marks. This allowed the building of

new factories, houses and machinery. It also meant there

were more jobs available.



Stresemanns foreign policy

Stresemanns key aims were for better relations with

France and a revision of the Versailles Treaty.

On 1 December 1925, the Locarno Treaties were signed

with France. These guaranteed the Franco-German and

Belgium-German borders, and agreed not to use force to

alter them in the future.

Stresemann also managed to gain a guarantee from

France that they would not attack Germany in the event

of a war with Poland in which Germany was not theaggressor.



These talks that Stresemann undertook with the Allies

built confidence between the two sides. This meant thatdespite not leaving the Rhine on 10 January 1925, as

agreed at the Treaty of Versailles, Allied troops did start

to leave towards the end of the year. It also meant that

on 8 September 1926, Germany was admitted to the

League of Nations.

Relations continued to improve, and in January 1927 the

Inter-Allied Military Commission, which oversaw German

disarmament, was removed.



Germany and the Great Depression

Just before his death in 1929, Stresemann said: The

economic position is only flourishing on the surface.Germany is in fact dancing on a volcano. If the short-term

credits are called in, a large section of our economy will

collapse What did he mean?

Germany had been lent a lot of money to help rebuild theeconomy. Normally lenders were happy to renew loans

when they were due.

However, in October 1929, the Wall Street Crash occurred

as the value of shares sold on the Wall Street StockExchange collapsed. US bankers and businesses started

recalling their loans. The result was economic disaster for

Germany. Companies went bankrupt over night, workers

were sacked and poverty gripped the nation again.



Unemployment during the Weimar Republic

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1921

1923

1925

1927

1929

1931

1933

% of labour force

Percentage of the Labour Force Unemployed

What does this graph tell you about the state of

Germany by the 1930s?

Why do you think Hitlers promise of work was

calculated to get him votes?



The government

Governments during the Weimar Republic rarely lasted a

year. There were seven key parties and several smallerparties. Votes were usually scattered amongst them, with

no one party getting a true majority.

This meant that the government was run by coalitions

(two parties agreeing to work together in order to hold amajority). Unfortunately, the parties rarely agreed with

each other for long, and so new elections had to be

called to try and secure a better representation.



Seats won in Reichstag elections

Num

berofSeats

In what ways does this graph illustrate the problems ofgovernment under the Weimar Republic?

Explain the large increase in Nazi representation in the

Reichstag between 1928 and 1930.

Why did the Communist Party also increase their seats?

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

1928 1930 Jul-32 Nov-32 Mar-33

Social Democrats

Catholic Centre

Nationalists

6 Minor Parties

Communists

Nazis


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Failure of the Weimar Republic

Germany was used to strong leadership and had been a

powerful nation.

Using the knowledge you have gained from this

presentation, explain why the Weimar Republic

was doomed to failure. Include the following

headings in your report:

Economy

Employment

Political Parties

Treaty of Versailles.

2. the Failure of the Weimar Republic (1)

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