EARLY CHALLENGES TO THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC 1919-1923

?
  • Created by: Zahra1805
  • Created on: 20-09-21 18:37
View mindmap
  • EARLY CHALLENGES TO THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC 1919-1923
    • EARLY UNPOPULARITY OF THE REPUBLIC
      • The "stab in the back" theory - many g's thought the army had been stabbed in the back by politicians(November criminals) who signed the armistice in Nov 1918
      • Key terms of the Treaty of Versailles:       -Army reduced to 100000, demilitarised Rhineland, no tanks, military aircraft or submarines     -Land, lost 13% of land, key industrial areas. e.g. Alsace-Lorraine=iron and Saar=coalfields  -Money, pay £6.6 billion reparations  -Blame, War Guilt clause, G to accept blame for starting WW1
        • Opponents of TOV described it as diktat, dictated peace
    • CHALLENGES TO THE REPUBLIC FROM LEFT AND RIGHT
      • SPARTACISTS UPRISING: Left wing, KPD (German Communist Party)- Dec 1918, 33 daily newspapers & 400,000 members, Rosa Luxemburg & Karl Liebknecht demonstrate against Gov., 16 died coz clashes, army.5 Jan 1919- Uprising  Berlin overthrow Gov. create communist state. Strike, 100,000 workers to streets, seized Gov. newspapers & telegraph offices. 13 Jan- Freikorps driven rebels of streets.16 Jan- Luxemburg & Liebknecht killed
      • KAPP PUTSCH: right March 1920- Freikorps led by Dr Wolfgang Kapp, putsch in Berlin 5000 armed men,  "Reichswehr don't fire upon Reichswehr. Berlin workers strike, 4 days later Kapp fled, caught, imprisoned, died.
      • FREIKORPS: (Free Corps) unit, private army set up by G army officers at end of WW1. Mostly demobilised/ disbanded/ ex soldiers. March 1919= 250,000 men
    • THE CHALLENGES OF 1923
      • FRENCH OCCUPATIION OF THE RUHR
        • Jan 1923- G couldn't pay reparations, retaliation= French troops to G's industrial area (Ruhr). Raw materials, manufactured goods, industrial machinery confiscated
          • Passive resistance- G workers strike & sabotage but French arrested those who obstructed & brought their own workers. French army= 750,000   German army= 100.000 . G lost 80% of its coal, iron & steel reserves.
      • HYPERINFLATION
        • Shortages in early 1923 meant prices went up. Debts. Unemployment & failing factories= less taxes, so more money printed. 1923- 300 paper mills, 2000 printing shops for bank notes
          • WINNERS: business could pay off debts, raising food prices helped farmers
          • LOSERS: old-age pensions & savings were worthless, lost value, wages couldn't keep up with inflation, shortages= less imports
        • Bread loaf:   1919- 1 mark    1922- 100 marks     1923- 200,000 billion marks

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar History resources:

See all History resources »See all Weimar and Nazi Germany resources »