Creation and Crisis of the Weimar Republic

October Reforms

• Wilhem II gave up his powers of the army and navy to the Reichstag
• The chancellor and his government were made accountable tot he Reichstag instead of the Kaiser
• Armistace negotiations with the allies had began

29th October 1918 a mutiny began at Wilhelmshaven. This spread to Kiel and Hamburg by 2nd November. By 6th Novemeber, workers' and soldiers' councils had been established. Bavaria was proclaimed as an independent socialist rpeublic by Kurt Eisner.

On 9th November 1918, the Kaiser exiled to the Netherlands.

SPD

• Led by Friedrich Ebert and represented moderate socialist aims
• Was the largest party in the Reichstag in 1912 with a membership of over 1 million
• Fundamental aim to make a socialist republic but reject any Soviet-style communism

The Spartacist

• Led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembur
• Extremist minor faction of the SPD as by 1918 had a membership of 5000
• Opposed the war and were deeply influenced by Lenin and Boshevism
• Wanted Germany to follow the same path as Communist Russia

USPD

• Formed in 1917 as a breakaway group of the SPD 
• Demanded radical social and economical change and political reforms

His main worry was that the extreme left would gain the upper hand. He was determined to maintain law and order to prevent the country from breaking into civil war.

Ebert-Groener Agreement 10th Nov 1918

• The supreme army command agreed to support the new goverment and use troops to support maintain stability
• Ebert promised to oppose the spread of revoutionary socialism and preserve the authority of the army officers

Stinnes-Legin agreement 15th Nov 1918

• A deal with trade unions where they would not interfere with private ownership and the free market
• In return for workers' committees, an eight hour working day and full legal recognition
• Eberts government endorsed this as the trade unions were a powerful movement and traditionally closely tied with the SPD

• January 1919, the Spartacists launhced an armed uprising in Berlin aiming to overthrow the government and create a soviet republic
• On 5th January 1919, they occupied public buildings, called for a general strike, denounced Eberts government for betraying the revolution and formed a revolutionary commitee
• After 3 days of savage street fighting, the coup was defeated with over 100 killed
• Liebknecht and Luxemburg were murdered while in police custody

• The event showed that the Spartacists were strong on policies but detached from political reality
• The coup was cruched due to backing of the military and Friekorps- 120 irregular paramilitary group with about 400,000 soliders

Germany was declared a democratic state but retained the title Reich. It was a republic with a federal structure with 17 Lander (regional states)

Bill of Rights

• Personal Liberty and right to free speech
• freedom from censorship
• equality before the law of all Germans
• religious freedom

Issues 

• Inroduction of proportional representation  (1 member for every 60,000 votes)
• Relationship between the president and the Reichstag- emergency powers available (article 48)
• Traditional institutions of Imperial Germany were allowed to continue

Woodrow Wilson (USA)

• Reduce armaments
• To apply the principle of self-determination
• To create a league of nations in order to maintain international peace

David Lloyd George (UK)

• Guarantee military security- especially secure naval supremcy
• To keep communism at bay
• To limit French demands as he feared that excessively weakening Germany would have serious economic consequences on Europe 

George Clemenceau (France)

• Annex the Rhineland and create a buffer state
• Impose major disarmament on Germany
• To impose heavy reparations 

Territory

• Alsace-Lorraine returned to France, provinces returned to Belgium
• Costal cities (Danzig and Memel) under the control of the League of Nations
• Reunification with Austria (Anchluss) was forbidden
• Rhineland to be demilitarised
• German colonies distributed as mandates supervised under the League of Nations

Reparations

• Total sum to be fixed by Inter-Allies Reparations Commission. The sum was fixed at £6600 million in 1921
• All coal production in the Saar to be given to France

Disarmament

• Abolish conscription and reduce its army to 100,000 with no tanks
• No military aircraft
• Navy limited to 6 battleships, 6 cruisers, 12 destroyers, 12 topedo boats, no submarines

KPD opposition to Weimar

• It wanted the revolution to proceed on Maxist lines with the creation of a one party communist Germany
• Major reconstruction of Germany both socially and economically
• Were completly opposed to the Weimar system and were not prepared to be part of the democratic system

Revolutionary Disturbances

• Red Bavaria- Eisner was assassinated on 21st Feb 1919 after failing to unite socialist parties. A Bavarian Soviet Republic with a 'Red Army' was set up. After a month the Feikorps moved in and crushed the republic with 1000 deaths in May which became known as White Terror.

The German October

• in 1923, the KPD and SPD began to form coalitions in regional governments. A revolution broke out in October but the army crushed the units re-creating the regional governments without communist 

• Anti-democratc and was united in the rejection of the Weimar system
• Anti-Marxist and despised communism more than democracy
• Authoritarian, the extreme right favoured a more dictorial regime
• Nationalism was at the core of the extreme right nad were deeply hurt by the Treaty of Versallies

DNVP

• German National People's Party and was mainly landowners and industrialists but appealed to some of the middle class. Was by far the largest extreme right party in the 1920 election

Racist Nationalism

• Was apparent before 1914 but increased after Germanys defeat
• Estimated that there were 70 smaller splinter nationalist parties

Freikorps

• Consisted of nearly 200 paramilitary groups in 1919
• Anti-republican and commited to the restoration of authoritarian rule
• In 1919-22 they conducted 354 political murders

The Kapp Putsch

• In 1920 there was unease within the Freikorps at the demand to reduce the size of the army
• When it was propsed to disband 2 brigades stationed in Berlin, 12,000 marched on Berlin
• Unopposed by the army, they seized main buildins and installed a new government
• The Weimar governement feld but before leaving called for a general strike which paralysed the capital and caused the putsch to collapse after 4 days
• Only 1 out of 705 prosecuted were found guilty and sentenced to 5 years inprisonment

The Munich Beer Hall Putsh

• On 8th Nov 1923, Hitler and the Nazis took control of a adress by von Kahr and declared a national revolution
• The next day the Nazis attempted to take control of Munich but were defeated by the Bavarian police killing 14 Nazis and injuring Hitler witht him then being arrested and charged for treason
• Hitler was sentenced to 5 years in prison but was released after less than 10 months

Issues due to- Loss of major territories (Saar, Alsace-Lorraine resulting in a loss of 16% in coal, 13% agricultural land and 28% iron ore), Cost of reparations (£6600 million), cost increase in goods that had gone up bu nearly four-fold from 1914-18, increase in national debt to 144,000 million marks.

This lead to the great hyperinflation for example in July 1914, 4.2 marks= $1 where as in Nov 1923, 200,000,000,000=$1

He became chancellor in August 1923  leading a coalistion of DVP, DDP, ZP, SPD. In his first weeks he:

• called of the 'passive reistance in the Ruhr
• to reduce the governments expenditure, sacked over 700,000 public employees
• Used Hjalmar Schacht to oversee the introduction of the Rentenmark in December 1923
• Implemented the Dawes Plan in April 1924
• Defeated the extremists on the left and right 

• Anger was now directed towards the French and allies rather than the Weimar republic itself
• Workers did not suffer to the extent of mass unemployment that they did in the 1930's
• Some buisnessmen did very well out of the inflation which made them more tolerant of the republic