History Revision

Structure

The Weimar government was made up of a president, a chancellor and the reichstag. They followed a representative democracy which tried to give voting rights to thge public, although it had major flaws. 

President- In charge of army, navy and airforce but left day to day control to the chancellor. However, if the country was deemed to be in a 'state of emergency', the president could pass a law that grants him power to overrule the government 

Chancellor- Appointed by the president (usually from the political party with the most votes). He is responsible for order, tax, schooling, health care and general day to day running. (More important than the Kaiser's chancellor)

Reichstag- Represented the people. All men and women 20 and over were able to vote. The most supported party was SPD. The reichstag followed a rule of proportional representation.

Proportional representation, coalition and majority were all part of the system of the Weimar government.

Proportional representation means that lots of contrasting political parties were able to win seats in the reichstag. Sometimes there were 20 different political parties debating over a single issue. This would cause problems for the Weimar government to run efficiently because it was difficult to make choices and introduce new laws due to disagreement. Additionally, proportional representation meant that the % of votes you received = the % of seats you obtain in the reichstag.

Coalition was the process were two or more political parties had to join together to form an agreement. This often happened because it was very rare for a party to receive a majority of votes (51%). Commonly, it was the largest party which had to link with smaller parties. This caused problems because making decisions would be very complicated and time-consuming.

Majority means that votes had to reach at least 51% in order to take action. The system was that thge percentage of votes received was equivalent to the percenatge of seats occupied in favour of the party. Although, from 1919 to 1933, no political party even won over half the votes in any election!

Freikorps

Freikorps were a group of ex-soldiers who had recently fought in the First World War. They hated ,even despised, The Spartacists and communism in general. They were a problem because they made the government appear violent and overpowered. They also became a part of Hitler's military, further on. Ernst Röhm, a Freikorps commander, later became head of the Nazi SA

The Kapp Putsch was one of the first right-wing groups that attempted taking over power, in Germany. It was led by a man named Wolfgang Kapp. In March 1920, he gathered around 5000 men, mainly members of the Freikorps, and took over the capital, Berlin. It was known as the Kapp Putsch. His aim was to eventually take over the whole country, make the army strong again and then recover lands that Germany had previously lost in the TOV. Ebert and the rest of the government were forced to flee Berlin, as they feared for safety. Howver, Kapp did not gain the support of the workers and they all went on strike, resulting in no gas, trains, electricity or water. After only 100 hours Kapp fled and Ebert returned to power.

Spartacists

The spartacists were a group of communists named after spartacus. They tried to overthrow Ebert's new government but they were stopped by the Freikorps. Spartacists wished for Germany to be run by working classes. They believed that power and wealth should be shared equally amongst the population, they wanted to replicate the Russian revolution of 1917. Over 100,000 workers were involved in the action and rebellion.

From 5 Jan - 12 Jan 1919, the spartacists rebelled to overthrow the government, however they were defeated by, as mentioned before, the freikorps. Eventually, the two leaders Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were both arrested and executed for treason, prompting controversy and criticism

Munich Putsch

The Beer Hall Putsch, also known as the Munich Putsch, was a failed coup d'état by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, General Erich Ludendorff and other Kampfbund leaders in Munich on 8–9 November 1923, during the Weimar Republic. The Munich Putsch had many significant cosequences. Firstly, it led to a split between Hitler and Ludendorff, the general considered Hitler a coward for sneaking away after the police had begun to fire. Second, Hitler decided that armed revolution was not the way to obtain power in Weimar Germany. 

In response to the Munich Putsch, Hitler was arrested for his involvement and the Nazi party was foiled by the government, resulting in multiple deaths. Despite being in prison, many argue that Hitler's time in prison was actaully an advantage and benefitted his ultimate plan as he had time to plan his next moves. Moreover, he also wrote the infamous book Mein kampf (My struggle) during his 5 year sentence which he only served for 9 months.

The Ruhr Crisis

The Ruhr crisis occured from 1923 to 1925. The occupation of the Ruhr led to an economic collapse in Germany. There was a massive inflation and increase of unemployment. Germany was now unable to pay the reparations that they owed.

The beginning of the disaster was Germany's retaliation of Belgium and France's invasion where the German government showed passive resistance by ordering workers in the Ruhr to go on strike, negatively impacting the French and Belgians. Consequently, French and Belgian soldiers violently murdered 100 German strikers and evicted 15,000 people out of homes. In response to the government paying strikers, shopkeepers began to raise their prices of stock which evitably led to a depression and hyperinflation. In fact, people were even carrying wheelbarrows full of money to go to the shop!