History - Germany 1918-1945

Recap Timeline

1918 - End of WW1

1923 - Hyperinflation

1929 - Wall Street Crash + Start of depression

1933 - Hitler becomes Chancellor.

1939 - Second WW begins

1945 - Germany is defeated by the Allies. Hitler commits suicide.

1918-1919 Germany

• Ebert was the Socialist leader of Germany.
• He signed an armistice with the Allies.
• 1919 Election, he won and became the President of the Weimar Republic.
• Ebert's party faced violent opposition from the right and left wing opponents.
• Spartacists = communist party (left wing) argued against a democratic Germany.
• Freikorps = Anti - Communit group.
• Ebert made an agreement with the commanders of the army and the Freikorps to stop the rebellion.
• Both sides were heavily armed and casualties were high and in the end, the Freikorps won. 
• Spartacists leaders were murdered and the communist rebellion had failed.
• Next Communist rebellion : Bavaria.
• It was a communist area and the leader was killed by political opponents.
• The Freikorps moved in and killed 600 communists.
• Eberts party also faced violent opposition from the right wing.
• March 1920 : Dr. Wolfgang Kapp led 5000 Freikorps into Berlin in a rebellion known as 'Kapp Putsch'.
• The army refused to fire on the Freikorps and it seemed Ebert's party was doomed.
• It was saved by the German workers. They declared a general strike which brought Berlin (the capital) to a strike. 
• After a few days, Kapp realised he could not succeed and fled the country, he was later found and imprisoned - the other rebels were unpunished.
• MAY 1919 : T of V terms come out. 
• Germany loses : 10% of its land. All overseas colonies. 12.5 % of its population. 16% of coal. 48% of its iron industries. 100,000 army only. No air force. Reduced navy. Had to accept blame.
• Ebert did not want to sign the Treaty but he had no choice. Ebert's government struggled with the political violence. Political assassinations were frequent. In November 1923, Hitler led the attempted Munich Putsch.

Economic Disaster

• The reparations bill was set at £6600 million.
• They were meant to be paid in yearly installments.
• In 1921, £50 million was paid.
• In 1922 : nothing was paid - they fell back on reparations. The French in particular ran out of patience. They had to pay war debt to the USA so in January 1923, Belgian and French troops went into the Ruhr region and took what was owed in the form of raw materials and goods.
• German govt. then ordered all the people in the Ruhr to go on strike so there was nothing to take. However, the French just killed 100 men and expelled 100,000 protestors from the region.
• As it had no goods to trade, the govt. just printed more money and paid off around £2200 million in worthless marks.
• People soon realised the money was worthless - Hyperinflation.
• Workers needed wheelbarrows to carry…