History- Notes on the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany

Section B Paper 1

Germany 1918 - 1945

Key dates:

1919 - Weimar republic begins

- Treaty of Versailles signed

- Weimar constitution adopted

1923 - Hitler leads the Munich Putsch and is imprisoned

1924 - Hitler is released from prison

1929 - Young plan proposed

- Wall Street crash

1932 - Hitler runs for President, coming second with 35%

1933 - Hitler appointed as Chancellor

- Nazi party declared the only legal political party

1939 -Germany invades Poland, outbreak of Second World War

1945 - Hitler commits suicide as the Red Army surrounds Berlin

Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start?

What impact did the First World War have on Germany?

Defeat in the war looked inevitable for Germany, the British blockade on Germany ports created serious food shortages and there were many calls for the country to make peace.

On November 7th, Bavaria was declared a republic and all over Germany, councils were set up similar to the ones in Russia. This 'German revolution' frightened Germany's leaders who persuaded Kaiser Wilhelm to abdicate when President Wilson said that there would be no peace in office while the Kaiser was still there.

On November 9th, the Kaiser stood down and the SPD announced that Germany was now a republic with Ebert as President and Phillip Scheidemann to become Chancellor.

What problems did Germany face at the end of the First World War?

Germany was defeated, armistice signed because of the mutinies at Wilhelmshaven naval base and at Kiel, British blockade meant serious food shortages in Germany.

Nationalists and German Army had been had been 'stabbed in the back' and the army should have been allowed to fight.

Fears that the spread of communism - January 1919, Spartacist Revolt in Berlin. Spartacus League were a communist group led by Rose Luxembourg and Karl Leibknecht. This revolt, defeated on the 15th January with the help of the Freikorps, a group of former soldiers agains communism.

Bitter divisions between SPD (Social German Party) and the KDP (German communist party) until the end of the Weimar Republic.

Berlin was in chaos, workers were on strike encouraged by the Communists. The rich people in Germany were worried that revolution was going to spread from Russia.

The Democrats issued an ultimatum to the Kaiser, forcing him to abdicate and leave Germany forever. The Social Democrats declared Germany a Republic and later called it the Weimar Republic.

The impact of the First World War for Germany was devastating. The Treaty of Versailles made the country's problems even worse and the Weimar government struggled from crises to crises. Out of this conflict, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis emerged as the most powerful group in Germany.

The Birth of the Weimar Republic

Following the abdication of the Kaiser, the new leader of Germany, Friedrick Ebert agreed to sign the armistice to end the war. He announced a new constitution (the rules by which a country is run)

The Weimar Constitution

It attempted to set up the most…