Weimar Germany Mindmap

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  • Created by: Dua raja
  • Created on: 11-04-21 15:57
What was Germany like before WW1?
-Very high population due to nationalist ideologies
-Very strong ecomony after 1870
-Weak democracy with a Kaiser
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Who had the most power during WW1?
Ludendorff and Hindenburg
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What made it clear to Ludendorff was on the brink of defeat?
Although the Allied forces had not entered German territory, they were in retreat along the Western Front.
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Who persuaded the Kaiser to create a democracy and ask for an armistice?
Ludendorff
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Who were the first President and Chancellor?
Ebert as President and Prince Max as Chancellor
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Why did Ebert become Chancellor?
November 1918
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What started the revolution?
When did this occur?
What party called this?
Workers strike against the Kaiser
9 November 1918
SPD
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How did the SPD also pose a threat?
They threatened to withdraw support unless the Kaiser abdicated.
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What finally caused the Kaiser to realise he had lost control and abdicate?
He was told by General Groener that the army would no longer fight for him
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What happened with the Peace Note?
Sent to Woodrow Wilson in November 1918a asking for an armistice, he took three weeks to reply as he was suspicious that they were using the request to buy time and regroup and prepare for a new offensive.
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How big was the Reichstag?
67 representatives from 17 states, proportionate to population
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What did the President do?
Appoint ministers, dissolve the reichstag and call elections
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Strengths of the Constitution
-Wider right to vote
Women allowed to vote and become deputies
-Proportional representation allowed even smaller parties to win seats in the Reichstag
-Full democracy in local and central government.
-Clearly set out the terms of rights of the individual
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What were the weakness of the constitution?
-Proportional Representation
Smaller parties were able to exploit the system to gain publicly, emphasised divisions in society.
-Coalition governments
Because of the smaller parties and PR, no one could gain a majority, just short lived coalitions.
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What did the Chancellor have to have and what did they do?
- Support of half the Reichstag at least

- Propose new laws to Reichstag.
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What did the Reichstag do?
Vote on the budget.
New laws had to originate through them.
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What was the national debt in 1919?

How would this usually be paid back?

Why couldn't this be used here?
1.44 billion marks

By increasing taxes or cutting down expenditure

RISK!
rise taxes: alienating public away from gov as they would say it was going to rep payments.
cut expen: civil servants needed payment to keep their support.
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When was the treaty of Versailles signed?
How much land did Germany lose?
What article was the war guilt clause?
Coal production in the Saar was given to which country?
June 1919
13% and 60 million people
231
France
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What did the treaty cause in the government?
Political demoralisation in the centre of the government.
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What did many right supporters do as a result of the signing of the treaty?

What did they call those who signed it?
What were their actions of betrayal called?
They felt it was the last straw after the military defeat and the creation of a republic and it led them to join extremist parties committed to overthrowing the republic.

November criminals
'the stab in the back'
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When did the Kaiser have to abdicate?
9th November
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What pieces of land did France gain?
Alsace Lorraine
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Which land made up the Polish corridor?
West Prussia, Posen, upper Silesia
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How many men were the army allowed?
How many ships were they allowed?
What military equipment was banned?
What was the amount of reparations?
When was the amount of reparations set?
100,000 men
6 ships
Submarines, tanks, large battleships, aircraft
£6.6 billion
June 1921
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Difficulty paying reparations

Gold:
Coal:
Manufactured goods:
- Gold reserves inadequate for reparations

- Coal reserves seized by TOV terms

- Allied countries' jobs and businesses faced threat
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How much land was lost?
13%
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When was the ToV signed?
28th June 1919
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What was Germany excluded from?
The league of Nations
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What was the reaction of the Germans?
Millions of people who considered themselves German were forced to be living in non-German states like Czechslovakia, felt they had been denied Self-determination (14 points)
- Reparations caused lots of anger - felt it was too high and it would cripple t
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What did Germany first ask for in January 1922 (and receive)?
The reparations to be postponed for 2 months
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What did Germany ask for in July 1922?
For the payments to be suspended for the rest of the year
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What did Germany ask for in November 1922?
A loan of 500 million marks and to be released from payments until 1925/6
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How did the French react?

Over 1923, what did this increase to?
They sent 60,000 troops into the Ruhr

100,000
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Aim?

How?
Seize area's coal, steel and manufactued goods as reparations.

Took control of factories, railways, demanded goods from shops.
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What was the new currency called?
Which economist helped with the new currency?
What did Schacht do after the new currency was made?
Rentenmark
Schacht

Became President of the Reichsbank and kept interest high to encourage foreign investment
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What were the negative effects of the reparations?
- Fehrenbach resigned, replaced by Wirth
- French occupation of the Ruhr
- Difficulty in paying reparations due to lack of methods to do so
- Hyperinflation
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What were negatives of the economic situation after the war?
- 1919 manufacturing output was 30% lower than in 1914.
- National debt of 1.44 billion marks, not payable by tax increase or expenditure reduction.
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What were positives in the economic situation after the war?
- Germany unemployment rate in 1921 was at 1.8%, Britain's was 28%.
- Foreign investment was encouraged by inflation.
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Who gained from the hyperinflation?
- Debts, mortgages and loans - payed them back with worthless money.
- Farmers - producing more food (more needed)
- Those leasing properties on long-term fixed rents because the real rent value decreased.
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Who lost from the hyperinflation?
- Medical care increased - sick lost out.
- Rapid food price increase created malnutrition
- Pensioners were particularly badly hit, including war widows living on pensions
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When was the Munich Putsch?
Who were the three leaders in the beer hall putsch?
What was Hitler's inspiration for the Munich Putsch?
What was Hitler's prison sentence?
November 1923
Kahr (state commissioner), Lossow (local army commander) and Seisser (chief of police)
Mussolini in 1922 has seized power in Italy by marching in Rome
5 years but was shortened to 9 months
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When was the attempted spartacist uprising?
What was the effect of the spartacist uprising for the communist party?
Who was it led by?
What did they want to do?
Why did it fail?
January-March 1919
They recieved four more seats in the reichstag

Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht
Set up a revolutionary communist regime.
Poor support, they failed to get support from the working class in Berlin.
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What did they succeed in?

What irregular forces were used to put them down?

Why?

What was the backlash of this?
Occupied newspaper offices and public offices.

Frierkorps

Because there were few reliable military units at his command.
It deepened the divisions in the government.
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When was the Kapp putsch?

Why did the Kapp putsch occur?
February 1920

2 units freikorps were ordered to be disbanded, consisting of 12,000 friekorps but General Von Luttwitz refused.
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How many freikorps marched into Berlin in the Kapp putsch?
How many went to prison after the Kapp putsch?
Who was assassinated? And when?
12,000

1

Matthias Erzberger 1921
Walther Rathenau 1922
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Matthias Erzberger

By who?
Why?

Extra facts
Members of the terrorist league, Organisation Consul, in the Black Forest
- He was a member of the German delegation for the signing of the TOV
- Germany's representative on reparation committee

The second attempt, first left wounds
His widow continued t
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Walther Rathenau

How?
By who?
Why?

Backlash?
- Shot in his car with a grenade thrown at him after.
- Four assassins from Organisation Consul
- He was a jew
- He was a leading minister in the Republic
- Participated in signing of the armistice
- negotiated with allies for better TOV terms
- 700,000
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How long was Stresemann chancellor for?
103 days
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How did Stresemann stop inflation?

How many civil servants lost their jobs?
-end passive resistance
unpopular risky move - led to Munich Putsch
no alternative stopped paying wages - cut expenditure
- new currency introduced Rentenmark, later changed back to Reichsmark (gold reserve)
1 Rentenmark = 1 trillion old mark supported b
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When did Stresemann ask for the reparations committee to get financial experts to address Germany's repayment concerns?
November 1923
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When was the Dawes plan created?
Which country created the dawes plan?
How did the Dawes plan change the reparations amount?
How did the Dawes plan change the payment process?
How much was the loan from the USA in the Dawes plan?
1924
USA
It stayed at £6.6 billion
Yearly amount was reduced to 1000 million marks and would increase over 5 years to 2500 million marks
800 million mark loan
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What did Stresemann refer to the Dawes plan as ?
An economic armistice
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How much did unemployment increase by between 1925-1926?
2 million
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Positives of the economic situation 1924-29
- 178,930 affordable houses were built
- Exports exceeded imports between 1925-29
- Farmers saw improvements in 1922 and farmers made up 1/3 of the population in 1923.
- 1924: Wages increased
- Grain surplus 1925-26
- 1927 - real wages rose by 9%
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Negatives of the economic situation 1924-29
- 1928- farmer's revenge, strikes by farmers in protest of foreclosures and low market prices.
- The middle class did not enter the golden age securely and failed to gain from it, causing middle-class resentment.
- Unemployment increased by 2 million 192
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When was the young plan created?
1929
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What did the young plan reduce reparations to?
£1.8bn
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How long did the young plan set reparations for?
1988
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How did the young plan effect the allies?
The allies couldn't control the banks, railways or land, removed allied troops from the ruhr
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Why did the position of women change?
Due to the gender unbalance after the war
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How did the Weimar constitution make women have more freedom?
Womens vote
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How were women given sexual freedom?
birth control was more available, divorce and abortions increased
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How many deaths were caused by abortion in 1930?
10-12,000 deaths
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How many men died in the war?
2 million
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Why didn't women have complete freedom?

What Act is this?
men still had the right to decide on all matters in married life

Civil Code of 1896
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Which parties had a youth group?
Which had the most members of any political youth group?
What was the KPD one called?
What was the DNVP one called? Where were its members coming from?
What was Hitler youth membership like
SPD, KPD, DNVP and NSDAP
SPD
Young Communist League
Bismarck Youth - middle and upper class in protestant areas + strong working class following
Slow increase reaching only 13,000 in 1929.
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How did the school system work?
The rich went to gymnasium schools, everyone else went to state schools and left at 14
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What was the aim of the school system in this period?
To break down divisions and create a comprehensive school
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How many boys were in the hitler youth in 1929?
13,000
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Working class benefitted
trade unions and welfare
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Working class suffered
farmers suffered from bad trading and people had lost their savings from 1923, the benefits from culture was only in cities
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Unemployed benefitted
social welfare
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Unemployed suffered
mean test was humiliating and the benefits were low
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Women benefitted
got the vote in 1918, women had to work, sexual freedom due to divorces and birth control,
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Women suffered
BDF, demobalisation, some jobs made women resign after marriage women were paid less, abortion was illegal, many women weren't feminists
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Young people benefitted
good education system, youth groups, social freedom
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Young people suffered
high unemployment
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How many Jews were there?
More than half a million
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What evidence is there of anti-Semitism during this period?
Fear of 'Jewish Bolshevism', anti-Semitic parties, blame for corruption and exploitation
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How did night life change?
Cabaret was more popular, LGBTQ was more acceptable and American Jazz music was popular
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How did art change?
expressionism increased to reflect the emotions of the weimar life and struggles. DADA- cubism and collage
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What style was the art?
abstract in style and vivid in colour
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How did music change?

What is distinct about this style?
atonal new objectivity

It lacks a key, sounds harsh and lacks harmony, very different to the traditional music.
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How did films change?
more serious nature, costume dramas were popular
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How did literature change?

What did it focus on greatly?

Who was the leading German writer of the time?
Politics, society Berlin centered

Inner mental states rather than external social reality

Thomas Mann - won a nobel peace prize and was actually a supporter of the WR.
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How did design and architecture change?

What was the leading brand?

What did this school encourage?
more modern and simplistic, clever design

Bauhaus founded by William Gropius in 1919

Encouraged breaking down the barriers of art and tech by incorporating new materials like steel, concrete and glass. Functionality was important.
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Who did the living standard not improve for?
Farmers and those who had lost their savings
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Who had the most power during WW1?

Back

Ludendorff and Hindenburg

Card 3

Front

What made it clear to Ludendorff was on the brink of defeat?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Who persuaded the Kaiser to create a democracy and ask for an armistice?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Who were the first President and Chancellor?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
View more cards

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