DEPTH STUDY GERMANY: HOW DID GERMANY EMERGED FROM DEFEAT AT THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR?

1. DEPTH STUDY
GERMANY
GERMANY EMERGING
FROM THE DEFEAT

2. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
INTRODUCTION
• Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on 9 November 1918, 2 days
before signing of the Armistice.
• His autocratic system was replaced with a democracy, later
known as the Weimar Republic.
• This Republic will last for 14 years, being destroyed by
Hitler’s dictatorship.
• The Third Reich intended to last for 1000 years, collapsed in
1945, following the suicide of its creator, Adolf Hitler and
the military defeat of Germany.
• The Third Reich was the term used to describe the Nazi
Germany from 1933-1945.

3. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
German General
Headquarters 8
January 1917.
Chief of the General
Staff (General) Paul von
Hindenburg and Kaiser
Wilhelm II with
General Erich
Ludendorff.

4. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
Abdication statement of
Emperor Wilhelm II, signed 28
November 1918.

5. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
THE “GERMAN REVOLUTION”
• The events of October to November 1918 are called “the
German Revolution”.
• Following the naval mutiny at Kiel and soldiers’ and
workers’ rebellions spreading to other German ports and
cities, the German Kaiser was persuaded to abdicate.
• He fled to exile in Holland.
• Political power was assumed by Friedrich Ebert, the leader
of the Social Democratic Party, the largest party in the
Reichstag (Parliament).
• The social unrest, violence on the streets and political chaos
were normal.

6. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
Friedrich Ebert was a German politician of the Social
Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first
President of Germany from 1919 until his death in
office in 1925. He was a moderate socialist.
Ebert was a pivotal figure in the German Revolution
of 1918–1919. When Germany became a republic at
the end of World War I, he became its first
chancellor.
His policies at that time were primarily aimed at
restoring peace and order in Germany and
suppressing the left. In order to accomplish these
goals, he allied himself with conservative and
nationalistic political forces, in particular the
leadership of the military under General Wilhelm
Groener and the right-wing Freikorps.

7. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
DEFEAT CAUSED A SOCIALIST WEIMAR
REPUBLIC
• Defeat
• Germany had refused President Wilson’s Fourteen Points
and in 1918 gambled on her major offensive since 1914,
the Ludendorff Offensive. The result was disastrous.
• By November she could fight no more and was forced to
accept the terms of the Armistice on 11/11/1918, 11am.
• Disaster
• The Kaiser had fled to Holland (Netherlands).
Ludendorff organised a parliamentary republic, but also
thought Germany had been let down by the Socialists
and war profiteers, who would now form the new
government.

8. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
BACKGROUND TO SURRENDER
• This is the origin of Hitler’s myth of the “stab in the back”,
with irresponsible politicians signing an Armistice and
stabbing in the back all patriotic German soldiers, fighting
for the Fatherland.
• Germany had lost 2 million men during the war, with over 6
million wounded.
• Her currency had lost 75% of its value between 1913 and
1918.
• Germany was split between the extremes of the
Independent Socialist Party (left) and the Fatherland Party
(right).
• After the “Turnip winter” of 1917-1918, Germany suffered a
major flu epidemic. Thousands died.

9. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
A ration stamp of the City of Erfurt, 1917 for 1 kilogram of
turnips per week (left).
THE TURNIP WINTER of 1916 to 1917 was a period of profound
civilian hardship in Germany during World War I.
For the duration of World War I, Germany was constantly under
threat of starvation due to the success of the British Naval
blockade. The winter of 1916–1917, later known as the "Turnip
Winter", marked one of the harshest years in wartime Germany.
Poor autumn weather led to an equally poor potato harvest and
much of the produce that was shipped to German cities rotted.
Germany's massive military recruitment played a direct role in
this, as all areas of the economy suffered from lack of
manpower, including agriculture. The loss of the potato crop
forced the German population to subsist on Swedish turnip.

10. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
REVOLUTION
• October 1918: the sailors of Kiel and Wilhelmshaven
mutinied. Prince Max of Baden handed power to Ebert, a
moderate Socialist, to try to maintain control while
agreeing to the surrender.
• January 1919: a further wave of Spartacist (communist)
unrest made it impossible to convene the new National
Assembly in Berlin. It met at Weimar in February 1919, and
had drawn up the Weimar Constitution by August.
• Important: Weimar Constitution refers to government
under the Weimar constitution, not a political party.

11. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
Text supplied by the
German Federal Archive:
"With the rebellion of the
sailors and workers on 3
November 1918 in Kiel
the November revolution
starts. On 6 November
the revolutionary
movement reaches
Wilhelmshaven. Our
picture shows the
soldiers' council of the
Prinzregent Luitpold."

12. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
Group photographs of Spartacist militia during the fighting in
Berlin in January 1919.
It was also known as the January uprising (Januaraufstand), and
it was a general strike (and the armed battles accompanying it)
in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919.

13. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
THE SPARTACIST UPRISING SUMMARY

14. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
THE SPARTACIST UPRISING SUMMARY
cont.

15. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
ARTICLE EXTRACT
All this resistance must be broken, step by step, with an iron
fist and ruthless energy. The violence of the bourgeois
(middle-class) counter-revolution must be confronted with
the revolutionary violence of the proletariat. Against the
attacks, insinuations, and rumours of the bourgeoisie must
stand the inflexible clarity of purpose, vigilance, and even
ready activity of the proletarian mass.
Extract from an article written by the Spartacist leader Rosa Luxemburg in
December 1918
GLOSSARY
Bourgeois = middle class
Proletarian = urban working class

16. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
ACTIVITY – 5 MINUTES
HOW FAR DOES THIS EXTRACT AGREE
WITH THE MESSAGE OF THE POSTER?

17. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
GERMAN
POLITICAL
PARTIES
AND THE
JANUARY 1919
GENERAL
ELECTIONS

18. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
EBERT’S SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• The Social Democratic Party emerged as the largest party
after the general election of January 1919.
• The newly-elected assembly was asked to devise a
constitution for the new republic.
• Because Berlin was still affected by protests and street
fighting, the National Assembly met in the small town of
Weimar.

19. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
THE WEIMAR CONSTITUTION

20. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
INTERESTING/CONTROVERSIAL
FEATURES
• Proportional Representation
• Article 48
• Forward-looking features

21. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

22. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
ARTICLE 48

23. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
FORWARD-LOOKING FEATURES