CAMBRIDGE IGCSE HISTORY: GERMANY AT THE END OF WORLD WAR 1. It contains: the end of the Kaiser, left-wing revolutionaries, Spartacist rising, Bavarian Socialist Republic, National Assembly, Weimar Constitution, Bill of Rights.

1. 13. TREATY OF VERSAILLES
GERMANY AT THE END OF WW1

2. 1918 on the Battlefield
 Russia defeated by Germany on Eastern
Front in 1917
 Humiliating peace treaty signed by the
Russians (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk)
 ‘Ludendorff Offensive’ on Western Front
looked promising
 By June 1918, the offensive had slowed, then
halted
 By August 1918, the Allies counter-attacked
 September 1918, Allies offer peace, in
exchange for Kaiser Wilhelm II stepping down

3. 1918 at Home
 National pride very low due to length of war
and casualties
 Civilians also suffered due to the restrictions
on food (rationing) and lower food production
 Large flu epidemic swept through killing many
 Armed soldiers returning from the war front,
demand Kaiser’s demotion
 Germany was virtually bankrupt
 Divisions in German society – income
inequalities, women in workforce, low pay

4. End of the Kaiser
 Sailors and soldiers mutinied in late
October 1918
 The Kaiser did not send the army to quell
the protests, they only escalated after that
 Social Democrat Party members call for
Kaiser to abdicate on 7 November
 9 November, Social Democrats seized
power, set up the German Republic
 10 November – Kaiser fled to exile to
Holland
 11 November – Armistice signed between
Germany and Allies

5. Who should control Germany?
 2 main rivals for power: Social Democrats
and Left-wing (socialist) revolutionaries
 The early, unstable government led by
Friedrich Ebert (Social Democrat) was not
elected.
 Challenge for power from the Socialists

6. Left-Wing Revolutionaries
 Wanted a social revolution (similar to
Russian revolution of 1918)
 Did not trust Ebert and Social Democrats
 Main revolutionary group known as
‘Spartacists’
 Disagreement within about how to win
power (wait for mass workers support or
seize power as soon as possible)

8. Spartacist Rising: January 1919
 Left-wing revolutionaries staged a
revolution in Berlin to take over the
Ebert run ‘government’ on 5th Jan 1919
 Badly planned operation, failed to take
key government buildings
 Lack of support from other left-wing
groups
 Opposed by government supported
volunteer troops (Freikorps)

11. Spartacist Rising: January 1919
 Most importantly Rosa Luxemburg and
Karl Liebknecht were murdered
 Key leaders dead, Communist
movement did not recover
 Freikorps continued to crush communist
revolutionary uprisings in many German
cities over the course of 1919
 Ebert’s gamble of siding with the army
and ‘Freikorps’ had paid off

12. Bavarian Socialist Republic
April-May 1919
 Largest southern German state proclaimed
a socialist (communist) state in April 1919
after assassination of Kurt Eisner (ally of
Ebert – SPD)
 Ebert employed army and Freikorps to
crush the newly proclaimed state
 Up to 700 communists killed
 Bavaria returned to Germany, under the
newly formed government led by Ebert

13. National Assembly 1919
 Elections 19 January 1919
 Success for democracy
 83% turnout for voting
 76.1% of voters voted for pro-democratic
parties
 3 main parties make coalition (SPD, DDP
and ZP – known as Weimar Coalition)
 SPD major party, so Ebert became the
President of the Weimar Republic

14. Effects of Election
 Democratic (elected) government
 Key institutions remained the same (civil
service, army and judiciary) as during
Kaiser’s time
 No changes in land ownership, structure of
big business
 Commercial and industrial leaders remained
 The ‘moderate left’ needed the conservative
forces of old to work and to survive (future
problems…???)

15. Weimar Constitution
 Voters over 20 (men and women)
 Proportional representation
 President lead the government (elected
every 7 years)
 2 houses of German parliament:
- Reichstag: representative assembly and
law making
- Reichsrat: regional matters (overruled by
Reichstag)

16. The President
 Appointed the Chancellor (usually the
leader of largest party)
 Supreme commander of army
 Capacity to rule by decree at a time of
national emergency (Article 48)
 Complex relationship between president
and chancellor

17. Bill of Rights
 Personal liberty
 Free speech
 Censorship forbidden
 Equality before the law for all
 Religious freedom and conscience
(no state church)
 Protection for labour
 Welfare provision (e.g. housing,
disabled)

18. Controversy
 Proportional representation – meant
that many parties were in parliament.
Radical parties could become part of
government. Hard to form majority
coalitions also.
 Emergency powers (Article 48)
 Traditional institutions of Imperial
Germany allowed to continue)