The Republic of Weimar (IGCSE)

The Republic of Weimar
Samuel Perrino Martínez. ISU. Republic of Weimar (1919 - 1929)

There is some basic information you
should know about this period
 What kind of system?
 Periods
 1st period:
 Problems
- Why was the RoW so unpopular?
- Attempts to overthrow the RoW
 Who was against Weimar?
 1923: The turning point: Ruhr crisis and hyperinflation

What kind of system?
 Parliamentary democracy: The most democratic system in the world !
- Right to vote over the age of 20
- Proportional system
- President + Parliament + Chancellor (Division of powers)
 Constitution. Main points:
- Art. 2: Proportional sytem
- Art. 48: Emergency cases

Problems
 You have to understand why the Weimar Republic was so unpopular in Germany in
the 1920s
 Try to distinguish between the general problems (i.e bad economic situation) and
the facts in order to have a clear idea.

What kind of problems?
Reparations Stab-in the back idea

What kind of problems?
Economic crisis Distribution of wealth

Why was Germany in such a bad situation?
 Treaty of Versailles terms:
- Germany lost 10% of land
- 12 % of population
- 48 % of the iron industry (in favor of …)
- African colonies (Togoland and Cameroon)
- Germany had to accept the blame for the war
- The army was reduced to 100,000 men (no possibility of defense)
- Why was the Treaty considered negative for Germany?

Treaty of Versailles. German reaction
 Diktat: Germany had no option to negotiate the
conditions. They even did not participate in the
discussions.
 How did Germans feel about this?
--- We are not obliged to follow these rules if we
have the chance
Can you argue something against this argument?

Diktat

Treaty of Versailles.
 Loss of territory:
- Germany lost 10% of the territory
- It,s important because many German
population was living in this territories.
They had two options:
- Stay as a minorities
- Move to Germany
- It,s not just a question of prestige, it,s
also a “personal” question.

Treaty of Versailles.
 Disarmament
 Germany Army was reduced to 100,000
men. Why was this decision a problem
for Germany?
- G could not start a new war
- G had problems to maintain the order
in the country (extremely weak country)
- How would be the disarmament fair?

Treaty of Versailles
 War guilt (Art. 234 Treaty of Versailles)
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany
accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing
all loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated
Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a
consequence of the war imposed on them by the aggression of
Germany and her allies
Germans felt this was very unfair.
Also, blame meaned in real terms ….
MONEY

Were the Germans right?
 Partially YES
 It is true the conditions of the Treaty
were hard for Germany
 Partially NO
 France wanted to divide Germany
into small states, even higher
reparations and the complete
elimination of the German Army (It
could be worse)

So… many people were conspiring against
the democracy
 At that moment, there were different opinions in Germany:
 Those in favor of democracy (Majority of population)
 Those against the democracy (Extremists: Ultranationalist and Communist, they hated each other)
-- Common features:
-- They believed in violence as the best way to obtain the power
-- They were against democracy (they preferred authoritarian regimes)

In favor of democracy
 The main party was the Social-Democrat Party (left-wing party), ruled by Ebert
 There were also right-wing parties (DDP) and central parties (Zentrum, Catholic Party)
 They had different ideas, but they accepted democracy as the best system of government
 They represented 80% of German population

Those against democracy
 Left-wing extremist:
 They tried to establish a communist
rule in Germany
 1917: Russian revolution… so why not
Germany?
 Who --- Working class (they had bad
conditions of life, so they did not
care about liberties, they just want an
equal share of the wealth)

Against democracy
 Spartacist Revolution (1919)
 The Communist tried to seize the power and
launch a revolution in Germany
 They were able to declare the Independent
Socialist Republic of Bavaria
 The Government used the Freikorps and the
Army to counteract the rebellion
 Result --- The rebellion failed and the
communist leaders (R.Luxemburg and
Liebknecht) were assassinated

Those against democracy
 Right-wing Nationalist:
 They thought the Treaty was a complete
humiliation for Germany
 They wanted an authoritarian and strong regime
(similar to the previous situation before the war)
 Who --- Mainly composed by ex-soldiers who
did not accept the end of the war. They were
organized in the Freikorps.

Right-wing extremist. The Kapp Putsch
 1920
 Kapp was a general and he tried to
take over the power with 5,000
Freikorps
 The government asked for the aid of
the workers and they reacted with a
general strike
 Kapp left the country and the
rebellion failed

1923. A key year
 The situation was quite unstable the first years of the Republic of Weimar, but 1923
will be a special year for several crisis:
- The Ruhr Crisis
- The Munich Putsch
- Hyperinflation

The Munich Putsch (Beer Hall Putsch)
 An unknown Adolf Hitler tried to take the
control of the country in a rebellion in Munich
 Nazi Party was not very popular at that
moment (less than 3% of votes) so he failed
(He was able to control a brewery)
 He went to prison (11 months) when he wrote
Mein Kampf with the main ideas of the Nazis

Ruhr crisis
 Previous situation
 German solution
 Hyperinflation

Previous situation
 The reparations commission had
determined that Germany should pay
132 billion gold marks in 42 years
to the Allied powers

Situation
 The French were anxious to enforce
the reparations for two reasons:
- They hated Germans
- They needed the money to pay the
American loans

Ruhr crisis
 Germans had problems to pay the demanded
amount of money, so the French decided to take a
hard line approach to Germany: the best way to
make Germany pay was …
 MAKING USE OF THE FORCE ---- French and
Belgium troops invaded the Ruhr (the industrial area
of Germany) to “receive” the payment
 What would you do if you were a German worker?

Ruhr crisis
 As Germany had almost no army
(Treaty of Versailles) France took the
outputs of the factories and mines of
the Ruhr, and shipping them to its
territory.

Ruhr crisis
 What was the German reaction?
 German workers refused to
cooperate
 Sabotage (Flooding of mines,
burning factories, destruction of
railroads, etc.)
 French fought against that. They had
the complete control of this area!

Ruhr crisis
 What was the German reaction?
 The Government supported the workers in their strike and sabotage actions. How?
 It printed money to pay them. PROBLEM --- The value of the money decreased because
it was an artificial measure ---- HYPERINFLATION

Consequences of the Hyperinflation
 The middle class lost its economic
power (the money they saved) so
they became:
- Cynical to democracy
- More interested in extremist
ideologies (Nazis tried to seize the
power in 1923)

So, the Weimar Republic was in a serious
trouble
 Hyperinflation and bad economic situation
 Challenged by the Left and Right extremist
 Without a clear answer to the problems of the country
 So… in this difficult situation, a new president (Stresseman) took the power after the first
years of Ebert.
 Would he be able to change the situation?
 YES, the Golden Years (1923 – 1929)

The Golden Years (1923 – 1929)
 After an initial crisis, the Weimar Republic was able to overcome most of the
problems in the period from 1923 to 1929 (the Golden Years)
 The key figure of this period was Gustave Stresseman (the Minister of Foreign
Affairs)
 Germany got important achievements in:
- The economy
- Culture
- Politics

Economy
 He found a solution to solve the problem of Hyperinflation
 First, he created a new currency
 If Germany was in bad situation, the world would be in a bad
situation (because of the reparations) so …
 Dawes Plan:
- Reparations payments were spread over a longer period
- The USA gave loans to Germany
- Germany spent the money in infrastructure and
modernization of old equipment (good investments) so the
quality of life increased (better salaries) --- The economic
situation improved so G. could pay the reparations.

Dawes Plan

… but
 The German economy was
completely dependent on American
loans, so …
 The unemployment began to raise at
the end of the Golden Years (social
unrest)
 Peasants and small business were not
especially benefited by Weimar
policies

Culture
 During the Kaiser´s time --- Dictatorship and
censorship
 Weimar Republic brought the freedom of
speech --- Cultural Renaissance
 George Grosz and Bauhaus design
 The cinema industry was the most important
in Europe (F.Lang and M.Dietrich)

George Grosz

Bauhaus movement

Fritz Lang. Metropolis
The first science fiction movie!!Samuel Perrino Martínez. ISU. Republic of Weimar (1919 - 1929)

But …
 The rural Germany saw the new
culture as a symbol of decadency
 Wandervogel movement: Return to
the countryside values (kind of Boy
scouts)

Politics
 The extremist (left and right wing)
were weaker during this period
(Nazis got 5% of the vote, and
Communist did not go further than
15% of the vote)
 A GrossKoalition was formed with all
democratic parties, so the
government was strong

… but
 Extremist parties were not banned,
even if they were against democracy
---- They could establish an
organization for the future
 People started to accept extremist
parties as part of the system

Foreign policy
 Stressman reached the Locarno Treaties
(1925) where:
- Germany recognized the Western borders after
the war
- The Eastern borders were not defined (Why was
this a problem for the future?)
- Germany was accepted in the League of Nations
- Young Plan (1929): Less reparations for
Germany and the foreign troops left Germany

Locarno Treaties

But…
 Of course, these agreements were
criticized by the right-wing and left-
wing extremist:
 For the right-wing extremist, the
agreements were a recognition of the
Versailles Treaties
 For the left-wing extremist, the
agreements were seen as an
approach to the capitalist countries

Golden Years Period
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
pbW8mA_cdFg

The Republic of Weimar (IGCSE)

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