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Period: to
Germany Before the War
- New Germany was created out of the German speaking states.
- Parliament was made (reichstag) with an emperor to Germany (kaiser) but parliament had little power.
- by 1900 it had strong industries, army and navy.
- a new class of people grew = industrial workers (standard of living low)
- Social democrat party was formed to help those people (socialism = power to the people, not individuals or companies, more power in the Gov, not in the emperor)
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Treaty of versailles terms:
- Forced to accept full responsibility for the war (gave justification for reparations)
- £6.6 billion for damages
- Lost 10% of population
- 13% territory; with valuable areas of iron/steel production, eg. France took Saar region (rich in coal) & after 15 years inhabitants decided if they wanted to join Germany again
- army reduced to 100,000 (used to be strong)
- Navy reduced to 6 battleships, no airforce
- demilitarised Rhineland (no germans allowed there) allies occupied it for 15 years
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Period: to
Germany before 1919, during WW1:
In 1918, it was obvious they were going to lose - little resources left and masses of germans were dead. Kaiser was advised by army officers to give the Reichstag more power, so that it looked like the Gov were to blame for the defeat of the war not the army or Kaiser. The SDP, being the largest party, formed a new gov under Ebert Friedrich's rule in Nov 1918. And then after protests, November the 9th the kaiser abdicated. Germany was republic - elected leader, and the SDP's ended the war. -
Impacts of the WW1 on Germany:
- kaiser's Government collapsed along with his abdication
- 2 million germans died
- Germany was close to bankruptcy as the war lasted so long
- Serious food shortages
- severe political divisions between communist (left wing), socialists (less left wing), and right winged groups. with violent protests in new republican Germany.
- Had strong industrially, good army and navy, and money, but then lost it all in the war.
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Impact on the government after WW1
The new Government were lead by the social democrats and they decided with all the protests in Berlin from different political beliefs especially communism, that they should allow people to choose who they want to run there country. However to keep this in order they created the Weimar constitution in august 1919, which was strict on how elections must take place and how processes must be taken before allowing new rules. Germanys new government was known as the Weimar Republic. -
January 1919 election results: (% of seats)
SDP - 38%, power to working classes Communist - 0%, excluded selves from voting, wanted to revolt to gain power. felt other parties weren't going to help workers enough Independant socialists, 8%, broke away from SDP when they wanted to end war Centre party, 20%, Roman catholic party. Agreed with new republic but not many socialist ideas Democratic, 19%, middle class supporters, would make few reforms National, 10%, restore monarchy, anti leftwing, targeted at rich land/ business owners -
Reactions to the treaty of Versailles:
Although Germany agreed to a peace treaty in Nov 1918, which ended the war, the treaty of versailles was decided in 1919 June. The Big three - USA, France and Britain decided Germanys fate. Germany couldn't negotiate too, so either they had to accept it or start the war again Germans became angry as the agreement was much harsher than expected, especially as Germany removed the kaiser, changed the government to democratic. They were blamed the gov because they felt humiliated. -
Weimar Constitution
- all Germany men and women over 20 had the right to vote (before it was only men ages 25+)
- Reichstag was to be elected by proportional representation (e.g. if a party won 20% of the votes they win 20% of the seats)
- Reichstag could pass laws not just the leading party
- power shared between president and chancellor
- president elected every 7 years by German people, he could control army, power to dismiss Reichstag and could in 'severe emergency' take total power over Germany (article 48)
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problems with Constitution:
- proportional representation could result in no party having major power, so coalition would have to form (multiple parties rule) - but in crucial times they could disagree and people would leave the government. Leaving just the president to control Germany.
- The article 48 as well caused risk in Germany having a dictatorship. Ebert (president) used it on 136 separate occasions.
- lots of opposition to it being too left wing or not enough left wing.
- little experience in a democratic country.
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Government problems after 1919 elections:
No single party got over 50%, so the government went into coalition - SDP, Centre party and democrat party. they had to deal with:
- violent protests from both left wing and right wing.
- a very unpopular peace treaty (treaty of Versailles) - ending WW1, with lots of sacrifices
- economic crisis which was the start to hyper inflammation (Germans lost savings and saw the value of their money crash dramatically)