Germany - The Weimar Republic 1918-29

By Daisy Willans

  • Abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II

  • The signing of the armistice

  • Price of a loaf of bread = 1 mark

  • The Spartacist Uprising

    100,000 communists marched on Berlin, they took over key buildings such as newspaper offices.

  • Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht arrested

  • German National Assembly

    They met in Weimar to draw up a new constitution. Ebert is elected by the Assembly as the first president.

  • The Freikorps numbered 250,000

  • The Treaty of Versailles signed by the German delegation

  • Friedrich Ebert signs the constitution

  • Hugo Haase murdered

    A membered of Ebert's Council of People's Representatives, killed by the Freikorps.

  • The Kapp Putsch

    5000 right-wing supporters of Dr Wolfgang Kapp marched on Berlin to overthrow the Weimar Republic and bring back the Kaiser.

  • Reparations fixed at £6.6 billion

    Germany would pay in instalments until 1984.

  • Matthias Erzberger shot

    A moderate politician who signed the surrender of Germany in 1918. Murdered by the Freikorps.

  • Price of a loaf of bread = 100 marks

  • Walther Rathenau assassinated

    The Weimar foreign minister, killed by the Freikorps.

  • Germany can no longer pay reparations

  • Price of a loaf of bread = 200,000 marks

  • The NSDAP has 55,000 party members

  • The French send 750,000 troops into the Ruhr

    They confiscated raw materials, manufactured goods and industrial machinery as payment.

  • Gustav Stresemann becomes chancellor

  • The Rentenmark introduced

    The new currency was backed by land and business so it had real value.

  • The Munich Putsch

    Hitler burst into the Burgerbrau Keller in Munich with 600 SA.

  • The Reichsbank set up and the Reichsmark introduced

    A newly independent national bank was given control of the the Rentenmark, and renamed it the Reichsmark.

  • Hitler sentenced to 5 years at Landsberg Castle

    Only served 9 months

  • Stresemann agrees to the Dawes Plan

    The plan addressed the reparations issue. It said that annual reparations paid by Germany would be reduced to an affordable level and that American banks would give loans to German industry.

  • Hitler re-launched the Nazi Party

    The party was re-launched at the Burgerbrau Keller.

  • Paul von Hindenburg becomes president

  • The Locarno Pact

    This was a treaty between Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Belgium. Germany agreed to keep its new 1919 border with France and Belgium, in return the last allied troops left the Rhineland, France promised peace with Germany and the powers agreed to open talks about German membership of the League of Nations.

  • Stresemann awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

  • Germany joined the League of Nations

  • The Kellogg-Briand Pact

    The pact promised states would not use war to achieve foreign policy aims.

  • The Young Plan

    The plan reduced the total reparations debt from £6.6 billion to £2 billion. Germany was given a further 59 years to pay.