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Friedrich Ebert Assumes political power
Immidiatelly after Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated to Holland, political power was assumed by Friedrich Ebert of the Social Demicratic party, which was the largest in the Reichstag. Amid the voilence of protests, it was declared that the German government was to become a Rebublic with Ebert as chancellor. They were to hold democratic elections as soon as possible. -
Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates
The events that occured during November 1918 were sometimes called the "German Revolution" due to the rebelious actions throughout Germany. During this time, Kaiser Wilhelm was persuaded to abdicate. He fled to exile in Holland. -
Spartacists threaten new government
The Spartacists were a German communist party organized and led by the former social democratic party members Karl Leibnecht and Rosa Luxemburg. Their goal was to overthrow the government set up by Ebert and establish a communist style government with no parliment." They tried to acomplish this through strikes and street fighting. At the end of December 1918, they changed their name to the German Communist party and began planning the overthrow of the government. -
Spartacist Uprising
In January 1919, the spartacist, now know as the German Communist party, attempted to overthrow the German Government. They were ultimately stopped when the current government asked the Freikorps to intervene and they seized the Spartacist headquarters and murdered Leibknecht and Lubemburg. -
Treaty of Versailles was signed
The Treaty of Versailles was signed, imposing harsh comditions upon Germany such as reparations, disarmament, and war guilt. -
Social Democratic Party Changes Meetingplace
The capitol of Germany (Berlin) was still being overrun by street fighting and lawless behavior when the social democratic party took control of Germany. Because of this, they began meeting in a small town known as Weimar, giving them the name, Weimer Republic. This was approved at the end of July 1919. An issues with this government was known as proportional representation. This meant that the amount of votes allowed to a party was proportional to the amount of seats held in the Reichstag. -
The Kapp Putsch
The strongest opposition to the Treaty of Versailles came from the right wing. They particularly resented the disarmament clause that limited the army to 100,000 men. Many of the discharged soldiers joined the Freikorps. The allies considered the Freikorps as a part of the 100,000 limitation. When the Weimar Government tried to disband them under request from the allies, the Freikorps started the Kapp Putsch when they marched on Berlin.The government led a worker's strike and stopped the putsch. -
France invades the Ruhr
In 1922, the German government was unable to pay its second installment of reparations. The French thought that the Germans were bluffing and invaded the Ruhr in January 1923 with the help of the Belgians. -
Germans React to French Invasion of the Ruhr
Following the French invasion of the Ruhr, the German government authorized passive resistance against the French. The French responded by expelling 100,000 Germans from the Ruhr. -
Gustav Stresseman Becomes Chancellor
In the Summer of 1923, it was clear that the Weimar Government was going to collapse. Germany was saved from this by the actions of Gustav Stresseman who was elected chancellor in August 1923. He stopped the strikes in the ruhr, stabilized the German currency, and resumed reparation payments. -
Hyperinflation
In order to bridge the gap between the German spendings and the German income, the Weimar government began to rapidly print money, causing its value to go down and Germany to be sent into hyperinflation. -
Dawes Plan
After steering away from the last 5 months of chaos, Gustav Stresseman continued to help Germany by accepting the Dawes plan. The Dawes plan said that america would give Germany an 800 million gold mark loan to kickstart the economy. They also were only required to pay what they could in reparations and the reichmark was replaced with the Rentenmark. -
Locarno Treaties Signed
In 1925, France, Belgium, and Germany signed the Locarno Treaties, agreeing to respect each other's mutual borders. This created a feeling of peace known as the Locarno Honeymoon -
Wall Street Crash
Wall street plummeted in america and cut the loans to Germany, senind both countries into depression -
Period: to
The Great Depression
The Germans were so dependent on American loans after the Dawes plan that when the wall street crash in America occured, the Germans were no longer reveiving loans and were sent into a state of renewed depression
