govt and opp 1914-24

Bands of soldiers who refused to disband and formed private right-wing armies - they opposed the Republic

First president of the Weimar Republic

10 Nov 1918; agreement to suppress lingering revolutionary activity in return for maintenance of military authority

11 November 1918; acceptance of Allied post-war demands

15 November 1918; establishment of arbitration boards and a representation of industry bosses working with their workers

He let them remain, causing the Republic to have an underlying right-wing culture despite being founded by the SPD, and gave those with right-wing sentiments a disproportionate amount of power

Felt he was compromising socialist principles; the three ministers in cabinet resign on 29 Dec

4-15th Jan 1919; a radical left-wing coup involving strikes and SPD newspaper offices being occupied

The Defence Minister under Ebert who brutally disbanded the Spartacist Rebellion (100+ people killed)

The harsh treatment of the movement alienated the left wing from the SPD

March 1919, after Kurt Eisner's assassination in Bavaria, but fell in May

Dec 1920; the former had c400,000 members and the latter had c78,000

22; ten of assassins sentenced to death

Germany was late in its reparation payments, and France had been angered besides by the Treaty of Rapallo

The official republican army

The 'stab-in-the-back' theory perpetuated by right-wing opposition

The theory perpetuated by right-wing opposition that the Versailles Treaty had been created without Germany's consultation

The characters perpetuated by right-wing opposition to blame the politicians that had signed the armistice

February 1920; a right-wing uprising by the Freikorps involving a march on Berlin

The commanding general that refused Noske's demands that the 12,000 strong Freikorps units near Berlin disband.

A DNVP politician who led the 1920 Kapp Putsch and declared himself Chancellor in March 1920

The commander of the Reichswehr who famously refused to treat the Freikorps with violence ('Troops do not fire on troops...')

A national strike that tackled the problem within four days

There existed a tension between the military and civilian elements of the right-wing, but still only one defendant of the Putsch was punished after trial

A USPD member shot in front of the Reichstag in October 1919

354 between 1919-23; 326 go unpunished

A right-wing terrorist organisation that carried out political assassinations

July 1922; a relatively ineffective 5-year law tackling conspiracies to murder and paramilitaries and consuls

April 1922; USSR and German cooperation and friendship

Jan 1923; French and Belgian troops invade the industrial heartland to seize assets in lieu of unpaid reparations

Chancellor Germany that ended passive resistance in the Run

Nov 1923; an attempted coup by the NSDAP in Munich

76% votes were in favour of moderate, democratic parties

Only 44.6% of votes were in favour of the moderate parties, with extremism rising at both ends of the spectrum

Truce between political parties in Germany during World War I, unanimously committing the RS to granting war credits

Germany's military plan at the outbreak of World War I, according to which German troops would rapidly defeat France and then move east to attack Russia, but it failed in August of 1914

'A peace through victory'. A war aim encouraged by the right-wing pressure groups, aristocrats and middle classes

1916, as German deaths were piling and victory seemed implausible

1916, promised to reform Landtag in an effort to appease the SPD

Paul von Hindenburg, with Erich von Ludendorff as deputy, leading to what has been called a 'military dictatorship'

When the German people were starving in the winter of 1916, because of the Allied blockade of Germany

March 1917; the revolution against the Tsarist government, after which Russia left the war and created a Marxist govt in October

A German law requiring all males between the ages of seventeen and sixty to work only at jobs considered critical to the war effort.

Hollweg loses support in the RS and Ludendorff/Hindenburg, so resigns before an RS resolved 'peace without victory' war aim is announced

Independent Social Democratic Party; more radical socialists who split from the SPD in April 1917

- SPD
- Spartacists (1916)
- USPD (1917)

Sept 1917; Ultra-conservative party that helped Generals Hindenburg & Ludendorff establish a military dictatorship

1.2m members

March 1918; series of five German offensives leading to breakthrough before being halted before Rheims

Ludendorff tells Hertling to seek an armistice based on Wilson's 'fourteen points'

- Hertling resigns
- von Baden appointed
- Wilson refuses armistice unless Germany becomes less autocratic and surrenders completely
- Ludendorff resigns after attempt at unilaterally resisting surrender
- Germany becomes parliamentary monarchy
- Parliamentary reforms, such as reform of Landtag

- Mutinies on naval vessels; Communist red flag raised
- Kiel held by c40,000 rebelling workers, sailors and soldiers
- Elected council of workers, modelled after Russia's, set up in cities
- Bavarian republic proclaimed
- Berlin goes on strike and is occupied by revolting workers
- Liebknecht and Scheidemann both independently announce republics
- Kaiser abdicates, having it been announced before even agreeing

Friedrich Ebert, as the new president

9th November, 1918

Established the rights of Germans in the new constitution

March 1919, after the King flees during the revolution from below, but failed

March 1919, Communist International; supports early opposition of left-wing groups in Germany

December 1920, 478,000 members

Felt that it had not implemented enough socialism and/or communism; the far left felt to an extent betrayed by the SPD

Felt that the entire idea of a republic was detestable, and blamed the left-wing revolution for the collapse of the military, rather than vice versa

The treaty imposed on Germany by the Allied powers in 1919 after the end of World War I which demanded exorbitant reparations from the Germans

As part of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was ordered to pay fines to the Allies to repay the costs of the war in £6.6bn. Opposed by the U.S., it quickly lead to a severe depression in Germany.

Passive resistance, which was encouraged by the govt

Sept 1923, to transfer Länder power to regional military commanders and appoint a new Reich Commissioner undemocratically

Gustav Stresemann, in Sept 1923

Hitler only sentenced to 5 years, of which he served 9 months whilst writing Mein Kampf; he also came to the realisation that force was not the way to get the NSDAP into power

55,000 members

February 1920, attracting support from many Bavarians to the NSDAP

German cooperation with France and Britain agree to Versailles terms, but to reduce and reschedule some of the reparations

- Germany improves international relations
- Germany joins the League of Nations
- Nationalists still angry
- German economy recovered

The right-wing DVP, making political decisions in the RS harder

Scheidemann

Cuno

Stresemann

Marx