GCSE History Revision: Weimar Germany 1918-21

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Follow @AFosterTeach - https://twitter.com/AFosterTeach Weimar Germany 1918-21 – Was it always doomed to fail? Full Transcript: The Weimar Republic is the name we give to Germany between 1918 and 1933 because this is when it was a democracy, after Kaiser Wilhelm lost power and before Hitler gained it. The name Weimar comes from the town in which the Republic was proclaimed – Berlin was too dangerous at the time. To answer that we must look at the end of the First World War. Throughout the conflict the people of Germany generally expected to win – their troops were occupying French and Belgian land after all. However, the British Blockade and the entry of America into the war meant that defeat was more and more likely. Towards the end of 1918, the German Navy was ordered out into the North Sea to fight the British. Many sailors saw this as a pointless suicide mission and mutinied. At the same time a ‘Red Republic’ was declared in Bavaria by the Socialist Kurt Eisner. The situation for Germany was desperate and Kaiser Wilhem II abdicated. We know that when things go wrong, people tend to blame the person in charge. The new leader of Germany was President Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democrats. This helped to feed the ‘Stab-in-the-back’ myth that many people, particularly members of ruling classes, conservatives and extreme right wingers believed and pushed. They argued that Germany had only lost because the Socialists and Communists had sabotaged their efforts at home. Anti-Semites like Hitler associated Jews with this as well. This moved the blame away from the ruling classes who might otherwise have faced more public anger. In January 1919, the Spartakist Uprising saw German communists attempt to take over the country. Communism was a very frightening prospect for many people. The Russian Revolution of 1917 had seen a great deal of violence, including the killing of the Tsar and his family. In order to keep power, Ebert’s government made a deal with the Freikorps – former soldiers, many extremely right-wing. They were prepared to use violence to end the uprising and killed its leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. The Socialists stayed in power but were hated by the Communists for this. The left wing in Germany was badly split. In June 1919, Clemenceau of France, Wilson of the USA and Lloyd-George of Britain agreed the Treaty of Versailles, the terms of the peace with Germany. Germany were presented with the treaty and given no opportunity to debate it. It is easy to remember the key features – LAMB, land, army, money and blame. Germany had to give up territory, reduce its armed forces, pay reparations and accept blame for starting the war. In August 1919 the Weimar Constitution was drawn up. These were the rules by which the country was to be governed. They had some good points like giving both men and women the vote at 21. However, the president was perhaps given too much power with his ability to pass emergency laws without referring to the German parliament the Reichstag. Furthermore, proportional representation meant that the parliament was made up of lots of small parties rather than a few large ones. This meant that anyone wanting to form a government had to do so through a coalition with other parties. This helped to make government very unstable and there was a high turnover of chancellors between 1918 and 1933. In March 1920, Wolfgang Kapp along with the Freikorps attempted to take over the country. This may have been successful had it not been for a general strike amongst the workers of Germany. Kapp and his followers realised that although they had captured the government’s buildings, they could not rule. Kapp fled to Sweden and the Weimar Republic survived. However, in April 1921, the scale of reparations was announced - £6.6 billion pounds. This meant payments of around 5% of national income which may seem reasonable. However, Germany had already lost the agricultural lands of West Prussia and the coalmines of the Saar. Many Germans felt very bitter towards the Allies for imposing this and the Weimar government for accepting it. So that’s Weimar Germany, 1918-21. In some ways it did well to survive the serious challenges it faced in its first three years of existence. However, the Communists came to hate the Socialist government for betraying the Spartakists, the conservatives hated them for accepting the Treaty of Versailles and the reparations that came with it, and some of the rules that Weimar’s own constitution contained were to be used to end democracy. If you’ve found this video useful, go back and watch it with the sound off, pause it, test yourself on what the pictures mean. Once you can tell the story for yourself, try to add even more detail from your revision notes.