Political instability and extremism, 1919-24
The problems of coalition government
The growth of political extremism
Moderate centre parties e.g. SPD, Centre Party, DDP form stable coalitions: leaders compromise
June 1919: Scheidemann cabinet resigned could not agree signing TOV
Fragmentation political parties as German society divided, dedicated overthrow Republic
June 1920: Fehrenbach cabinet resigned accept Allied ultimatum reparations
Electoral system of proportional representation- no party position form government by itself
Society polarised- support moderate parties ebbed away
Weimar Republic: fragmentation of political parties’ command majority support in Reichstag
1918-19: SPD lead establish Republic form stable government
June 1920: SPD ceased lead role any coalition
Before 1914: many political parties representing different religions, classes, regions and special interest groups
Governments in Weimar Republic, 1919-23
Aug 1923: Stresemann (DVP)- SPD, Centre, DDP, DVP
Oct 1923: Stresemann (DVP)- SPD, Centre, DDP, DVP (Fall: SPD left)
Nov 1922: Cuno (None)- DDP, Centre, DVP, BVP (Fall: Economic crisis)
Nov 1923: Marx (Centre)- Centre-right
Oct 1921: Wirth (Centre)- SPD, Centre, DDP
May 1921: Wirth (Centre)- SPD, Centre, DDP (Fall: Partition of Upper Silesia)
June 1920: Fehrenbach (Centre)- DDP, Centre, DVP (Fall: Reparations ultimatum)
March 1920: Muller (SPD)- SPD, Centre, DDP (Fall: Election results)
June 1919: Bauer (SPD)- SPD, Centre, DDP (Fall: Kapp Putsch)
Feb 1919: Scheidemann (SPD)- SPD, Centre, DDP (Fall: TOV)
Political violence: left and right set up armed, uniformed paramilitary squads guard meetings, march streets and beat up opponents
Challenge from the left
5th January 1919: Spartacist League led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg armed uprising in Berlin overthrow Ebert’s government set up revolutionary communist regime
Newspaper offices/ public buildings occupied
Spartacists not secured support majority working-class Berlin
Army put down revolt- General Groener lack reliable military units so irregular forces units at command, Freikorps
13th January: Spartacist Uprising crushed, Liebknecht/ Luxemburg executed
November 1918: workers disillusioned by ‘revolution’ frustrated Weimar Republic compromise with Right
German Communist Party (KPD): minority with strong support industrial centres Ruhr and Saxony
Influenced by Comintern- lead communist revolution in Germany
Left-wing risings
March 1921:
KPD force revolution- began Saxony
Hamburg and Ruhr- crushed by police (145 killed)
1923:
German economic collapse
Saxony and Hamburg- supressed
1920:
Defeat right-wing Kapp Putsch with general strike in Berlin
Communists formed ‘Red Army’ of 50,000 workers- seized Ruhr
Regular army and Freikorps struggle crush rising
Halle and Dresden: over 1000 workers/ 250 soldiers and police killed
Saxony and Thuringia: workers organised self-defence units
April 1919:
Halle and Ruhr valley: strikes
Shorter hours, more control over industries, government based on workers councils
March 1919:
Spartacist rising in Berlin
Bavaria: communist government based on workers’ councils- suppressed
Challenge from the right
Bavaria: separation from Germany OR united Germany become great power
Freikorps and army strong right-wing views
Competing right-wing groups with different objectives
Restoration of monarchy
Advocated dictatorship
Large landowners, industrialists, civil servants, police and judges- traditional conservative and anti-republican
Right hostile to Republic from outset, did not believe in democracy and accused politicians betrayed Fatherland
The Kapp Putsch, 1920
Feb 1920: Gustav Noske (defence minister) ordered 2 Freikorps units (12,000 men) disband- stationed 12 miles Berlin
TOV: reduce size army and disband Freikorps units
General Walther von Luttwitz (commanding general) refused disband- government ordered arrest
Luttwitz march troops to Berlin in protest, sympathetic officers offered support
Luttwitz support from Wolfgang Kapp (right-wing civil servant/ politician)- organise putsch
General Hans von Seeckt and Ludendorff non-committal (danger?)
Ebert government withdraw to Dresden: Ebert and Bauer (chancellor) regular army crush rising
Seeckt told Eber: ‘troops do not fire on troops, when Reichswehr firers on Reichswehr, all comradeship within the officer corps has vanished’
Support: civil servants, bankers were hostile
Trade unions support socialist members Ebert’s government called General Strike
Kapp and Luttwitz fled
Army not trusted, civil servants disloyal, workers as group show power, without army’s support Weimar government weak
Leniency right-wing judges trial putsch contrast harsh treatment left-wing
Poltitical assassinations
Vaterlandische Verbande (Patriotic League) formed from old Freikorps units acted as anti-republican paramilitaries
Supported by German army
Right-wing nationalists organised leagues committed elimination prominent politicians/ associated ‘betrayal’ Germany
Assassination of Walther Rathenau
Assassination of Hugo Hasse
Assassination of Matthias Erzberger
Representative on reparations committee
Black Forest by 2 members of terrorist league Organisation Consul
Finance minister- German delegation signing armistice/ TOV
August 1921
USPD member
Member of Council of People’s Commissars
Shot front Reichstag October 1919
4 assassins Organisation Consul shot and hurled grenade
Jewish, leading minister republican government, signing armistice, negotiate Allies improve TOV
700,00 protestors streets Berlin, value mark fell
Foreign Minister
24th June 1922
1919-23: 376 political assassinations
22 by left-wing
354 by right-wing
July 1922: Reichstag law ‘for protection of the Republic’- penalties involved conspiracy murder, banned extremist organisations
Organisation Consul: disband, judges right-wing sympathisers
Bavaria: conservative government refuse law
Rathenau’s killers 4 years, 326 right-wing murderers unpunished- 1 convicted punishment until 1923, 10 left-wing murderers sentenced death
1919-23: arrogance anti-republican nationalists establish itself into new German state
The establishment of the Nazi Party and the Beer Hall Putsch
Bavaria: declared state of emergency appointed Gustav von Kahr state commissioner
Political impact of the Ruhr invasion
Middle-class support damaged
Organisations represent Mittelstand accused failing protect independent small traders/ artisans
Left- communists staged uprisings
Hyperinflation ‘added to the feeling in the more conservative sections of the population of a world turned upside down, first by defeat, then by revolution, and now by economics’- Richard Evans
End passive resistance- nationalist right called betrayal
Trauma hyperinflation- psychological effect/ anti- French feeling
1923: Bavarian-based party National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP-Nazis)
Munich: ‘march on Berlin’ to establish national dictatorship led by Adolf Hitler
Gustav Stresemann call of ‘passive resistance’ September, no concessions from French
Argued German patriots first remove ‘November Criminals’ from government before dealing French
Beer Hall Putsch in Munich
November 1923: Hitler seize power, support of Ludendorff and Otto von Lossow (local army commander)
8th November: Munich Beer Hall Lossow and Ludendorff meeting of 2000 Hitler and SA announce revolution begun
Gunpoint Kahr and von Lossow march on Berlin install Ludendorff as new Commander-in-Chief
SA unable gain control Munich army barracks
9th November: march through Munich
Folklore of ‘courageous’ Nazis- Hitler fell/ dislocated shoulder
Hitler fled, Ludendorff straight up and arrested
General Seeckt abort putsch and central control over Bavaria
Nazis banned, Hitler imprisoned (9 months of 5 years)
Adolf Hitler
1921: Hitler became leader, Nazi Party dedicated violent overthrow Weimar Republic and replace with Nazi dictatorship
1920: party became National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) issued 25-point programme of beliefs
Political agent sent investigate small, right-wing political group- German Workers' Party (set up 1919 by Anton Drexler combine socialist ideas and nationalism)
Munich: centre of ultra-nationalist, anti-Semitic and anti-Weimar political agitation
Outraged by armistice Nov 1918/ embraced 'stab in the back' myth for German defeat
War: Western Front in France gained promotion to corporal and decorated for bravery
Supported Germany's declaration war on Russia/ France- volunteered for German army
Belief that all Germans should be united in a greater German Reich
Born in Austria April 1889