Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Homework, Problems in early Weimar (Ruhr Crisis (The French occupation of…
-
Problems in early Weimar
GERMAN REVOLUTION, NEW CONSTITUTION, REACTIONS TO THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES, SPARTACIST UPRISING, KAPP PUTSCH, RUHR CRISIS, HYPERINFLATION.
Ruhr Crisis
-
In 1921 the Allied Reparations Commission presented the government with a bill for reparations of £6.6 Billion. Couldn't pay. Over the Christmas and New Year, 1922-3, they defaulted on their payments.
70,000 French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr. They intended to use the produce as payment. The Gov began a policy of passive resistance (general strike). The French reacted brutally with house searches, hostage taking and shooting over a hundred Germans.
Economic impact: The loss of production in the Ruhr caused a fall in production elsewhere and unemployment rose from 2% to 23%. Prices rose, tax revenues collapsed and the gov financed its activities through the printing of money. By November prices were a billion times their pre-war levels.
-
The Sparticist Revolt
Many wanted a Russian style revolution. The left wing Spartacus movement led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg began a revolt in Berlin in January 1919. They seized building throughout the city.
Many feared the “red plague”. Defence minister Gustav Noske used the army and the Freikorps to crush the revolt. Liebknecht and Luxemburg were shot and the revolt was crushed.
The Freikorps was a volunteer militia made up of ex-army men set up to defend the borders of Germany. It was strongly anti-communist
In Bavaria, another Communist revolt was defeated with Freikorps help in May. Political violence had marred the foundation of the new state.
New Constitution
As there were a large number of political parties, there were many coalition governments.
During the fourteen years of the Weimar Republic, there were twenty separate coalitions.
The longest government lasted two years. This political chaos caused many to lose faith in the new democratic system.
system of proportional representation that meant it was impossible for one party to get an overall majority.
Treaty of Versailles
-
-
principle of self-determination had been ignored in the case of the Germans of Austria and the Sudetenland.
-
-
-
-
-