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Nazi & Weimar Germany 🇩🇪 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Following their defeat of WWI, however, the fate of Germany was placed in the hands of Britain, France and America through the treaty of Versailles. 📜
        
        The treaty stated that the allies would only make peace if the old system of absolute power would be replaced by a new democratic system. Uprisings by the Navy subsequently forced the Kaiser to abdicate and flee the country before a republic could be established. 👑
        
        Following the establishment of the republic, Fredrich Ebert became the first chancellor of the Weimar Republic after the previous chancellor of the king handed over his power on 9th November 1918. 👨🏼‍🦱
        
        After removing the old parliament, on the 10th November 1918, Ebert named the new politicians that would form the Council of The People's Representatives - this was a temporary organisation that aimed to set up other parts or the government. 🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏼
        
        This council then established the National Assembly which was responsible for the establishment of the Weimar Constitution. 🗒️
        
        Weimar Constitution 📝
        
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        Treaty Of Versailles 📜
        
        This was the treaty created by the allies that Germany had to sign in order to make peace. It was widely disliked in Germany due to the fact that it was extremely harsh on the people, decreased Germany's power and the German government had no say in its terms (it is often known as the Dictat -dictated piece- for this reason) 😠
        
        This was formally accepted by Ebert and his government on 11th November - leading to members of the government being called the November Criminals. 🚨
        
        It was a common conspiracy in Weimar Germany that Germany could have won the war had the armistice not been signed. People thought that by signing it, the politicians had 'stabbed Germany in the back' This idea was known as the Dolchstoss 🔪
        
        The French leader Georges Clemenceau wanted to take harsh revenge on Germany, bringing them to their knees so they couldn't threaten France again 🇫🇷
        
        David Lloyd George of Great Britain favoured keeping Germany economically stronger in order to continue trade with them and in order to make them pay for all the damage they caused 🇬🇧
        
        Woodrow Wilson of the USA wished to be even less harsh on Germany than the other two - he didn't even portion exclusive blame to Germany for starting the war. He wanted to begin a peacekeeping organisation to help prevent a relapse. 🇺🇸
        
        Terms of the treaty included:
        Leage of Nations - This was to be a peacekeeping organisation however Germany was barred from its membership
        Land Loss - Germany was to have some land confiscated (in total 15% of land was split between allies)
        Armed Forces - These were forcibly cut down significantly and limited to just 100,000 men and no airforce
        Money - Reparations of 6.6 billion were owed to the allies to pay for the damage
        Blame - Germany had to accept soul blame for the war 🐑
  - - - The Spartacist Uprising was an attempt by extremist communists to overthrow the Republic. It was perpetrated by the Spartacists in Berlin. 100 workers took to the streets and managed to take control of various services in the capital including newspaper printing facilities. 📰
        
        Controversially, the Weimar Government was unable to stop the uprising with its own small army so they called in help from a right-wing group of armed, ex-millitary soldiers. They executed the revolutionary lead ers but there was anger about the involvement of the right wing💂🏻
      - The Kapp Putsch took place in March 1920 and was an armed uprising by the far right organisation known as the Freikorps lead by Wolfgang Kapp. It, again took place in Berlin with the aim of taking over the government. 👒
        
        5000 Armed men stormed the capital, forcing the government. Stuck for what to do, the government encouraged a general strike on all services - shutting down the whole country and forcing out the Freikorps. 🎳
    - - As part of the treaty of Versailles, Germany was ordered to pay 6.6 billion in reparations. After raiding all of the countries gold and economic assets to meet the first payment, Germany were broke and unable to meet the next one. 💔
        
        Consequently, French troops decided to invade and seize the Ruhr as an alternative to payment. This was paradoxical to Germany as the Ruhr was the main industrial heartland in Germany and its main economic powerhouse. Thus, the German government called upon a general strike in the area - encouraging workers not to cooperate with the French at all. 🚫
        
        Due to the government's order to strike, they were obliged to pay the workers - which, with no earnings, was impossible. Thus, they had no choice but to simply print more money to pay the workers and pay off their debt. 💰
        
        Thus, there was a huge amount of money in circulation - making it virtually worthless. 💹
        
        This had many effects on the population in different ways. One such way is that those in the middle class - all of whose savings became worthless. 🏦
        
        The very rich were largely unaffected as they often kept their money overseas. 🌊
        
        Older people reliant on pensions lost all of their savings 🧓🏻
        
        People who had debt had them cleared almost instantly. 💷
        
        The paper notes that displayed the values of money were more valuable as paper than as money. Many people were using them as toys or burning them as fuel. 🔥
- - - - When Hitler joined, the party was tiny with just 23 members and barely enough funds to buy some groceries. 💰
  - - - This involved the creation of a 25-Point program detailing what the Nazi party would fight for. It essentially involved strong opposition to Weimar Politicians, Democracy and the Jews 🗳️
    - - A permanent office was set up in Munich and Rudolf Schüssler was appointed to the position of full-time administrator for the party. 🏢
      - A new party name (the NSDAP or Nazi for short) was suggested which helped clarify the party policy and attractive to many different people. 😍
      - The characteristic Swastika logo and Nazi salute was adopted - this made the Nazi party clearly distinguishable from other small nationalists 🦾
      - As funds increased, the Nazis were able to buy their own Newspaper which gave them a propaganda outlet to share their policy with the masses 🗞️
    - - The SA was set up just a month after Hitlers takeover in 1921. They were a paramilitary group of around 800 ex-soldiers who were often used to control crowds at gathering or disrupt opposition - often with violence 🗡️
  - - - Unfortunately for Hitler, the Putsch failed as the Army barracks had not been taken over. While Hitler was away, Ludendorff released Kahr. ❌
        
        The next day when the Revolution was due to go ahead, Hitler and his supporters marched down the streets of Munich. Hitler assumed that the wider population would gladly turn out to support him in his takeover but they didn't - instead they were greeted by the police 👮🏻
        
        At this point, the rebellion descended into chaos and shots were fired. In the end, Hitler and the other orchestrators were arrested and charged with treason (apart from Ludendorf who was found not guilty) ⚖
    - - Hitler realised that the violent uprising was not going to win him power and that he'd instead need to use the democratic process 🗳
      - During his time in prison, Hitler wrote his book called Mein Kampf which contained his political views and was the largest source of inspiration of the Nazi party 🕮
        
        Ideas portrayed in the book included his extreme racist views. These included that the Aryan race was destined to rule the world. He said the Jews were determined to undermine this. Jews were said to be responsible for failing economy, centre parties and both Communism & Capitalism 📕
      - Hitler's trial gave him an excellent platform to publicise his views and ideas 📻
  - - - The new structure meant that the party was organised like a mini-state. Hitler was at the very top of the party with departments for different aspects of government. 🔺
      - There were also created a youth division of the Nazi party along with a women's section 🚺
      - Hitler also created the SS as his personal body guard service as he didn't trust the SA fully
    - - After 5 hour speech effectively denouncing socialism as communism, Hitler was able to win over Strasser who had previously been on the side of the socialists. 💬
    - - Furthermore, Hindenburg was voted into power as president. He was well liked and thus people gave support for the republic. All of these lead to very little attraction to extremist parties 😃
        
        In May 1928, the Nazis received only 2.6% of the vote and 12 seats 💺
  - - - As a result of losing so much money, banks needed to get some back and thus recalled all the lones that had been taken out by businesses 📣
        
        Businesses then had to scale back production laying off hundreds of workers and leading to even more unemployment. 👷
        
        People were no longer happy with the way the Weimar government were handling the economy. They had cut benefits and raised taxes - which pleased neither the rich nor the poor. 🏧
        
        Thus, people turned instead to the more extreme parties such as the KPD and NSDAP. Working classes saw the communists as the only chance they had to have their lives improved. This scared the upper classes as they would lose out under a communist government so they voted to the only party they saw as a serious challenge to the Communists - the Nazis. 🇨🇳 In just 4 years, the Nazis increased support by 218 seats
    - - Working classes were targeted with slogans like 'Work and Bread' 🍞
      - Young people were attracted by the coloured, atmospheric rallies and new ideas 🚸
      - Middle classes also feared the communists and they also often were displeased at the 'moral decline' observed under the Weimar Government 🚛
      - Women were initially put off my the Nazi's traditional ideas about a woman's role however they claimed that they were the best party for families 👩
- - - - A second round of elections is held for the presidency. Hitler loses again but Hitler still gains lots of support. 🗳
        
        After many failings, Brunnning resigns his position as head of the centre party. Von Papen was appointed to replace him however was not supported in the Reichtag and thus dependent on presidential decree 📜
        
        Hoping to gain greater support, Von Papen called another election - this turned out to be a bad move as they lost even more seats while the Nazi party gained a huge number - becoming the largest party. At this point, Hitler demanded chancellorship however this request was denied. 🏅
        
        Papen tried again to call an election but lost yet more seats 💺
        
        Von Schleicher persuaded Hindenburg that Papen would cause a civil war if he were in charge and that he should be in charge in stead. Hindenburg accepted this. 👢
        
        Furious that he'd been removed, Papen began negotiating with Hitler an order to become vice chancellor if Hitler were chancellor. This was accepted by Hitler and Papen persuaded Hindenburg to put Hitler in charge. ⏻
  - - - Hitler was then able to use the plot as evidence for a communist conspiracy and used it as an excuse to ban the communist parties as well as to declare a state of emergency 🚒
        
        Many suggest that the Nazis were behind the plot all along in order to achieve all that was previously mentioned. 👿
    - - After gaining more seats, the Nazis, along with other nationalist parties, had enough votes to change the Weimar constitution. This allowed Hitler to propose the Enabling act which was designed to remove the Reichtag parliament. It proposed that the cabinet could pass laws that were submitted by Hitler. Hitler expected opposition so he ensured intimidation was high and members had almost no choice but to vote for the roles. 😟
  - - - Röhm, leader of the SA, had the potential to overthrow Hitler as he was now in command of 3 million men. He had motive too as his ideas were more Socialist than Hitler's. ⚠
        
        As a result, Röhm was invited to a meeting along with many other SA leaders - from where they were arrested and shot. 🔫
        
        During the night of the long knives, von Papen's house was surrounded, his press secretary shot and his staff arrested. 🏠