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History: Germany, 12 Marker Planning: Economic Problems In Germany: …

- - - - When: In March 1920, right-wing politician and journalist Wolfgang Kapp gathered around 5000 men, mainly police and ex-soldiers, and took over the capital, Berlin
        Why: He wanted to take over the whole country and recover the land lost in the Treaty of Versailles
        What Happened: President Ebert and the government fled Berlin. However, Kapp didn't have the workers support and they went on strike, resulting in no gas, water, electricity or trains
        Result: After only 100 hours as Germany's leader, Kapp fled abroad. Ebert and the government returned to Berlin
    - - When: In November 1923, Hitler and the Nazis tried to seize control of the Bavarian government in southern Germany
        Why: Hitler promised to overturn the Treaty of Versailles, destroy communism and restore Germany's national glory
        How: He planned to capture Munch and march on Berlin. Key Bavarian politicians at a Munich beer hall refused to support his plan to march on Berlin. Hitler pressed on with his plans nevertheless
        What Happened: As Hitler and about 2000 supporters marched through Munich, they were met by armed police. Three policemen and 16 Nazis died in a short gun battle
        Result: Hitler and Ludendorff were arrested
    - - When: Between 1919 and 1922, there were over 350 political murders in Germany, mostly carried out by right-wing extremists
        Why: They wanted to eliminate those who were responsible for the Treaty of Versailles
        What Happened: In August 1921 Matthias Erzberger, the man who signed the armistice in 1918, was shot dead by a right-wing group. In 1922 they also killed Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau, and threw acid on Philipp Scheidemann, an important Weimar politician
    - - When: In March 1920, after the Kapp Putsch, left-wing workers in the industrial Ruhr stayed on strike
        What Happened: They took over several towns in what is known as the Red Rising
        Result: The government sent soldiers and some Free Corps units to deal with the rebellion. Over 1000 workers were killed
- - - - There was mutiny and revolution all over Germany
        
        Many ex-soldiers and civilians felt that politicians had betrayed Germany by ending the war
    - - Some factory owners had made a fortune during the war, while workers had restrictions placed on their wages
        
        Women worked in the factories during the war. Some people thought this damaged traditional family values
    - - Owed vast sums of money that had been borrowed to pay for the war
        
        Lent some of its own money to its allies
        Factories were exhausted
        
        War pensions would cost the government a fortune
  - - - In the treaty of Versailles, Germany was ordered to pay reparations:
        
        In 1921, the figure was set at 132 billion gold marks or £6.6 billion to be paid in yearly instalments for the next 66 years
        
        Later that year, the German government scraped together their first instalment of the two billion gold marks and handed it over to France and Belgium. Some of the payment was in gold, but most of it was in goods like coal, iron and wood
    - - In 1922, when the next payment was due, the Germans announced that they could not afford to pay
        
        The French and Belgians didn't believe them and decided to take what they were owed by force
        
        In January 1923, 60,000 French and Belgian soldiers marched into the Ruhr, a rich, industrial area of Germany. They took control of every factory, mine and railway in the region. They also took food and goods from shops and arrested any Germans who stood up to them
    - - The German government ordered its workers in the Ruhr to go on strike and not help the French and Belgian soldiers remove goods from the country. This was known as passive resistance. The German government continued paying the workers on strike
        
        The German government printed large amounts of money to pay striking workers and to pay the money they owed France and Belgium. This caused lots of problems. As workers spent money in the shops, shopkeepers began to put up their prices
        
        The German government printed even more money to help workers buy products, so shops raised their prices again
        
        Soon prices were inflating so fast that it became known as hyperinflation. In 1918 the price of a loaf of bread was 0.6 marks, however in November 1923 it was 201 billion marks
  - - - People who had borrowed money found it very easy to pay off their debts. They were the real winners. If a person had borrowed 10,000 marks in 1920 they would could now pay off their debt with one banknote
    - - People with bank savings were the biggest losers.. Some people had saved all their lives to get 1000 marks in the bank. By 1923, this wouldn't even buy them a loaf of bread
      - Elderly people who lived on fixed pensions found their income would no longer buy them what they needed
      - Many small businesses collapsed as normal trade became impossible because of the daily price changes