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Government opposition 1914 to 1924 - Coggle Diagram
Government opposition 1914 to 1924
Post war political problems
Issues caused by ToV
£6.6 billion reparations = hyperinflation
Loss of land (12.5%, mostly industrial)
poor international relations - banned from forming Austria-Hungary alliance, not allowed to join League of Nations.
Loss of military power - only allowed 100,000 men which could not even defend Germany against civil war
Lots of far right and left tensions
'November Criminals'
Ebert's establishment of authority
1918 - formed provisional government until elections could be held. (3 SPD and 3 USPD members) -
'Council of People Commissars'
Ebert-Groener Pract
- deal with right wing army. Protection against revolutionary activity in exchange for maintaining authority of army and existing military officers,
11th November -
Armistice
agreed
Stinnes-Legian agreement
employers recognised legality of unions, introduced 8 hour day. Unions agreed to maintain production and end unofficial strikes.
allowed civil servants with anti-republican views to maintain posts.
Kiel Mutiny 1918
major revolt of sailors
triggered German revolution = end of monarchy
attempted coups and opposition of left and rights
Opposition from left
Sparticists Rebellion 1919
aim to overthrow SPD government & took over SPD newspaper officers and established revolutionary commitee
savage street fighting = over 100 workers killed
leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg killed by Freikorp
uprising crushed, but bitter legacy = left wing no longer saw SPD as saviour, but enemy
Hamburg uprising 1923
KSD stormed police stations and some claimed soviet republic
supported by 5000 unemployed workers
no support from USSR
61 civilains and a number of police killed, 1000 arrested
March 1920
followed strike to put down Kapp Putsch
communists formed 'Red Army' of 50,000 workers
seized control of Ruhr = civil war against Freikorps and regular army
encourages further strikes and disturbances.
Political assassinations
22
10 assassins caught and sentenced to death.
Opposition from right
Creation of 'stab in the back' myth
Kapp Putsch 1920
significance
Weimar gov could not enforce authority in its own capital
only mass power of general strike could enforce authority - enforced worker's power
lack of control over army and people
12,000 Freikorps refused to disband - stationed 12 miles from Berlin
General Walther von Luttwitz
Over 370 political assassinations
1922 - Walter Rathenau. German foreign minister
1921 - Mathias Erzberger. Finance minister who signed armistice.
1922 - Phillip Scheidemann. Declared Germany a republic. Attacked with acid.
Justice system
13 murders committed by leftists. 8 death sentences, total of 177 years in prison by those tried.
95% of murders committed by far right had charges dropped - only 8 found guilty with prison sentences
only 1 member of Kapp Putsch sentences - 5 years
leaders of Bavaria encourages assasinations
Munich Putsch 1923
SA unable to gain control
long term
rise of Hitler/ Mein Kamf
further spread of 25-point plan made in February 1920
NSDAP/ Nazi party
November 1923 = 55,000 members
Short term
Nazi party banned
Hitler imprisoned for 5 years (lenient due to right-wing justice system.)
ended Nazi/ Bavarian hopes of bringing Republic down by force.
the occupation of the Ruhr
Causes for French occupation of Ruhr
1923 Inter-Allied Commission declared that Germany were failing with timber and coal payments (reparations)
French angered by Treaty of Rapallo April 1922 - alliance between USSR and Germany
French occupation of Ruhr
1923 - 100,000 French and Belgian troops in Ruhr area
German workers given strike pay and told not to cooperate with French (German army not big enough to fight back.)
Rhineland was demilitarised per ToV
Germany can't appeal to League of Nations as France and Belgium are dominant members
Consequences of occupation
132 Germans killed
150,000 expelled from area
May 1923 - mines only producing a third of the average for 1922
overall output of Ruhr fell by a fifth
Inflationary situation - Ebert forced to used emergency powers and appointed Reich Commisioner
The working of Weimar government; its strengths and weaknesses
Elections
1919
- 76% vote for moderate parties. SPD dominated, and together with Zentrum and DDP, a moderate coalition was formed.
1920
moderate left - only 44.6% of vote
extreme left grew - USPD 17.9% of vote
extreme right wing grew - DNVP 14.9%
SPD had to form coalition gov with right wing DVP - showed more political acceptance, but added to instability as more difficult to make decisions
Joesph Wirth (Zentrum)
successor Chancellor to Fehrebach (SPD brought down by economic issues.)
fufilment policy - Erfullungspolititik
cooperation with ToV
associated with Wirth, Rathenau, and Stressemen
seen as mark of weakness by right wing nationalists
broken by Treaty of Rapallo April 1922
Eight different governments in the first four years of republic