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KT1 BP1 - Creation and Collapse of the Weimar Republic - Coggle Diagram
KT1 BP1 - Creation and Collapse of the Weimar Republic
Creation of the Weimar Republic 1918-1919
Bavaria broke from Germany November 8th 1918. Because of this, Kaiser Wilhelm lost the support of the Germans after and abdicated 9th November 1918
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USDP) the day after, shifting power from the military.
Ebert then became the First Chancellor of Weimar
The KDP created a new Communist Party within Germany in December 1918. Spartacist Uprising occurred in January 1919, but their leaders Liebknecht and Luxemburg were found, tortured and brutally executed by the Freikorps
On 7 February 1919, Ebert gave a victorious speech to the new assembly proclaiming victory for democracy. On 11 February, he was elected first President of the Republic by 277 votes to 51. The government, however, was still meeting in Weimar as it felt that returning to Berlin was too dangerous. The Weimar Constitution was finally passed by the National Assembly on 31 July 1919
Overcoming Challenges to the Democratic Constitution 1918-29
On 28 June 1919, the German delegation from the Weimar government signed the Treaty of Versailles. They had no choice but to sign
Opposition groups all through the 1920s and 1930s. Political opposition was shown by voting, debate and violence
A significant factor in this was that the most likely alternative to its rule was a more left-wing government. This meant that many right-wingers, who really wanted the return of an imperial government, supported the Republic, even if only in a lukewarm way, rather than run the risk of opposing it and ending up with a more left-wing government.
There were 29 political parties in the 1920s. The representation of votes majorly came from people voting for their area, rather than person. This made it nearly impossible for any party to have majority seats in the reichstag.
Between 1924 and 29 Stresemann held good relationships with majority of the parties in hopes for a Grand Coalition
Between 1924 and 1929, the economy recovered and Stresemann reached agreements with other countries to begin to restore Germany’s position abroad and undo some of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. As the economy recovered, social conditions stabilised and political violence died down, support for extremist parties declined (at least until 1928) and there were just 6 different coalitions
Collapse of the Democracy 1930-1933
The public continued to associate Weimar with the ToV, constantly being reminded of them being "stabbed in the back"
The Wall Street Crash in 1929 sent Germany into a depression
America called back its loans and Germany's economy essentially collapsed. Prices skyrocketed and unemployment rose dramatically
As policies to recover were not agreed upon, support for extremist parties grew
Parties began to stop agreeing on things. Coalitions began to fail and Hindenburg had used Article 48 to rule by decree
Nazi's and Communists began to make gains in the September 1930 elections
April 1932 - Hindenburg re-elected as president and he elected Von Papen as Chancellor. Nazi's got majority of the vote with 230 seats out of the 647 total
January 1933 - Hindenburg elected Hitler as Chancellor and Von Papen as vice chancellor