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In January 1919, an elected parliament (the Reichstag) met for the first time in the city of Weimar, hence the name for the new republic. It was led by the leader of the Socialists (the largest party in parliament), Friedrich Ebert, who became president of the new German republic.
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The Weimar Republic lasted from 1919 until the Nazis gained control in 1933. The first five years of the republic were the worst with riots, strikes, shootings and attempts to overthrow the government. There were several reasons for the unrest, including the fact that people were worried that Communists would take the revolution a stage further and take away peoples property. They also felt that the Socialists had stabbed them in the back by signing the Treaty of Versailles.
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Read the putsches on the next slide. Write a summary of the events.
Explain why these putsches did not succeed in overthrowing the government.
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Rathenau was a popular minister and a million people marched through Berlin in mourning the day after his killing.
Organization Consuls aim was to eliminate (kill) all politicians who had accepted the Versailles Treaty. Rathenaus murderers were captured and sentenced to an average of four years in prison.
Why do you think Rathenaus murderers got such short prison sentences?
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Wilhelm Cuno, who led the centre-right government from November 1922, encouraged the workers of the Ruhr to offer passive resistance. Cuno also ordered the immediate suspension of reparations payments.
In response, the French and Belgium soldiers arrested mine owners and took over the mines and railways.
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Do you think the policy of passive resistance worked? How else could the government have handled the situation?
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Hyperinflation
Hyperinflation happens when the amount of the money in the economy increases, pulling prices up, and the spiral of printing money and price rise goes out of control. Bread Prices in Germany: 1918 0.63 marks January 1923 250 marks September 1923 1,5000,000,000 marks November 1923 201,000,000,000 marks
The currency collapse had a hugely damaging effect on many groups of society. It made savings, pensions, government loans, mortgages and many salaries worthless.
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On 1 December 1925, the Locarno Treaties were signed with France. These guaranteed the Franco-German and Belgium-German borders, and agreed not to use force to alter them in the future.
Stresemann also managed to gain a guarantee from France that they would not attack Germany in the event of a war with Poland in which Germany was not the aggressor.
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These talks that Stresemann undertook with the Allies built confidence between the two sides. This meant that despite not leaving the Rhine on 10 January 1925, as agreed at the Treaty of Versailles, Allied troops did start to leave towards the end of the year. It also meant that on 8 September 1926, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations. Relations continued to improve, and in January 1927 the Inter-Allied Military Commission, which oversaw German disarmament, was removed.
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What does this graph tell you about the state of Germany by the 1930s?
Why do you think Hitlers promise of work was calculated to get him votes?
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The government
Governments during the Weimar Republic rarely lasted a year. There were seven key parties and several smaller parties. Votes were usually scattered amongst them, with no one party getting a true majority. This meant that the government was run by coalitions (two parties agreeing to work together in order to hold a majority). Unfortunately, the parties rarely agreed with each other for long, and so new elections had to be called to try and secure a better representation.
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Number of Seats
250 200 150 100 50 0 1928 1930 Jul-32 Nov-32 Mar-33 Social Democrats Catholic Centre Nationalists 6 Minor Parties Communists Nazis
In what ways does this graph illustrate the problems of government under the Weimar Republic? Explain the large increase in Nazi representation in the Reichstag between 1928 and 1930. Why did the Communist Party also increase their seats?
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