How strong was Weimar Germany?

1919-1933

Ao1a Ao1bRecall, select, deploy and communicate relevant historical knowledge clearly and effectively.

Demonstrate understanding of the past through explanation, analysis and arriving at substantiated judgements of key concepts (causes/ consequence/ significance/ continuity/ change and relationships between key features.

Three Stages of Weimar GermanyUneasy Start (1919-1923)

Consequences of WWI/ The ‘Revolution’Impact of Treaty of Versailles/ reparations/ guilt/ army/ November CriminalsWeimar constitution/ proportional representation/ Article 48/ Coalitions/ President/ ChancellorUprisings/ RevoltsFrench invasion of the Ruhr/ Hyperinflation

Golden Years (1924-1929)

Gustav Stresemann/ Dawes, Young Plans/ Locarno Treaty/ League of Nations/ Kellogg-Briand PactWeimar CultureRelative political stability.

Collapse (1930-1933) Impact of Great Depression/ Rise of Nazis/ Hitler and Propaganda/ Communism/ collapse of central parties/ coalitions/ weakness of WeimarLegacy of VersaillesHindenburg/ Papen/ Schleicher and ‘Backstairs Intrigue’Reichstag Fire, Enabling Act

THE GOLDEN YEARS OF WEIMARTo what extent is this the case, 1924-1929?

The Economy

• Stabilised by the Rentenmark (temporary currency) and then the Reichsmark.

• Dawes Plan (April 1924): British and US forced the French to look at reparations. Final total not reduced, but a timetable was and an loan of 800 million marks raised for Germany.

Modest recovery Compared to 1919-1923 and 1930-1933 this was a period of relative prosperity.

BUT: how were Weimar going to compensate those that had lost their savings duringhyperinflation?

Some compensation for those who had lost all investments in war bonds (12.5% of the original value, spread over 30 years. Mittelstand saw it as a betrayal).

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems• Cost of German exports higher: industrialists had to

‘rationalise’ industry.• Jobs decreasing matched a time of ‘baby boom’ (pre war)

babies reaching adulthood.• 5million more people in the workforce than had been there in

1907.

extra people in the workforce

Unemployed

This leads to deteriorating labour relations and calls to dismantle the welfare state.

Leads employers to a party that will promise lawand order.

The farmers get the worst of it• Agricultural depression in late 1927; global

overproduction of food.• Anger at the state, which rural communities

claimed were favouring the urban working classes and trade policies which were importing foreign food in exchange for being able to export German industrial goods.

• Peasant protests in Schleswig-Holstein and Oldenburg.

• Nazis able to exploit this feeling “blood and soil”.

Foreign Influence

• Stresemann: a nationalist with plans to revise the Treaty of Versailles.

• Locarno Treaty (1925)= Locarno Honeymoon.• League of Nations (1926).• Allied Disarmament Commission withdrawn from

Germany 1927, followed by 10,000 troops from the Rhineland.

• Young Plan 1929 (to reduce reparation totals from 132 billion gold marks to 40 billion golf marks, dismantle controls over the German economy). Dissent from right wing, but passed anyway. 1930, Britain and France evacuated the Rhineland.

Success

Politics

• A Reichstag commanding majority (Proportional Representation) could only happen under a Centre-Left coalition or a Centre-Right.

• Hindenburg’s election to the Presidency, 1925- a blow for the republic (old school, military dictator, supported DNVP, loathed SPD). The people seemed to be going right.

• The Centre party also went right.• Liberal parties’ voters went towards the ‘special interest

parties’ after financial compensation for losses during the inflation years. 1930, many of them go over to the Nazis.

Weimar is losing support: even before 1929.

Culture

• Culture went left, politics went right. Backlash for the ‘Golden Age of Weimar culture’. Even the left wing politics were violently anti-Weimar.

• Didn’t apply to all Germans- if you lived in Berlin, you had more chance of getting involved. Many ordinary Germans were disgusted by it.

Should Weimar have collapsed?

YES

• Never won loyalty of people.

• Heavy costs: lost war, welfare state, angry working classes, angry agricultural workers.

NO• No one could predict the

Great Depression.• Prussia (3/5ths of Germany)

SPD, Centre and DDP coalition stable during these years.

• No reason in 1929 why it should collapse?

• Extremist parties (such as Nazis) pretty marginal during this period.

Exam Questions on the Weimar Republic.

• Assess the reasons for the survival of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s.

• To what extent did the Weimar Republic in the 1920s overcome the problems it faced?

• How effectively did Weimar governments deal with the problems they faced in the 1920s?

• ‘Investment and support from foreign powers was the main reasons the Weimar Republic survived in the 1920s’. How far do you agree?

To what extent did the Weimar Republic in the 1920s overcome the problems it faced?