birth of weimar republic { class 9 history chapter:2 }

BIRTH OF WEIMAR REPUBLIC

•Germany was a powerful empire in the early years of the twentieth century.

• It fought the First World War (1914-1918) alongside the Austrian empire and against the Allies (England, France and Russia).

•The Allies were strengthened by the US entry in 1917 and won the war in November 1918.

•The parliamentary parties met at the National Assembly at Weimar and established a democratic constitution

• Universal suffrage was allowed for electing the Deputies to the German Parliament (Reichstag).

Versailles Treaty

•As per the peace treaty signed at Versailles, Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13% of its territories, 75% of its iron and 26% of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.

•The War Guilt Clause forced Germany to pay compensation amounting to £6 billion.

• The resource rich Rhineland was occupied by the Allied armies.

•many Germans were not happy with the Weimar Republic.

The Effects of the War

•Europe had turned into a continent of debtors from being a continent of creditors.

• The Weimar Republic was forced to pay for the sins of the old empire.

• The supporters of the Weimar Republic became easy targets of the attacks by the conservatives.

Glorification of Soldiers

•After the First World War, the soldiers came to be placed above civilians all over Europe.

•Politicians and the media glorified the life of a soldier.

•Aggressive war propaganda and national honour became the theme of public debate.

•Democracy was a nascent idea which could not survive the war-ravaged Europe.

Political Radicalism and Economic Crises

•This was the time when the Spartacist League revolution began to rise on the pattern of Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

•The socialists, democrats and the Catholics met in Weimar to give shape to the democratic republic.

•uprising of the Spartacist was crushed with the help of war veteran organizations called Free Corps.

•The Spartacist later founded the Communist Party of Germany.

•The economic crisis of 1923 further heightened the political radicalization in Germany.

•Germany had to pay war reparations in gold which led to depletion of gold reserve.

•The French occupied its leading industrial area Ruhr; to claim their coal.

•Germany responded with passive resistance and printed paper currency recklessly.

•Finally, America decided to bail out Germany from this mess. America introduced the Dawes Plan.

•According to this plan, the terms of reparations were reworked to ease the financial burden on Germany.

The Years of Depression

•Some stability could be seen between 1924 and 1928.

• But that stability was short-lived because the industrial recovery in Germany was dependent on short-term loans.

•This support was withdrawn after the infamous Wall Street crash.

•The Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929 and people sold their shares in a mad spree.

•This was the beginning of the Great Depression.

•On the streets of Germany you could see men with playcards around the neck saying “willing to do any work”.

•Unemployed youth played cards, simply sat at street corners.

•Desperately queued up at local employment exchange as jobs disappeared. They took criminal activities.