Weimar Germany and Hitler’s Rise to Power, 1918 - 1933
Contents
Paper 2: Topic 3: Origins and development of authoritarian and single-party states
Timeline – Weimar Republic
Part 1: 1918 – 1923Early threats to the Republic
The Creation of the Weimar Republic
The problems of the Weimar Republic (1918 - 1923)
The Treaty of Versailles.
The terms of the Treaty of Versailles
German reaction to the Treaty of Versailles
Political attacks from left and right
Left wing attacks against the Weimar Republic
Right wing attacks against the Weimar Republic
Economic Problems of the Weimar Republic
The Occupation of the Ruhr (1923)
Hyperinflation (1923)
The Weimar Constitution
PART 2:1923 – 1929 The Stresemann and Locarno Years
The role of Stresemann
Economic recovery (1923 - 1929)
The successes of the Stresemann Era
The Failures of the Stresemann Era
Treaty of Locarno, 1925
Part 3: 1929 – 1933, Impact of the Depression,Hitler Rise to Power
The impact of the Depression on Germany 1929 – 1933
Understandings you should have
Questions to ponder
Past paper 2 questions
The rise and fall of the Hitler myth: they didn't like his party, and they didn't want his war. So why did the Germans stick to Hitler for so long?
Paper 2: Topic 3: Origins and development of authoritarian and single-party states
The 20th century produced many authoritarian and single-party states. The origins, ideology, form of government, organization, nature and impact of these regimes should be studied.
Major themes
•Origins and nature of authoritarian and single-party states
•Conditions that produced authoritarian and single-party states
Emergence of leaders: aims, ideology, support
•Totalitarianism: the aim and the extent to which it was achieved
•Establishment of authoritarian and single party states
Methods: force, legal
•Form of government, (left- and right-wing) ideology
•Nature, extent and treatment of opposition
Domestic policies and impact
•Structure and organization of government and administration
•Political, economic, social and religious policies
•Role of education, the arts, the media, propaganda
•Status of women, treatment of religious groups and minorities
- 1918 - 1923 Early threats to the Republic.
- 1923 – 1929 Stresemann and Locarno era
- 1929 – 1933 The Impact of the Gr. Depression, Hitler to Power.
Timeline – Weimar Republic
1918 – Weimar Republic established
1919 – Treaty of Versailles
1920 – Nazi Party formed
1923 – Occupation of the Ruhr, Hyperinflation and Munich Putsch
1924 – Dawes Plan
1925 – Stresemann: Signing of Locarno Pact
1926 – Germany joins League
1928 – Signing of Kellogg Briand Pact
1929 – Stresemann’s death: Wall St Crash
1932 – Bruning ‘Hunger Chancellor’
1932 – March elections: Nazis biggest party in Reichstag
1932 – November elections: Nazi seats in Reichstag drop
1932 – Papen and Schleicher Chancellorships
1933 – January: Hitler becomes Chancellor
February: Reichstag Fire followed by State of Emergency
March elections: Nazis fail to gain majority in Reichstag
April: Enabling Act
German withdrawal from League and Disarmament Conference
May: Germany becomes a Single Party State
Nazi Germany:
1934 – July: Night of the Long Knives
August: Hindenburg dies: Hitler becomes Fuhrer
1935 – Law denying Jews German citizenship
1936 – Schacht’s New Plan
Reoccupation of the Rhineland
1937 – Rome Berlin Axis
1938 – March: Anschluss
September: Sudetenland crisis and Munich Conference
1939 – March: Invasion of Czechoslovakia
August: Nazi Soviet Pact
September: Invasion of Poland and outbreak of war
Part 1: 1918 – 1923Early threats to the Republic
The Creation of the Weimar Republic
•On 9 November 1918 the Kaiser abdicated and fled to Holland.
•On 11 November 1918 Germany signed an armistice ending WW1.
•Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democratic Party, declares Germany a republic.
•On 5 January 1919 The Spartacist Uprising erupts and is defeated by the army.
•On 19 January 1919 Ebert is elected President of the German Republic.
•The new democratic government meets in the town of Weimar because Berlin is too dangerous.
The problems of the Weimar Republic (1918 - 1923)
•It had to accept the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
•The Weaknesses of its Constitution.
•Left wing Revolts like the Spartacist Uprising, Berlin and Bavaria Revolts.
•Right wing Revolts like the Kapp Putsch and Munich Putsch.
•The French Occupation of the Ruhr.
•Hyperinflation.
The Treaty of Versailles.
The terms of the Treaty of Versailles
•Germany had to accept War Guilt (sole responsibility for starting the war).
•Germany had to pay £6600 million in reparations (fines for the war damage).
•Germany had to give up large amounts of its territory.
•Germany had to agree to the disarmament of its armed forces.
•Germany was forbidden from uniting with Austria.
•Germany had to give up all of its overseas colonies.
German reaction to the Treaty of Versailles
•They were enraged when they saw the extremely harsh terms of the treaty.
•They were not allowed to negotiate over its terms and were forced to accept it.
•They felt that the terms of the treaty were extremely unfair and humiliating.
•They felt that they should not have to accept sole responsibility for the war.
•Many Germans started calling for revenge to reverse the effects of the treaty.
•Many Germans attacked the new Weimar democratic government for signing it.
•Many labelled the politicians who signed the treaty “November Criminals” who had “stabbed in the back” the army, which still controlled most of Europe in 1918.
•The treaty undermined the new democratic government, led to the rise of the Nazi party and the Second World War.
Political attacks from left and right
Leftwing attacks against the Weimar Republic
The Causes of the Spartacist Uprising (1919) were
•The Spartacist League led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht wanted a Communist Revolution in Germany inspired by the Communist Revolution in Russia.
•The Spartacist League renamed itself the German Communist Party.
•On 5 January 1919 the Spartacists seized government buildings and organised a general strike.
The Consequences of the Spartacist Uprising (1919) were
•The army quickly crushed the Spartacist Uprising and its leaders were shot.
•Ebert did a deal with the army whereby in return for crushing the Spartacist Uprising he promised not to create a new army sympathetic to the new Weimar Republic.
The Berlin and Bavaria Communist Revolts (1919)
•The new Weimar government faced further uprisings by Communists.
•In March 1919 the Communists organised strikes in Berlin but were crushed by the Freikorps (Free Corps).
•In April 1919 the German province of Bavaria declared itself an independent Communist Republic but again was crushed by the Freikorps.
Right wing attacks against the Weimar Republic
The Kapp Putsch (1920)
•The Treaty of Versailles had restricted Germany’s army to 100,000 men and many of the demobilised soldiers joined the Freikorps (Free Corps).
•The Allies demanded that the Ebert disband the Freikorps.
•Wolfgang Kapp, leader of Freikorps, marched into Berlin to seize power.
•Ebert called upon the workers of Berlin to support the Weimar government.
•The workers organised general strikes and the Kapp Putsch failed.
The Munich Putsch (1923)
•Hitler and the Nazi party tried to seize power in the city of Munich, capital of the German province of Bavaria to spark the overthrow of the Weimar government.
•As the Nazis marched in the city centre armed police and army soldiers who fired upon them in support of the Weimar government.
•Hitler and the other Nazis leaders were arrested and imprisoned.
•Hitler used his trial to gain maximum publicity to portray himself as a national hero.
•He used his time in prison to right his book “Mein Kampf” that outlined his ideas.
•He decided to seize power “legally” by fighting and winning elections rather than by trying another Putsch
Economic Problems of the Weimar Republic
The Occupation of the Ruhr (1923)
•The Treaty of Versailles ordered Germany to pay £6600 million in reparations.
•In 1922 the German government announced it could not pay reparations any longer.
•The French invaded the Ruhr industrial region to get reparations by force.
•The French took control of the Ruhr’s factories, steelworks, mines and railways.
•The Weimar Government could not defend itself because Versailles had limited the size of the German armed forces.
•The French shot 132 Germans and expelled 150,000 Germans from the region for refusing to obey the orders of the French military controlling the Ruhr.
•As a result of the occupation of the Ruhr and the resistance against it industrial production in Germany ground to a halt.
Hyperinflation (1923)
•To pay for reparations the German started printing money but this caused hyperinflation because the more money it printed the more worthless it became.
•As a result of hyperinflation prices would rise, which led to the demand for wages to rise, which led more money being printed, which led to prices to rise more.
•The price of goods always tended to rise faster than workers wages.
•Workers were seen carrying their wages home in wheelbarrows.
•The rise in prices meant that incomes were too small to live on.
•People struggled to buy food, clothes and to heat their homes.
•People with savings in banks now found that their savings were worthless.
•People on fixed incomes like pensioners suffered the most.
•Only people who had debts or had taken out loans benefited from hyperinflation.
•Hyperinflation increased the unpopularity of the Weimar government.
The Weimar Constitution
The Weimar Constitution
•The Weimar Constitution made Germany a democracy.
•The President was to be elected by the people every 7 years.
•The Chancellor (Prime Minister) had to have the support of a majority of the Reichstag (Parliament).
•All man and women over 20 years old could vote for members of the Reichstag.
•The voting system was based on Proportional Representation whereby if a party won 5% of the vote it would get 5% of the seats in the Reichstag.
•It made Germany a Federal Republic where each state had its own government.
•It guaranteed personal freedoms like freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
The Weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution
•The President had the power to appoint and dismiss the Chancellor.
•The President, under Article 48 of the Constitution, could suspend democracy.
•Proportional Representation meant that no party ever had an overall majority in the Reichstag and this lead to a series of weak coalition governments.
•Proportional Representation gave a voice in the Reichstag to small extremist parties like the Nazi Party.
PART 2:1923 – 1929 The Stresemann and Locarno Years
The role of Stresemann
•Between 1923 and 1929 the Weimar Republic became stable and prospered.
•Gustav Stresemann, leader of the German People’s Party (DVP) became Chancellor in 1923 and was Germany’s Foreign Minister between 1923 to 1929.
•He brought about economic recovery in Germany.
•He brought improved international relations for Germany.
Economic recovery (1923 - 1929)
•Stresemann introduced a new currency, the Rentenmark, to replace the old worthless currency to help stop hyperinflation.
•He ordered striking workers in the Ruhr to go back to work and agreed to start repaying reparations to the allies leading to the French withdrawal in 1925.
•1924 Germany agreed to the Dawes Plan with the US, Britain and France.
•The USA lent Germany 800 gold million marks to build new factories to increase German prosperity to raise the standard of living and ability to pay back reparations.
•The Dawes Plan spread the load of reparations according to Germany’s ability to pay based on the prosperity of the German economy.
•The Dawes Plan restored confidence in the German economy and investments poured into Germany from abroad.
•The Young Plan of 1929 extended the deadline for the payment of German reparations further 59 years.
Figure 1 The Dawes Plan
Germany’s International Relations (1923 - 1929)
•The international community accepted Germany back on the world stage.
•In 1925 French troops ended their occupation of the Ruhr.
•In 1925 Germany and France sign the Locarno Pact in which they agreed never to change the border between them again.
•In 1926 Germany was allowed to join the League of Nations.
•In 1928 Germany signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact with over 60 countries promising never to go to war against one another.
The successes of the Stresemann Era
•The Weimar Republic was its most stable and prosperous between 1923 to 1929.
•There was a fall in the support for left wing and right wing extremists.
•The German economy stabilised and hyperinflation was brought under control.
•Germany was welcomed back on to the world stage.
•Germany experienced a huge cultural revival.
The Failures of the Stresemann Era
•Germany was now dependent on US loans that would prove disastrous in 1929.
•The weaknesses of the Weimar constitution remained.
•There continued to be resentment against the Treaty of Versailles.
•Right wing movements attacked decadent and unpatriotic new culture that spread across Germany.
•Finally the stability and prosperity of the Stresemann Era collapsed following the 1929 Wall Street Crash and start of the Depression.
Treaty of Locarno, 1925
The Locarno Treaties were a series of seven international agreements between UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.
Important People
•Foreign minister: Gustav Stresemann, Germany
•Foreign minister: Austen Chamberlain of Great Britain
•Foreign minister: Aristide Briand of France
Rhineland Pact
- The most important treaty in the Locarno Treaties was the Rhineland Pact, which called for maintaining a demilitarized zone in Rhineland, Germany.
- Germany and France, and Germany and Belgium agreed not to attack or invade each other. If they do attack, Britain and Italy would help the invaded side.
Other parts of the treaty:
- Germany signed arbitration treaties with Poland with Czechoslovakia, agreeing to change its the eastern borders
- France signed treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia that promised military aid if they were ever attacked by Germany
- Problem: The eastern borders of Germany were not fixed since Britain refused to guarantee countries to the east of Germany (Britain was afraid of Germany expanding to the west, threatening their security, but did not care about Germany expanding to the east. They only guaranteed military aid to France and Belgium if attacked by Germany)
Results: The Locarno Treaty resulted in a heightened sense of hope and optimism between the Allies and Germany
- Germany is finally allowed a permanent seat in the council of the League of Nations
- By 1927, the supervision of Germany’s disarmaments stopped, and the Allied troops left the Rhine
- In 1930, Germany became an independent state again, but was in still in cooperation with the USSR in the Treaty of Rapallo and Russian intentions of redrawing the frontiers of Europe
- The treaty resulted in temporary peace, but the League of Nation’s power was still uncertain, as was the collective security of Europe from future German aggression. Locarno’s final outcome was ambiguous, but the general public heralded it as ‘the Locarno spirit’ of peace and cooperation.
(In both 1925 and 1926, the Nobel Peace Prize was given to the lead negotiators of the treaty, going to Sir Austen Chamberlain (with Charles Dawes) in 1925 and jointly to Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann in 1926.)
Part 3: 1929 – 1933, Impact of the Depression, Hitler Rise to Power
The impact of the Depression on Germany 1929 – 1933
•The US demanded its loans back but Germany could not pay.
•By 1932 over six million Germans were unemployed.
•Millions became homeless and dependent on charity to survive.
•There was a growth in support for both left wing and right wing extremist parties like the Communist and Nazi Party.
•The Weimar Republic became extremely unpopular and seemed incapable of pulling Germany out of the Depression.
•Hitler and Nazi Party did not change their political message but more people were willing to listen to their message now that times were bad.
•In 1933 Hitler seized power in Germany bringing an end to the Weimar Republic.
Understandings you should have
•Germany's Weimar Republic offered an alternative to radicals on both ends of the political spectrum - its collapse was not inevitable
•The Weimar Republic’s constitution was flawed
•The Weimar Republic’s apparent stability could be seen as superficial
•The economic crisis of the early 1930s led to an upsurge of extremism
•The Nazis used these circumstances, propaganda, force and political manipulation to gain power
•The Nazi economic miracle was based upon a war economy
•Historians still debate the idea that Germany was truly totalitarian and that Hitler was an effective dictator (strong / weak dictator debate, although this debate is now very sophisticated and nuanced, see Ian Kershaw, Richard Overy, Niall Fergusson)
•Hitler’s foreign policy: planned or opportunistic?
•More??
Questions to ponder
- Why was the Weimar Republic unpopular with the right and the left wing?
- What were the weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution?
- Was the Weimar Republic stable in the mid 1920’s?
- What were the achievements of the Weimar Republic?
- What foreign policy did the Weimar government follow?
- Why did the Weimar Republic collapse in 1933?
- Why did the Nazi’s come to power in 1933?
- How did the Nazi’s establish a dictatorship by 1934?
- Was there a Nazi economic miracle?
- Was Nazi Germany totalitarian? (politically, economically and socially)
- Was Hitler a weak or strong dictator?
- How did the Nazi’s deal with opposition?
- Was Hitler’s foreign policy planned or as the result of opportunity?
Past paper 2 questions
Highlight/underline the different stylesof questions and themes. Then summarise some of the key themes that you see in these questions.
Paper 2
- Evaluate the contribution to the rise to power of Hitler of each of the following: National Socialist ideology; the use of force; economic crises. (Nov 10)
- Analyse the circumstances that helped one right-wing leader to become the ruler of a single-party state. (May 10 TZ2)
- In what ways, and to what extent, was propaganda important in the rise and rule of Hitler? (May 10 TZ1)
- Assess the importance of economic distress and ideological appeal in the rise to power of one left-wing and one right-wing single-party ruler. (Nov 09)
- “Unpopular rulers or governments, and their overthrow, were responsible for the formation of the majority of twentieth century single-party states.” To what extent do you agree with this assertion? (May 08 TZ2)
- Analyse the rise to power of either Hitler or Lenin. (May 08 TZ2)
- Analyse the methods used and the conditions which helped in the rise to power of one ruler of a SPS. (May 07)
- “It was personality and not circumstances that brought rulers of single-party states to power.” To what extent do you agree with this statement? (Nov 06)
- To what extent was the rise to power of either Hitler or Mao due to personal appeal and ability? (May 06)
- Analyse the methods used and the conditions which helped in the rise to power of one ruler of a SPS. (May 05)
- Assess the success of Hitler in implementing social and economic policies.
- Analyse the nature and extent of internal opposition and the methods used to deal with this opposition by one of the following single-party rulers: Lenin; Hitler; Mao.
- In 1924 Hitler wrote: “The masses of the population are more affected by rhetoric than by any
other force. All great movements are popular movements”. To what extent do you agree with
this assertion?