Germany 1918-45 → Weimar

• Nov 3 1918 →Clear that Germany would lose the war, Kaiser ordered German sailors to attack the Royal Navy and they refused (mutinity)
• Nov 9 1918 → Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate after mutiny spark rebllions all over germany causing the government to collapse. Ebert became chancellor.
• 1919 summer → Ebert and colleagues drew up democratic constitution for Germany. Ebert was elected as the first President of the new Weimar Republic

Strengths

• proportional representation → elected by how many votes party gained nationally
• secret ballot + everyone could vote
• elections every 4 years, president elected every 7 years
• ballanced powers of chancellor and president 
• president appointed chancellor to form government

Weaknesses

• Proportional representation encouraged small parties to run, so → difficult to get one party in power →coalitions of 2 or more parties were formed to get majority→ this lead to weaker governments
• article 48 goves President too much power → they could abandon democracy if an emergency is declared
• Opposition included generals in charge of army → they fought with and supported Kaiser and wanted him back, also judges who sympathised with those who opposed Republic

• Republic was immediately associated with the humiliating treaty
• Opponents of the Republic, especially army blamed government for signing the treaty → called them the november criminals
• Government accused of stabbing german army in the back as some believed they could have won (this was extremely unlikely however)
• Germany could not afford reparations
• Forced to demilitarise → nationalists were strongly against this

Spartacists uprising - Jan 1919

• communist uprising 
• Lead by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
• seized power of Berlin, aimed to ovethrow Ebert and Weimar to form communist state
• Weimar government relied on the army and Freikorps to put it down after a few weeks
• Weimar government went to safety of Weimar
• looked weak as it took so long and used Freikorps → is a problem when they uprise

Kapp Putsch - March 1920

• extreme nationalists → thought democracy was weak 
• Wolfgang Kapp lead Freikorps to seize power of Berlin
• Army refused to fight against the veterans despite governments orders → gov looks weak
• only ended after a few days as workers in Berlin did not support and went on a strike→city came to a halt
• Kapp retreated 

• Reparations required £6,600 million in gold in annual installments
• 1922 the gov asked for more time to pay
• Brits agreed but french instisted it must be paid, jan 1923 french and begian troops invaded the Ruhr ( a major area for german industry)
• German workers used passive resistance - did not fight but refused to co-operate
• german economy ground to a halt

• Weimar government printed more money in order to keep up with the reparation payments
• however printing more money only cause the prices to rise out of control and the value of the German mark to become practically worthless by 1924
• peoples savings, pensions and fixed wages became worthless.
• prices rose much faster that incomes and many people starved as they were unable to afford food or fuel.