Key Figures

Kaiser Wilhelm I:

• Ruled Germany following its unification in 1871 
• Worked well with his Chancellor, Otto von Bismark
• King of Prussia who brought Prussian militarism to the rest of Germany

Kaiser Wilhelm II: 

• Succeeded his father in 1888
• Disabled from birth, tough childhood, repressed homosexuality
• Believed in Kaiser's divine right to rule, 'personal rule'
• Poor decision-maker with a short attention span
• Militaristic background, identified with military figures the most, strongly supported Weltpolitik
• Did not work well with Otto von Bismark
• Abdicated on 9th November 1918

Otto von Bismark: 

• Spearheaded the unification of Germany, giving himself, as Chancellor of Prussia, the Chancellorship of Germany as well from 1871-1890
• Created the constitution of the Kaiserreich, tailor-made for himself and his good working relationship with Wilhelm I
• Clever and powerful politician, very conservative, great dislike of democracy
• Did not work well with Kaiser Wilhelm II

Leo von Caprivi: 

• Well-intentioned and friendly politician
• Chancellor 1890-1894
• Faced conservative opposition and resigned when called upon to introduce ant-socialist measures
• An example of a Chancellor being unable to work with Kaiser Wilhelm II

Bernhard von Bulow: 

• Chancellor 1900-1909
• Aimed to build an alliance of conservative groups against socialism
• Implemented Weltpolitik and Flottenpolitik
• Flattered Kaiser
• Herero Uprising and Hottentot election - Bulow Bloc against red-blacks
• Daily Telegraph Affair, Kaiser blamed Bulow - led to his resignation

Field Marshall von Moltke:

• Changed Schlieffen Plan, in part responsible for its failure

Paul von Hindenburg: 

• Supreme Army Command 1916-1919
• President 1925-1934, in-charge of appointing Chancellors
• Helped to run Germany during WWI, 'silent dictators'
• Conservative, anti-democratic/socialist, very popular
• Responsible for overuse of Article 48
• Persuaded by Von Papen to appoint Hitler Chancellor 1933

General Erich Ludendorff:

• Helped to run Germany during WWI, 'silent dictators'
• Masterminded final German offensive of WWI
• Took part in Kapp Putsch 1920
• Collaborated with Hitler and was in Munich Putsch 1923
• Shared Nazi racist views, conservative, very popular

Friedrich Ebert:

• Leader of SDP
• Chancellor of left-wing coalition government in embryonic republic 1918
• Ebert-Groener pact 1918, much criticised by left 
• Elected first President from 1919 until he died in 1925

General Wilhelm Groener:

• 2nd in command of the army 1918-1919
• Ebert-Groener pact - promised Ebert the army's support of the Weimar regime if their old prestige and position were maintained

Ernst Rohm: 

• Nazi supporter, very close friends with Hitler from very early on
• Committed to the socialist aspect of the Nazi party
• Involved with the Munich Beer Hall Putsch 1923
• Leader of the SA
• Supported workers' strikes
• Homosexual
• Called for a 'second revolution,' a 'National Socialist Revolution' in 1933-1934
• Hated the army and their position in Nazi Germany - Hitler was caught between the army and Rohm's SA
• Invited to join the cabinet in 1933, to try to ease the tension
• Hitler chose the army rather than Rohm and so he was arrested and murdered on the Night of the Long Knives on 30th June 1934

Kurt Eisner: 

• Bavarian politician and journalist
• Jewish
• Republican and social democrat, USPD leader in Bavaria
• Organised the overthrowing of the monarchy in Bavaria and the creation of a republic in 1918
• Assassinated on 21st February 1919 by a German nationalist
• His death led to the creation of 'Red' Bavaria or the Bavarian Soviet Republic which was declared 6th April 1919
• It was led by communist Eugene Levine
• Right-wing supporters were rounded up and executed
• In May 1919 30,000 army and Friekorps went into Bavaria and crushed the Soviet state
• Friekorps executed Levine as one of 800 communists

Rosa Luxembourg (Red Rosa):

• Communist revolutionary Had a humane and optimistic view of communism which contrasted with Bolshevik Russia
• Founded Spartacist League in 1905, supported KPD creation 1919
• Imprisoned during WWI for anti-war views
• Involved in Spartacist Uprising January 1919, but did not think that Germany was ready for a communist revolution
• Murdered in police custody in Berlin 
• Far left could never forgive Weimar for the deaths of Luxembourg and Liebknecht

Karl Liebknecht:

• Barrister, politician for SDP in the Reichstag but expelled for anti-war views
• Participated in Spartacist Uprising, was captured and murdered

Anton Drexler:

• Founder and chairman of German Workers' Party (later Nazi party)
• Drew up, with Hitler, the party's 25 points programme
• Disliked Hitler's popularity and influence by mid 1921
• Hitler offered to resign but gained support, meaning that Drexler resigned in shame
• His resignation led Hitler to become chairman of NSDAP

Dr Wolfgang Kapp:

• Right-wing politician, helped to found German Fatherland Party 1917
• Monarchist
• Leader of the Kapp Putsch March 1920
• Died while awaiting trial 1922 
• Kapp Putsch an example of Weimar surviving a real threat

Matthias Erzberger: 

• Politician, famously anti-war
• Responsible for Reichstag 'Peace Resolution' 19th July 1917
• Kiel mutiny soldiers called for 'Erzberger,' his name being synonymous with peace
• Signed armistice that ended WWI, endorsed ToV
• Despised for his role in armistice and ToV by right-wing nationalists
• Assassinated in 1921

Walter Rathenau:

• Jewish, German nationalist, anti-socialist
• Modernised war economy and improved efficiency
• Foreign Minister of Germany in Weimar Republic
• Despised by far-right (primarily for being Jewish)
• Assassinated in 1922 

Horst Wessel:

• Young Nazi activist with links to Goebbles
• Killed in 1930, Nazis blamed communists but might not be the case
• Used as a martyr for the Nazi cause - Goebbles did propaganda speeches from his graveside

General Otto von Lossow:

• Army general with partial control of Bavaria
• Involved in Beer Hall Putsch 1923, planned to betray Hitler and take power, changed sides when it became obvious the Putsch was a failure

Gustav von Kahr:

• Conservative politician with partial control of Bavaria
• Worked with Lossow in Beer Hall Putsch 1923
• Murdered in Night of the Long Knives

Hans von Seeckt:

• Leader of the army after WWI
• Refused to prevent Kapp Putsch, 'army don't fire on army'
• Supported 'state within a state'
• Forced to resign 1926

Heinrich Bruning:

• Chancellor 1930-1932, Catholic Centre Party, last Chancellor of Weimar/of democracy
• Struggled to deal with effects of Wall Street Crash and political polarisation
• Unpopular with von Hindenburg, even when he helped him get re-elected
• Didn't want to work with Nazis
• Spoke out against Enabling Act 1933
• Fled after discovering plans for his murder on Night of the Long Knives 30th June 1934

Hermann Muller: 

• SPD politician
• Signed Treaty of Versailles 
• Chancellor 1920, 1928-1930
• Led the 'Grand Coalition' until it collapsed due to party disagreements over how to deal with unemployment

Alfred Hugenberg:

• Chairman of DNVP (German National People's Party) 1928-1933
• Media tycoon and wealthy businessman
• Joined with Hitler against the Young plan
• Used Hitler to get into mainstream politics by giving him use of his media empire
• Eventually lost all power and much of his wealth

Gregor and Otto Strasser:

• Involved with the socialist aspect of the Nazi party from very early on
• Gregor seen as a rival to Hitler, he is expelled from the party and murdered on Night of the Long Knives
• Otto attempts to split the Nazi party but fails and leaves the party

Gustav Stresemann: 

• Nationalist, formed and became the leader of DVP 1919-1929
• Chancellor 1923, just for 100 days - helped to solve hyperinflation through Retenmark
• Foreign Minister 1923-1929 - responsible for Dawes & Young plans, Locarno & Kellogg-Briand pacts and Germany's entry to the LoN
• Awarded Nobel Peace Prize 1926
• Died in 1929

Kurt von Schleicher:

• Chancellor 1932-1933
• Preferred to have power behind the scenes
• Worked with Papen as his quasi-puppet but then betrayed him to become Chancellor - Papen retaliated by getting Hitler into power
• Example, with Papen, of corrupt politics, corrupt democracy - with democracy in this state Hitler was something that must be tolerated
• Assassinated on the Night of the Long Knives

Franz von Papen:

• Chancellor 1932, ousted by Schleicher
• Failed to get Nazi support, persuaded Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor and him as Vice-Chancellor
• Spoke out against Nazis, imprisoned on Night of the Long Knives

Julius Streicher:

• Anti-semitic Nazi propagandist
• Close friend of Hitler, fell from grace for going to far, even in Nazi terms

Paul Joseph Goebbles:

• Nazi Minister of Propaganda 1933-1945, very popular
• Initially socialist, from Berlin and with the Strasser brothers
• Closest to Hitler at the end, became Chancellor for a view hours after Hitler's suicide until his own suicide

Hermann Goring:

• Very close to Hitler, deputy leader of party for years, gave Nazi party a veneer of respectability from his middle-class/military background
• Reich Minister for Aviation, in charge of Four Year Plan, poor leader
• Fell from grace for laziness, stealing art, sex scandals

Claus von Stauffenburg:

• Army colonel, thought the war was lost from D-day
• Plotted to assassinate Hitler in 'July Plot,' left before plot failed, executed

Heinrich Himmler: 

• Chief of police 1936-1945, leader of ** - his loyalty to Hitler was so important for the progression of nazism 
• Controlled concentration camps, supported eugenics and Aryan race purity, seen as an architect for 'Final Solution'
• Tried to negotiate peace without Hitler's permission, stripped of all titles

Marinus van der Lubbe:

• Communist, blamed for starting the Reichstag fire
• Event played a key role in Hitler's rise to power

Leni Riefenstahl:

• Nazi propagandist film-maker - made 'Triumph of the Will'
• Rumoured to have had an affair with Hitler

Joseph Mengele (Angel of death):

• Doctor at Auschwitz and Chief Medical Officer at Birkenau - decided which inmates would work and which would be killed
• Famously conducted human experiments

Joachim von Ribbentrop:

• Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs 1938-1945 - visited England and came back with a hatred of the English upper-classes
• Flattered Hitler, always presented himself as radical and aggressive
• Influence waned throughout WWI

Hjalmar Schacht:

• Reich Minister for Economics 1934-1937, economist - seen as architect of German recovery post Wall Street Crash
• Became close to the Nazis but was in contact with the resistance
• Arrested after 'July Plot' an imprisoned although he was innocent

Martin Bormann:

• Hitler's Chief of Staff - very important for those wanting to get close to Hitler
• Huge bureaucratic power, became close to Hitler throughout WW2
• Advocated harsh anti-semitic measures

Rudolf Hess:

• Deputy Fuhrer 1933-1941, early member of Nazi party, lost influence
• Flew to Scotland in 1941 to negotiate peace, imprisoned ever since

Reinhard Heydrich:

• Head of the Gestapo, crucial in Night of Long Knives and Kristallnacht
• Chaired the Wannsee Conference - instrumental in Final Solution
• Died from wounds caused by an assassination attempt

Fritz Todt:

• Reich Minister for Armaments and Ammunition 1940-1942
• Tried unsuccessfully to make the war economy more efficient - but mobilisation was very poor

Albert Speer:

• Todt's successor and did a far better job with the war economy and mobilisation
• Accepted war was lost pre-1945 and tried to limit Hitler's 'scorched earth' policy