Nazi Germany - 1918-39 - Weimar Germany

• 12.5% of population lost
• 13% of land lost
• 50% of iron and 15% of coal lost
• 11 colonies of Africa and Middle East taken over as mandates
• Alsace - Lorraine returned to France
• The Polish Corridor given to Poland

• £6.6 billion to be paid in reparations

• German army limited to 100 000
• Only 6 battleships
• No air force
• No submarines
• Rhineland demilitarized

• Germany forced to accept the blame for the entire war

• Germany not allowed to join the League of Nations until it proved that it was a peace - loving country

• National Income 1/3 of what it was in 1913
• Industrial production 2/3 of what it was in 1913
• 600 000 widows and 2 million children without fathers, so 1/3 of budget spent on war pensions

• Huge gap between rich and poor
• Women worked in factories during the war - seen as damaging to traditional values

• October / November revolution 1918 led to unstable democratic republic
• Many despised new leaders for signing Treaty of Versailles (Dolchloss - Stab in the Back) - known as 'November Criminals'

• 1916 - 17 - no potatoes, only turnips
• 1918 - 50% of milk and 60% of butter / meat production compared to before the war
• Naval blockade, so no food import
• 3/4 million deaths - hunger / disease

• Germans very angry and bitter about defeat - Nationalism
• (Previously undefeated army)

• Red Front Fighters (LW)
• Steel Helmets (RW)
• Sozi (MOD)
• 376 political murders 1919-22
• 10 LW assassins convicted, no RW

• LW
• Rosa Luxembourg, Karl Liebknecht
• Winter 1918-19
• Set up workers soviets throughout country
• Central Council of Commisars - 'true government'
• 100 000 demonstrated in Berlin - took over key buildings
• Chancellor couldn't defeat alone (TofV - Armaments)
• Freikorps involved - 250 000 by march 1919
• Succeeded in putting down uprisings

• RW
• Dr Wolfgang Kapp
• 1920
• 5000 marched on Berlin 
• Government fled to Dresden - urged workers to strike
• Capital ground to a halt
• Kapp fled

• Weimar relied on Freikorps and Workers Strikes
• Government killed thousands of Germans to stay in power
• Extremist parties gained strength - power of private armies

• Germany spent all of money on war
• Needed to pay £6.6 billion in reparations
• Could not pay by 1923 - bankrupt

• Germany could no longer pay reparations
• France invaded the Ruhr in 1923 (legally)
• Confiscated industrial equipment and raw materials
• 80% of iron and coal
• Government could not retaliate (TofV - Armaments)
• Urged workers to strike
• French simply arrested strikers and brought in their own workers
• Eventually left in 1925

• Due to Bankruptcy, the price of goods was increasing
• The Occupation of the Ruhr caused prices of manufactured goods to increase even further
• 1919-23 - Governement income 1/4 of required
• The Government simply printed more money
• 1923 - 300 paper mills and 2000 printing shops just to print money

Cost of loaf of bread:

1919: 1 mark

1922: 200 marks

1923: 100 000 million marks (Hyperinflation)

• 1923
• Stresemann created the Rentenmark, which stabilized the currency, encouraging foreign investors

• 1924
• Annual payments reduced to affordable level
• American banks invested 800 million marks into German industry

• Industrial output doubled 1924 - 28

• 1925
• Germany agreed to keep new borders
• Allied troops left the Rhineland
• France agreed peace
• Talks opened about German membership in League of Nations

• 1926
• Germany accepted in the League of Nations

• 1928
• Germany signed agreement with 64 other countries not to use war to achieve foreign policy aims

• 1929
• Reduced total reparations from £6.6 billion to £2 billion
• Allowed a further 59 years to pay reparations

• October 1929 - Wall Street Crash
• Falling shares meant investors lost $4000 million over one week
• German banks major investors - people rushed to take out their money
• Banks desperately needed money invested in businesses
• Businesses forced to close or reduce operations
• Industrial output fell, Unemployment rose
• 1929-32 - 40% fall in industrial production

• Middle classes lost savings
• Workers unemployed
• President proposed:

- raising taxes to pay for unemployment (RW opposed)

- reducing unemployment benefit to make more affordable (LW opposed)

• Failure of coalition, so forced to govern by decree, 66 in 1932
• President resigned 1932 - power vacuum