An Overview of Weimar Germany

 

The Early Phase

  • Defeat, the myth of the stab-in-the-back. the armistice and the Treaty of Versailles

  • October 30th, 1918 – November 9th– The Kiel Mutiny, and the German Revolution ending with the Kaiser’s abdication,

  • November 11th– The armistice,

  • Jan 5th-15th, 1919 – The Spartacist Uprising

  • January 18th– Opening of the Paris Peace Conference

  • January 19th– Elections for the Constituent or National Assembly + state elections

  • April 6th/7 to May 1st– The Bavarian Soviet Republic 

  • May 7th– Terms of the Treaty of Versailles published in Berlin and signed June 28th (but not effective until January 10th, 1920)

  • July 31st– Weimar Constitution passed and ratified on August 31st

  • March 13th-17th, 1920 – The Kapp Putsch

  • March 13thto April 6th 1920 – Uprising in the Ruhr

  • April 27, 1921 – The Allied reparation commission fixed the total to be paid by Germany 

  • February 11th, 1923 – The Invasion of the Ruhr

  • November 8th-9th– The Munich Beer Hall Putsch

 

Recovery and the Golden Years

  • A new currency

  • Two revisions of the reparation payments – The Dawes and Young Plans

  • Stresemann’s policy of fulfilment – Locarno, joining the League

  • The Golden Years but recovery based on loans

  • Dancing on a volcano

  • Weimar government still unstable

 

The Great Depression Years

  • The Hunger Chancellor

  • Presidential government

  • The clear correlation between unemployment and Nazi votes

  • Helped into power