REVISION GERMANY 1918 -1925

Germany after WW1 People starving 1.8 million dead Navy mutinies Army still intact Allies offer unconditional surrender – Kaiser agrees to abdicate Spartecists and the Munich soviet New social democratic government Freikorps used to crush Spartacists

It carries on going wrong Fritz Ebert Weimar constitution 1919 Treaty of Versailles – Diktat and the stab in the back. 1920 Kapp Putsch – faced down by Ebert with the support of German workers. Freikorps disbanded 1920 Murder of Walter Ratheneau Can’t/won’t pay reparations 1923 French invade Ruhr – Ebert advises peaceful non cooperation. 1922- 1924 Hyperinflation – Middle classes suffer 1924 Munich Beer Hall Putsch - Faced down by Ebert and Stresseman

It gets better 1925-1929 Gustav Stresemann as chancellor and later foreign Minister 1925 French withdraw from the Ruhr 1924 New currency – the Rentenmark backed by land 1924 Dawes Plan – Payments suspended and then rescheduled. American loans flood in. Germany booms – industry doubles. 1928 Young Plan – loans again rescheduled over a longer time – till 1988 1925 Locarno treaty – Germany is respectable again. 1925 Stresseman get’s Nobel Peace Prize and 1926 Germany joins the League of Nations. 1927 Hindenburg becomes President – symbol of national unity. 1928 Kellogg Briand Pact

BUT Stresemann dies Wall Street Crash Great Depression US Loans recalled Businesses go under Millions unemployed

What is the response Chancellor Heinrich Brunning unable to get agreement – too many quarrelling parties. Drift to Nazis – Work Freedom Bread – 12 seats in 1928 - 107 in 1930 Communists – five year Plan in the USSR – 54 seats in 1928 - 77 seats in 1930 Moderate parties lose out