IB History Weimar Germany Notes

The Birth of the Weimar Republic (1918-1919)

1. On 9 November 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated after military defeat and a wave of revolutionary unrest across Germany.
2. Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert became the first President. The republic was proclaimed from a window of the Reichstag by Philipp Scheidemann.
3. The new government signed the armistice on 11 November 1918, ending World War I. Many Germans blamed the republic for this surrender.
4. The myth of the "stab in the back" (Dolchstosslegende) spread rapidly, claiming politicians had betrayed the undefeated German army.
5. A National Assembly met in the city of Weimar in January 1919 to draft a new constitution, choosing Weimar because Berlin was too unstable.

The Weimar Constitution

1. The constitution established a federal republic with 17 regional states (Lander), each retaining some powers over education, police, and local government.
2. The Reichstag (parliament) was elected by all men and women over 20 using proportional representation.
3. Proportional representation meant that small parties could win seats easily, leading to coalition governments that were often fragile and short-lived.
4. The President was directly elected every 7 years and held significant powers, including appointing the Chancellor and dissolving the Reichstag.
5. Crucially, Article 48 allowed the President to rule by emergency decree, bypassing parliament. This would later be exploited to undermine democracy.
6. The Bill of Rights guaranteed freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, but these could be suspended under Article 48.

Early Crises (1919-1923)

The Treaty of Versailles (June 1919)

1. Germany was forced to accept the "war guilt clause" (Article 231), accepting sole responsibility for World War I.
2. Reparations were set at 132 billion gold marks (approximately $33 billion) in 1921, an enormous burden on the already weakened economy.
3. Germany lost 13% of its territory and 10% of its population, including Alsace-Lorraine (to France), Eupen-Malmedy (to Belgium), and the Polish Corridor.
4. The army was limited to 100,000 soldiers with no air force, no tanks, and a navy of only 6 battleships. The Rhineland was demilitarised.
5. Germans across the political spectrum viewed the treaty as a "Diktat" (dictated peace). Resentment toward the Weimar politicians who signed it fuelled the stab-in-the-back myth.

Political Violence and Uprisings (1919-1923)

1. The Spartacist Uprising (January 1919) was a communist revolution in Berlin led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.
2. Ebert used the Freikorps (right-wing paramilitary veterans) to crush the uprising. Both Luxemburg and Liebknecht were murdered.
3. The Kapp Putsch (March 1920) was a right-wing coup attempt. Wolfgang Kapp and 12,000 Freikorps soldiers seized Berlin.
4. The army refused to fire on the Freikorps. The putsch was defeated only after trade unions called a general strike that paralysed the country.
5. The Munich Beer Hall Putsch (November 1923) was led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. It failed, and Hitler was sentenced to 5 years in prison (serving only 9 months).
6. Between 1919 and 1922, there were 376 political murders in Germany, the vast majority committed by right-wing extremists.