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Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start?    

The End to War
An Allied counter-o/ensive began on 8 August 1918, near Amiens, with hundreds of tanks attacking in short sharp jabs at
di/erent points instead of on a narrow front, forcing the Germans to withdraw their entire line. Slowly but surely, the
Germans were forced back until by the end of September, the Allies were through the Hindenburg Line. Though Germany
itself had not been yet invaded, General Ludendor/ was convinced that they would be defeated in the spring of 1919. On
2nd October 1918, Ludendor/, a leading general, said this to shocked politicians in the Reichstag (Parliament):

"We can carry on the war for a substantial further period,

we can cause the enemy heavy loss, we can lay waste his
country as we retreat, but we cannot win the war…We must
make up our mind to abandon the war as hopeless. Every
day brings the enemy nearer to his goal, and makes him less
likely to conclude a reasonable peace with us."

Ludendor/ insisted that the German government ask President Wilson for an armistice (3 October), hoping to get less
severe terms based on Wilson’s ‘Fourteen Points’. So there was the choice: to Sght on and risk total defeat in the end; or to
make peace now on reasonable terms. By asking for peace in 1918, he would save Germany from invasion and preserve the
army’s reputation. Fighting continued for another Sve weeks, but eventually an armistice was signed on 11 November 1918.
‘The enemy’ – the French, British and American allies – was prepared to make peace with Germany, but there were strings
attached.
Woodrow Wilson, President of the USA, said that Germany’s government must be made more democratic before
they could even start talking about peace. He said that Kaiser Wilhelm and the army generals must give up some of
their powers and that the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament, must have a greater share in running the country.
But the Kaiser refused to make any changes. Encouraged by Socialists and Communists, people began to talk of
overthrowing him in a revolution.
1. A mutiny, on 28 October, did take place, with the navy chiefs refusing to carry out the order for battle with the
British. Within hours, the mutiny began to spread. Workers and soldiers joined the sailors and took control of the
town of Kiel. The same thing happened in other ports nearby. Led by socialists, they set up their own workers’ and
soldiers’ councils to run the towns. The red \ags of the Socialists \ew over government buildings.
2. The mutiny in the ports quickly spread inland. It took only six days for cities all over Germany to join in. In the
province of Bavaria in the south, independent Socialists set up a republic. The same thing happened in Saxony. The
country was breaking up.
3. There was nothing that Kaiser Wilhelm could do to control his country, for the army generals refused to support him.
All he could was to abdicate. On 10 November 1918, he secretly left Germany and went by train to the Netherlands,
never to return. Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democratic Party, took his place as leader of Germany. Ebert’s
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 Srst action was to sign an armistice with the Allies, bringing an end to the Great War.
The war was over, Kaiser Wilhelm II had \ed, a revolution had begun, and the people of Germany were now free to shape
their own future. But nobody quite knew what should become of Germany now that although the Kaiser was gone, the riots
and strikes went on. Friedrich Ebert, the new socialist leader of Germany, tried to calm the situation.

1. How did Germany emerge from defeat at the end of the First World War?
How did Germany emerge from defeat at the end of the
First World War?
The Hindenburg line (German defensive line on the
Western Front) was broken through by the allied
forces in September 1918.
British were successful in a blockade of German
ports, which was a/ecting the citizens as there were
severe food shortages.
Sailers at Wilhelmshaven naval base mutinied, and
again at Kiel (after an order was given to attack the
British navy).
Groups over Germany were forming councils and
declaring for a socialist republic - similiar to what
happened in Russia in the lead up to the communist
revolution.
The e/ects of these actions were:
Many Generals saw defeat as inevitable.
Citizens began calling for peace.
German leaders were concerned at the socialist
threat and persuaded the kaiser to abdicate.  (They
knew that the allies would not negotiate a peace
with Kaiser Wilhelm in charge.  This led to his Royal Cousins Kaiser Wilhelm II, Czar Nicholas II and King
abdication on 9 November. George V.

Friedrich Ebert became the Srst German President,

after a republic was announced to the German
people.

Weimar Republic -
Problems:

1. Defeat in the First

World War – the ‘stab
in the back’ theory
2. The Treaty of
Versailles
3. Political Violence
4. Invasion of the Ruhr
5. Hyper-inBation

1.)  Weaknesses at the start:

When Germany’s new parliament met in the peaceful city of Weimar in January 1919, it seemed that the revolution was over. Germany
was now a republic, the Weimar Republic, run by a democratically elected government. However, the Weimar Republic was established
with a number of disadvantages which hampered it right from the start.
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i.         Lack of Democratic Experience
The political parties had very little experience of how to operate a democratic parliamentary system, because before 1919, the Reichstag
had not actually controlled policy: the Chancellor had the Snal authority. Under the Weimar Constitution, the Chancellor was responsible
to the Reichstag, but it usually failed to give a clear lead because the parties refused to compromise. The communists and
conservatives/nationalists did not believe in the republic anyway and refused to support the Social Democrats. Disagreements became so
bitter that almost every party organized its own private army, increasing the threat of civil war.

ii.         Proportional Representation

The parliamentary system laid down in the new Weimar constitution had weaknesses, the most serious of which was that it was
organized on a system of proportional representation so that all political groups would have a fair representation. A political party
received the same percentage of places in the parliament as they had received of the votes. For example, if a party received 15% of the
votes in the election, it would receive 15% of the places in the parliament.

For example, in 1928, the Reichstag (the lower house of parliament) contained at least eight groups of which the largest was the Social
Democrats (153), conservatives or nationalists (78), and the Catholic Centre Party (62). The communists had 54 seats, while the smallest
groups were the Bavarian People’s Party (16) and the National Socialists (12). A succession of coalition governments was inevitable, with
the Social Democrats having to rely on co-operation from left-wing liberals and Catholic Centre; no party was able to carry out its
programme.(See table below)

Such a system had disadvantages. It encouraged a lot of small parties to be formed. Unfortunately, there were so many di/erent groups
that no party could ever form an overall majority. Because there were so many parties, no single party was ever to win a majority of the
places. Most governments of the Weimar Republic, therefore, were made up of politicians from a number of parties. Some of these
coalition governments were weak and did not last long. This helped the people who were trying to replace the Weimar Republic with a
completely di/erent kind of government.

iii.         Lack of Respect for Democratic Governments

Moreover, there was a traditional lack of respect for democratic governments and a great admiration for the army and the ‘olcer class’
as the rightful leaders of Germany. In 1919, the view was widespread that the army had not been defeated: it had been betrayed –
‘stabbed in the back’ – by the democrats who had needlessly agreed to the Versailles Treaty. What most Germans did not realize was that
it was Ludendor/ who had asked for an armistice while the Kaiser was still in power. However, the ‘stab in the back’ legend was eagerly
fostered by all enemies of the republic.

iv.         Negative Association with the Versailles Peace Treaty

The Weimar Republic had accepted the humiliating and unpopular Versailles Treaty with its arms limitation, reparations and war guilt
clause, and was thus always associated with defeat and dishonour. German nationalists could never forgive it for that.

2.)  Threats to the Republic

There were many attempts to overthrow the Republic during its early years. Many Germans blamed the Republic for Germany’s losses at
the Treaty of Versailles. They also blamed it for the economic problems that the country was experiencing during these years.
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Throughout Europe, times were bad immediately after the war. Fewer goods were produced and, as a result, people lost their jobs. Many
soldiers came home to Snd that there were jobs for them. The government became the scapegoat, someone whom you blame, for all
these problems.

Threats to the Weimar Republic came both from the left wing and the right wing. The left wing wanted more power to be given to the
ordinary people and were usually very sympathetic to socialism and communism. The right wing were people who did not greatly like
democracy and wanted to return to the kind of strong government Germany had before the war.

The left wing wanted the kind of communist government that had been created in Russia after 1917. Attempts by them to overthrow the
government included an uprising in Berlin in 1919, led by a group known as the Spartacists, and an attempt to form a communist
government in Munich, a major city in southern Germany. Both were unsuccessful.

 i.         The Spartacist Uprising

The Socialists were split into groups which disagreed about Germany’s future. The
Spartacists wanted Germany to be run by the councils which the sailors and workers had
set up the previous week. The Social Democrats supported Friedrich Ebert and wanted an
elected parliament to make decisions about the country’s future.

The two groups clashed. The Spartacists held a demonstration in December but Ebert’s
government troops shot into the crowd, killing sixteen people. Ebert seemed to have the
whip hand among the Socialists.

But two days before Christmas 1918, a thousand hungry and underpaid sailors broke into
the government headquarters and held Ebert prisoner at gunpoint, demanding more
Spartacists vs. Freikorps
pay. This time Ebert’s troops did not shoot. Many joined the sailors’ revolt and so Ebert
had to give in to them.

The next sign of trouble came on New Year’s Eve. The Spartacists renamed themselves
the German Communist Party and decided to work for a communist revolution. Inspired
by the success of the Russian Revolution, led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg,
the Spartacists began their revolution a week later, on 6 January 1919. They occupied
almost every city in Germany. In Berlin, President Ebert found himself besieged in the
Chancellery.

But in the fortnight since Christmas, Ebert had gained the support of the Freikorps (or
Free Corps). These were ex-soldiers who had recently come home from the war. They
were independent volunteer regiments raised by anti-communist ex-army olcers. They
were hard men who hated communism and loved brutality, so they were only too
pleased to help Ebert Sght o/ the Spartacists. On 10 January, 2000 of them attacked the
Spartacists in Berlin. There was bitter street Sghting for the next three days. On 15
January, they arrested Luxemburg and Liebknecht. After beating and clubbing them
savagely, the Free Corps murdered them both and dumped Rosa’s body in a canal. The
government managed to defeat the communist only because it accepted the help of the
Free Corps. It was a sign of the government’s weakness that it had to depend on forces
which it did not itself control.

So the Spartacist or communist revolution had failed. Ebert was now able to hold an election for a parliament. His Social Democrats won
more seats in parliament than any other party so, for the moment, Ebert’s position was safe. The new parliament went to Weimar, a town
in southern Germany, far away from the violence in Berlin, and on 11 February 1919, elected Ebert President of the new German Republic
– the Weimar Republic.

ii.         Another communist uprising

But there was more violence to come. In March 1919, the Communists organized riots and strikes in Berlin in another attempt to seize
power. The government ordered anyone seen carrying weapons to be shot on sight. Again, it called the Free Corps to do this dirty work.
Over the next few days, the Free Corps shot over a thousand people dead; among them were thirty sailors who were doing nothing more
dangerous than collecting their wages.

iii.         Bavaria
The next threat to the Weimar Republic came from the southern province of Bavaria.
Independent Socialists in Bavaria had set up a republic in November 1918. Their leader,
Kurt Eisner took power. But in February 1919, a right-wing student shot Eisner dead in
the street. Over 100, 000 people attended his funeral and the city of Munich went into
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mourning.

With Eisner dead, the moderate Socialists and the Communists argued about which of
them should take his place. The Communists soon got their way and, in March 1919,
made Bavaria into a Soviet Republic on Russian lines. They took houses from the middle-
class of Munich and gave them to the workers. They took food, cars and clothing from the
rich. They formed a Bavarian Red Army to protect themselves.

The government in Weimar put Munich under siege. By the end of April, food was so
short in Munich that to give milk to anyone but the dying was a crime punishable by
death.

On 1 May, the siege suddenly ended. Government soldiers, aided by the Free Corps,
smashed into the starving city. No Communist was spared – man, woman and child. At
least 600 people were killed.
Memorial card. On the banner: For Freedom
and Justice. On the tombstone: His spirit lives
on

iv.         ‘Red Uprising’ in the Ruhr, 21 March 1920

The workers stayed on strike and in the Ruhr Valley, Germany’s richest industrial area, the Communist formed a Red Army, 50,000 strong.

Government troops managed to defeat the Red Army after hard Sghting but new uprisings broke up in other areas. Yet again, the Free
Corps was sent in to put them down. They shot over 2000 workers before restoring order.

2.)  Putsches and Murders, 1920-22

A putsch is an attempt to take power by force. It is used to refer to the various attempts to overthrow the Weimar Republic.

The right wing was even more of a threat to the Republic. Supporters of the right wing often had friends in high places, for example in the
law courts, government departments and the armed forces. This often explained why little or no action was taken against them. For
example, there were many politically motivated murders during this time; most of which were obviously committed by right-wingers, but
virtually none of them were punished.

The government also had to face right wing armed gangs which roamed the streets and made life unpleasant for people from other
political parties. These groups were behind the attempt by an army olcer, Kapp, to seize control of Berlin in 1920. As with left wing
‘uprisings’, this was unsuccessful. There was a further unsuccessful attempt by right-wing forces in Munich in 1923. This was staged by the
new National Socialist Party, headed by their leader Adolf Hitler.

 i.         The Kapp Putsch, 13 March 1920

The Kapp Putsch was an attempt to seize power by right-wing
elements, sparked o/ when the government tried to disband the
Free Corps. They refused to disband and declared Wolfgang Kapp
as Chancellor. The rebels who took power that day were led by
Wolfgang Kapp, an extreme nationalist who hated the government
for signing the Treaty of Versailles. His aim was to make the
German army stronger, to give Germans back their pride and, one
day, to take back the land given to Poland by the treaty.

Berlin was occupied by a Free Corps regiment and the cabinet \ed
to Dresden. The German Army (Reichswehr) took no action against
the Putsch. Kapp was supported by the Berlin police, the Free
Corps and some of the army. But he did not have the workers on
his side. They came to the aid of the Social Democrats by
organizing a general strike in support of Ebert and the The Freikorps take over Berlin
government and within a day, Berlin was paralysed. There was
water, gas or coal. No train or buses ran. Government olcials
refused to provide Kapp with money.

After just 100 hours as Germany’s new ruler, Kapp resigned, gave in and \ed to Sweden. Ebert and the government were able to return to
Berlin to regain control, as if nothing had happened. However, the government was so weak that nobody was punished except Kapp
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himself who was imprisoned, and it took months to get the Free Corps disbanded. Even then, their members remained hostile to the
republic and many later joined Hitler’s private armies.

ii.         Increasing Violence
The ‘Red Uprising’ and the general strike scared many people and
the authorities thought up tough new methods of dealing with the
Communists. Most right wingers simply talked tough. Some took
the law into their own hands and did kill their opponents. Between
1919 and 1922, there were 356 political murders in Germany,
most done by right-wing extremists.

iii.         Murder of Matthias Erberger, August 1921

Matthias Erberger, leader of the armistice delegation, was
assassinated. When the government sought strong measures
against such acts of terrorism, there was great opposition from
the right-wing parties, which sympathized with the criminals.

iv.         Murder of Walther Rathenau, 24 June 1922

Walther Rathenau, a Jew, was Germany’s Foreign Minister. On Saturday, 24 June 1922,
four members of a killer group called Organisation Consul pumped bullets into him with
an automatic pistol as he drove to work in an open top car. A hand grenade followed the
bullets to make sure the job was Snished.

One of the killers later revealed why he had done it: ‘We must make an end to the policy
of accepting the Versailles Treaty and cooperating with the west…The only course open
was to ‘eliminate’ every politician who accepted the Versailles Treaty. To eliminate in that
context, is of course, to kill…’

Rathenau had been a popular minister. The day after his killing, a million people marched
through Berlin in mourning. The killers and their accomplices were later sentenced to an Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867-24
average of four years in prison. June 1922)

Whereas the communist leaders had been brutally murdered, the courts allowed right-
wing o/ lightly and the government was unable to intervene. In fact, throughout
Germany, the legal and teaching professions and the civil service, as well as
the Reichswehr, tended to be anti-Weimar, which was a crippling handicap for the
republic.

v.         The Munich (Beer Hall) Putsch, November 1923

Another threat to the government occurred in November 1923 in Bavaria, at the time when there was much public annoyance at the
French occupation of the Ruhr and the disastrous fall in the value of the mark. Hitler, helped by General Ludenfor/, aimed to take control
of the Bavarian state government in Munich and then lead a national revolution to overthrow the government in Berlin. However, police
easily broke up Hitler’s march and the Beer Hall Putsch (the march was set out from the Munich beer hall in which Hitler had announced
his ‘national revolution’ the previous evening) Szzled out. Hitler was sentence to Sve years’ imprisonment but served only nine months
(which shows how sympathetic the Bavarian authorities were to him).

The government was shown to be incapable of keeping law and order, and respect for it dwindled. An increasing number of people began
to favour a return to strong, authoritarian government, which would maintain strict public order.

Economic Deterioration, 1919-23

The Weimar Republic was constantly plagued by economic problems which the government failed to solve permanently. In 1919,
Germany was close to bankruptcy because of the enormous expense of the war which had lasted for longer than most people had
expected.

What was the impact of the Treaty of Versailles on the Republic?

1.)  The Versailles Peace Treaty – a Dictated Peace, 1919
With the help of the Free Corps, the Weimar government had put down the communists in both Berlin and Bavaria. But it was now faced
with an even worse crisis. For the past four months, in Paris, the Allies had been working out a peace treaty with Germany. The German
people were expecting it to be a fair treaty. After all, they had done what the Allies had demanded: the Kaiser had given up his throne and
they had elected a democratic government to rule Germany in his place.
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i.         Losses
On 7 May 1919, the Allies Snalized/announced the terms of the peace treaty. Germany was to lose one-tenth of its land, all its overseas
colonies and most of its armed forces. It was blamed for starting the war and told that it must pay for the damage done in the Sghting.
The Germans were horriSed. This was not the fair peace treaty they had expected. They had been betrayed, not just by the Allies but also
by their own politicians who had signed the armistice in November. These politicians were known as ‘November Criminals’ and they had
‘stabbed Germany in the back’ by making peace with the Allies.

The German government protested angrily against the peace terms but the Allies would not change them. They ordered the Germans to
sign within Sve days, or else they would invade. After considering the situation, the government not to sign the treaty and the ministers
then signed. On the same day, the captains of the German \eet, which was being held by the British in the port of Scapa Flow, sank their
ships in protest. The German army drew up plans to defend the country against invasion. Ebert got ready to stand down as President. It
seemed that the Great War was about to start all over again.

Many Germans would have preferred to Sght again rather than sign the peace treaty being drawn up in Paris by the Allies. Field Marshall
Hindenburg gave this advice to President Ebert:

In the event of a resumption of hostilities, we can…defend our frontiers in the east. In the west, however, we can scarcely count on being
able to withstand a serious o/ensive…The success of the operation as a whole is very doubtful, but as a soldier, I cannot help feeling that
it were better to die honourably than accept a disgraceful peace.

The other senior generals took the same view. To Sght would be suicide. There was no way out but to sign the treaty. So Ebert stayed on
as President and formed a new government which was prepared to do so. With only ninety minutes to spare before the deadline for
signing ran out, they sent a message to Paris saying that Germany accepted the treaty. Two ministers traveled to the palace of Versailles,
near Paris, and on 28 June 1919, put their signatures to the document.

The Treaty of Versailles crippled Germany by taking away land, money and arms. The Germans had not been consulted about any of this,
but they were simply ordered to sign it without discussion. They called it a ‘Diktat’ – a dictated peace. Without exception, all Germans
found the treaty unjust and unacceptable because it was dictated to them.

ii.         Who was to blame?

Who was to blame for it all? At an enquiry, Field Marshall Hindenburg was called to give evidence. His explanation was simple: ‘The
German army was stabbed in the back. No blame is to be attached to the sound core of the army…It is perfectly clear on whom the blame rests.’

He did not name them but Hindenburg’s meaning was clear: the army could have won the war but it had been betrayed by the Socialist
politicians who signed the armistice in November 1918. The ‘November Criminals’ were to pay dearly for it.

 2.)  Reparations
The Treaty of Versailles stated that Germany was guilty of starting the Great War and
must therefore pay for the damage it had caused. The exact amount of these reparations
payments would be calculated by a special commission.

The Reparations Commissions soon found itself at the centre of a furious argument. A
famous British economist, John Maynard Keynes, argued that Germany did not have
enough money to pay reparations. If it were made to pay, it would ruin its economy. He
wrote: ‘Those who sign this Treaty will sign the death sentence of millions of German
men, women and children.’

Most people disagreed with Keynes, especially the French. They said that Germany had
not been as badly damaged as France and Belgium, so if Germany did not pay for
repairing the damage to them, they would remain weak while Germany grew strong.

In 1921, the Reparations commission announced how much Germany was to pay - The
sum was 132 billion gold marks – or £6 600 000 000 – to be paid in equal instalments
every year until 1987 = £6.6 thousand million in forty-two yearly instalments. The French
were disappointed, for it was only half what they wanted. The Germans were horriSed
and claimed they could not possibly pay such a huge sum.

As if all these problems were not enough, the German government found itself in a
dilcult position because of the very bad state of the German economy. Production in
mines and factories fell; more and more became unemployed. Soldiers returning home A Jack-booted German soldier puts up the
from the war were unable to Snd jobs and some ended up begging in the streets. letter P in front of the word Reparations to
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 spell Preparations, while old bill poster Treaty
Yet, the Germans did manage to pay a small Srst settlement in 1921 but at the same of Versailles is tattered and falling oS the wall.
time, they asked for a delay of two years before being made to pay the second one, until Clear message showing the link between the
reparations set by the Treaty of Versailles and
its economy recovered. The British were ready to consider this request but the French
the German preparations regarding
were not. It wanted to make sure that Germany would never attack it again, and crippling
rearmament.
Germany with massive reparations was the best way of doing it.

The Srst instalment had taken all Germany could a/ord and so, in 1922, it failed to pay
the second instalment. The French refused to believe it. They claimed that the German
government was blulng and decided to take what they were owed by force. They
invaded the Ruhr Valley, the richest industrial area. Helped by the Belgian army, they
invaded this area to take coal, iron and steel in payment for the year.

3.  Invasion of the Ruhr Valley (A direct link to the Treaty of Versailles?)

The Ruhr Valley was then the richest part of Germany. One-tenth of the
German population lived there and they produced four-Sfths of all the
country’s coal, iron and steel, as well as many other goods. To have even part
of this taken away would be a shattering blow to the country’s well-being.  In
January 1923, there were Sve French divisions and one Belgian division in the
Ruhr. They took over coal mines, railways, factories, steel works. They set up
machine-gun posts overlooking town squares. They took food and supplies
and put anyone who did not cooperate into prison.

GERMANY'S "TRIUMPH OF DESPAIR" Taken from: The

Literary Digest for February 10, 1923
Just Sve years after the end of the Great War, the old hatred between France
and Germany had \ared up into violence and economic disaster. The Paris
Peace Settlement was beginning to look very shaky. The action of the French
government in the Ruhr was a gross violation of international law and of the
Treaty of Versailles. The Germans were outraged by the invasion and the
government ordered the workers in the Ruhr not to take orders from the
French and Belgian forces nor work for them. This is known as ‘passive
resistance’ but in e/ect, the government was o/ering a general strike.

A MORAL STATE OF WAR The advance of French and
Belgian troops into the Ruhr valley is considered by the
Germans as putting their country in to "a moral state of
war with France and Belgium," which the Germans will
wage with the weapons of "sabotage and inertia".
The French responded with tough measures. When workers in the Krupp
steelworks refused to take orders, the French opened Sre, killing thirteen and
wounding many more. They also expelled people from the Ruhr when they
refused to cooperate.  Over the next eight months, they killed 132 people and
expelled an estimated 150 000 from their homes.
 One result was a campaign of hatred against the French. Restaurants stuck
up notices readings ‘Dogs and Frenchmen forbidden’. Some people formed
sabotage organizations which blew up the railway lines between France and
the Ruhr, so that the French could not get the coal out of Germany.

4.  HyperinPation: the Economic Crisis of 1923 (A direct link to the Treaty of

Versailles?)
The word ‘in\ation’ describes a situation in which prices are rising and the
value of money is falling. It is commonly said that in\ation is caused by too
much money chasing two few goods. In\ation occurs, in other words, when
the supply of goods fails to keep up with demand. In\ation is not easy to stop
once it has got started. An in\ationary spiral tends to set in. Rising prices
produce a demand for higher wages; higher wages mean that goods cost
more to produce: prices have to go up again to pay for the wage increases.

Passive resistance did the German government more harm than it did to the
French. First, the richest part of Germany was no longer producing goods, so
the rest of the country su/ered as well. Second, the people who were
expelled from their homes had to be housed and fed by the government
since it had ordered the passive resistance in the Srst place. Yet, it had no
money to do so.
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To solve these problems, the government began printing large amounts of
paper money, by this simply caused prices in the shops to rise. Germany was
soon awash with paper money. The more money the government printed, the
faster prices when up, until 1923 became a year of hyperin\ation.

The price of a loaf of bread (in marks):

A cartoon from a German magazine in 1923. The mother is

calling for bread while she and her child drown in paper
money.

It is clear from these Sgures that the German mark was already losing its value before the French invaded the Ruhr. The e/ect of the
invasion was to speed up the rate of in\ation until money lost value every day. By November 1923, workers had to be paid twice a day: if
they did not get to the shops quickly, their wages would not be enough to buy anything. By the end of the year, German money was
absolutely worthless.  The faster prices went up, the faster people spent their wages. Workers when they were given their wages, threw
bundles of banknotes out of factory windows to waiting members of their families, who would then rush to the shops to buy food or coal
before the prices went up again.  

Millions of people faced starvation as a result of hyperin\ation. This Snancial disaster had profound e/ects on German society. The
working classes were badly hit: wages failed to keep pace with in\ation and trade union funds were wiped out. People such as pensioners
who were living on Sxed incomes found that prices rose much faster than their earnings. So even if they could a/ord to buy food, they
might not be able to pay for the gas to cook it. They lived in unheated houses because they could not a/ord coal, and they froze because
they could not a/ord to buy clothes.

The well-to-do su/ered along with the poor, especially people who had savings in the bank. The middle classes and small capitalists lost
their savings: people with thousands in the bank in 1918 now found that their savings would not even buy a slice of bread or a piece of
coal. The standard of living dropped dramatically. Many began to look towards the Nazis for improvement. On the other hand,
landowners and industrialists came out of the crisis well, because they still owned material wealth – rich farming land, mines and
factories.

All this was more that Germany could bear. The German government had resisted the French but in doing so, it had ruined the country.
There was no alternative but to call o/ the strike.  Many German people su/ered as a result of this economic crisis. They were very bitter
about what was happening. In their anger, many of them blamed the government for their su/erings. This led to further support for
extreme political parties, both right wing and left wing, which were planning to overthrow the Weimar Republic. It was during this Ruhr
crisis of 1923 that Adolf Hitler staged his attempted putsch in Munich.  In the long run, these measures saved Germany from complete
collapse. But the immediate e/ect was to cause unrest in all parts of the country and to trigger o/ a putsch in Bavaria.

To what extent did the Republic recover after 1923?

As you can see the period between 1919 to 1923 was deSned by one crisis after another.  There was political, economic and social
instability.  By the end of 1923 Stresemann had managed to avert disaster in Germany.  For the next six years he was able to bring about
a time of peace and a return to normalcy for Germany.  Or so it seemed at the time.
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 What were the achievements of the Weimar period?

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