The Seeds of Evil: Germany 1919 - 1933.

Political Instability? 1919 - 1923

In the early years of the Republic there were many potential threats to the new Government. You need to be aware of the threats and the manner in which these were overcome. This unit offers a brief narrative of some of the more significant events and themes which dominated the political arena in this period.

The Spartacist Uprising

The Spartacist's had extreme left wing political views. This group split from the SPD (Independent Socialists) in frustration at the SPD's role within Government. The leaders of the Communist party were Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebnecht. The aims of the Spartacist's were outlined in their Manifesto:

The Spartacist Manifesto 1918

The question today is not democracy or dictatorship. The question that history has put on the agenda reads: bourgeois democracy or socialist democracy. For the dictatorship of the proletariat does not mean bombs, putsches (pushes), riots and anarchy, as the against of capitalist profits deliberately and falsely claim. Rather, it means using all instruments of political power to achieve socialism, to expropriate the capitalist class, through and in accordance with the will of the revolutionary majority of the proletariat.

On January 1st, 1919, members of the Spartacist movement rose in an attempted revolution. Initially this move was opposed by both Liebnecht and Luxemburg, the leaders of the movement. The newly formed Weimar Government reacted promptly, and brutally. The army was deployed to bring the revolution to an end, and these were aided by the Frei Corps, a paramilitary group consisting of former servicemen. Order had been restored to the streets of Berlin by the 13th of January. Both Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebnecht were killed whilst in police custody.

Source Material:

The Kapp Putsch

In March of 1920 a right wing group, led by Wolfgang Kapp rose in Berlin. This group consisted of members of the paramilitary Freikorps and had the support of many army officers.

Kapp was a right wing journalist who opposed the government on the grounds that he held it responsible for the humiliating Treaty of Versailles. This view was shared by many leading officers of the German Army, who Kapp turned to for support. Two significant officers chose to support Kapp, General Luddwitz and General Ludendorff. On 13th March, Luddwitz orchestrated an uprising in Berlin. Troops sympathetic to the uprising took control of Berlin and a Right Wing Government was proclaimed by Luddwitz.

Ebert, the president, was forced to leave Berlin. The government could not be sure of support from the army, though much of the officer corps had not joined the uprising, nor could he utilise the Freikorps as had been done with success against the Spartacist's On this occasion ebert turned to the ordinary people and called for a General Strike. This, if successful, would make it impossible for the uprising to succeed as they would not have the means to manage the people. On 17th March Kapp and Luddwitz fled Berlin, the strike having been successful in making the uprising unfeasible. However, despite the relative short period of time that Kapp had control of Berlin, the uprising did make several things clear:

The support of the army could not be taken for granted

There was not universal support for the Weimar Government

The Government had limited means of dealing with uprisings of this nature

Politicians were not necessarily safe in Berlin

Analysis of several factors is possible here. The army didn't openly support Kapp, nor did it rush to the aid of Ebert and the government. What does this mean? How could the Government ensure its survival? Why did the people of Berlin support the Government and go on Strike?

Source Material:

The Munich Putsch

As the German economy floundered and the Government struggled to cope with the turmoil, a group of Right Wing politicians in bavaria planned to take this opportunity to overthrow the Government. The Right Wing leaders of the Bavarian Government, Kahr, Seisser and Lossow, planned an uprising to commence in mid November. The Nazi Party agreed to support this uprising and Hitler arranged for his Storm Troopers to participate in the revolt. However on November 4th, the Right Wing leaders decided to postpone the revolution. This infuriated Hitler. Sensing the weakness of the Weimar Government and seeing the turmoil that the country was in he decided to stage the uprising using supporters of the nazi Party. On November 8th, 1923, a group of Nazi's occupied the Beer Hall. Here, they forced Kahr, Seisser and Lossow to support their uprising - they were holding a meeting when the Nazi's occupied the building. Members of the SA moved to occupy the Army headquarters and nazi sympathisers rampaged through parts of Munich, targeting Jewish property.

Having agreed to support the Nazi's, Kahr was released. He immediately contacted the Police and Army to inform them of the uprising. The following day, Nazi's marched on Munich. They were met by the Police and a gun battle followed. 16 Nazi supporters were killed and the uprising was easily suppressed. The Nazi leadership was arrested and put on trial for treason, leading sympathisers, including General Ludendorff, were also arrested.

The attempted uprising in Munich was not an isolated incident at this time. There had been a right wing revolt in Berlin in October and the rhineland had declared its independence from the state on October 22nd. Germany was, at the time, in a State of Emergency.

The consequences of the Munich Putsch were probably of more significance than the uprising itself. At his trial, Hitler was allowed to make long speeches explaining his reasons. This transformed him from being a little known politician into a champion of the right wing. His imprisonment, for just 9 months, allowed him time to reappraise his methodology and provided an opportunity for him to write Mein Kampf. These combined to make Hitler an obvious leader of the Right Wing opponents of the Weimar Republic.

Source Material:

Hyperinflation

Inflation is the term used to describe an increase in the cost of goods in an economy. Typically a rate of inflation will be between 2 and 6% over the course of a year. This means that if something costs £1 at the start of the year, it will cost £1.02 - £1.06 a year later. In general, it is accepted that relatively low levels of inflation are a good thing for an economy, however high levels of inflation pose problems as companies cannot accurately forecast their results and the value of money drops disproportionately to the value of goods and / or labour. Hyper inflation is a term used to describe levels of inflation that are very high. This was the case in Germany in the period 1919 - 1923.

In January 1919 one US Dollar could buy 8.9 German marks. In January 1922 one US Dollar could purchase 191.8 German marks. What does this mean?

This means that the buying power of the German mark (Germany's currency) has dropped at an incredible rate. Something that cost one US dollar in 1919 would have cost 8.9 German marks. 3 years later it costs 191.8 German marks, but still is worth one US Dollar. This shows that the value of the German currency has dropped dramatically. Several things contributed to this devaluation of the German currency, which continued to decline in value throughout 1922 and 1923:

1. The Reparations Bill. Having to pay the Allies large sums of money had a significant impact upon the German economy. It meant that a large proportion of income had to leave the country.
2. Reaction to the Reparations Bill. In order to manage Reparations payments strict economic controls and fiscal (taxes) practices were required. It can be argued that the Government deliberately failed to put many of these things into place, in an attempt to force the Allies into rethinking the level of Reparations to be paid. The consequences of this include the following point:
3. French occupation of the Ruhr. The Ruhr valley is the Industrial heart of Germany. Whilst it was occupied by the French, the german economy could not benefit from its industrial output, thus straining the economy even further.
4. The cost of War. even without the reparations, the war had a high cost for Germany.
5. Loss of land and colonies. This led to the cost of raw materials increasing as the German economy could no longer depend upon cheap imports from her own colonies or produce the raw materials in the same quantities from German sources. The increase in the cost of raw materials was inflationary, it meant that prices would have to rise.
6. Printing more money. In order to control inflation, a Government can limit the amount of currency in circulation. At the height of the reparations repayment crisis the Weimar Government did the exact opposite, it printed MORE money.

The scale of hyperinflation can be seen in this chart which illustrates the cost of items against an index. 1 is the starting point, anything above 1 is an increase in cost relative to that first figure (so 3 would mean that items had risen in price by 300%). NB: Usually an index would start with 100, the figures here are so large that the number of 0's would simply become too onerous to type out!

Wholesale Price Index

Recommended Links on Germany 1919 - 1923

The Spartacist Uprising:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacist_uprising

A detailed, hyperlinked, account of the Spartacist Uprising with a range of links to pages about the leading individuals and related events.

http://www.kdhs.org.uk/history/as/as_unit2/sparta.htm

An excellent overview of the Spartacist Uprising and the way in which it was dealt with by the government. From King David's High School.

Hyperinflation:

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/hyperinf.htm

The History Learning Site offers a very good account of the reasons for hyperinflation and its impact on Germany. This site goes on to consider the way in which hyperinflation was brought under control and the role of Gustav Stresemann in solving the economic problems of the period.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~wausie/Rhur.html

Hyperinflation and the French invasion / occupation of the Ruhr are explained on this page. There is some interesting data available here that will help to put the scale of hyperinflation into perspective.

http://econc10.bu.edu/Ec341_money/Papers/Hubbard_paper.htm

This site looks at Hyperinflation from the perspective of an economist. This is an important angle for you to consider as it will allow you to analyse the actions of the Government in more depth and will lead to a greater awareness of the true scale and significance of several issues: the impact of Versailles, the consequences of Reparations; the impact of fiscal policy (taxation) for example.

The Kapp Putsch:

http://www.marxist.com/germany/chapter4.html

This site offers a detailed account of the events surrounding the Kapp Putsch. This site represents a socialist perspective of events, bear this in mind when reading their account as there may be sections where you will find a different perspective to that presented in other sources. Interpretations such as these can be used to illustrate your wider knowledge of the events and the manner in which they have been interpreted by different historians.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/kapp_putsch.htm

Another account from This History Learning Site. This page addresses the events of the Putsch and looks at the consequences of the events.

The Munich Putsch:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERbeer.htm

The Spartacus entry for the Munich Putsch. This online enclylopedia includes source material pertaining to the events which may beof use for you when you are searching for evidence to substantiate your own thoughts. There are many links to other major events and personalities built into the text on this page.

http://www.lordbillshistory.homestead.com/files/Munich_Putsch_-_info_sheet.htm

An overview page that details the events of the Munich Putsch.

The Treaty of Versailles

Germany 1919 - 1923

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