Germany after the First World War: development and restoration

As a losing country Germany after the First World War experienced a severe economic and social crisis. In the country, the monarchy was overthrown, and in its place came the republic, which received the name of Weimar. This political regime lasted until 1933, when the Nazis came to power, headed by Adolf Hitler.

The November Revolution

In the fall of 1918, Kaiser Germany was on the brink of defeat in the First World War. The country was drained of bloodshed. The society has long been ripe with discontent with the power of Wilhelm II. It resulted in the November Revolution, which began on November 4 with the uprising of sailors in the city of Kiel. More recently, there have been similar events in Russia, where the centuries-old monarchy has already collapsed. The same thing happened in Germany.

On November 9, the head of the government Maximilian Badensky announced the completion of the reign of William II, who had already lost control over what was happening in the country. The Reich Chancellor transferred his powers to the policy of Friedrich Ebert and left Berlin. The new head of government was one of the leaders of the popular in Germany Social Democratic movement and the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany). On the same day it was announced the establishment of the republic.

In fact, the conflict with the Entente stopped. On 11 November, a truce was signed in the Compiegne Forest in Picardy, which finally ended the bloodshed. Now the future of Europe was in the hands of diplomats. Negotiations and preparations for a large conference began. The result of all these actions was the Treaty of Versailles, signed in the summer of 1919. In the few months that preceded the conclusion of the agreement, after the First World War, Germany experienced a number of internal dramatic events.

Rise of Spartacists

Any revolution leads to an imperious vacuum, which attempts to occupy very different forces, and the November revolution in this sense was no exception. Two months after the fall of the monarchy and the end of the war in Berlin, an armed confrontation broke out between the forces loyal to the government and supporters of the Communist Party. The latter wanted to build a Soviet republic in their home country. The key force in this movement was the Spartacus Union and its most famous members: Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.

On January 5, 1919, the Communists organized a strike that swept the whole of Berlin. Soon it grew into an armed uprising. Germany after the First World War was a blazing cauldron, in which various currents and ideologies clashed. The uprising of Spartakists was a bright episode of this confrontation. A week later, the speech was defeated by troops, who remained loyal to the Provisional Government. On January 15, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were killed .

The Bavarian Soviet Republic

The political crisis in Germany after the First World War resulted in another major uprising of the supporters of Marxism. In April 1919, power in Bavaria belonged to the Bavarian Soviet Republic, which was opposed to the central government. The government in it was headed by the communist Evgenie Levine.

The Soviet Republic organized its own Red Army. For some time she managed to restrain the pressure of government troops, but within a few weeks she was defeated and retreated to Munich. The last hotbed of insurrection was suppressed on May 5. The events in Bavaria led to a mass hatred of leftist ideology and supporters of the next revolution. The fact that the Jews were at the head of the Soviet Republic was a wave of anti-Semitism. On these popular feelings, radical nationalists began to play, including supporters of Hitler.

The Weimar Constitution

A few days after the end of the uprising of the Spartacists, in early 1919, general elections took place, at which the Weimar Constituent Assembly was elected. It is noteworthy that it was then that German women got the right to vote for the first time. For the first time the constituent assembly met on February 6. The whole country closely watched what was happening in the small Thuringian city of Weimar.

The key task of the people's deputies was the adoption of a new constitution. Preparation of the main law of Germany was led by the left-liberal Hugo Preuss, who later became the Reichsminister of the Interior. The Constitution received a democratic basis and was very different from the Kaiser's. The document became a compromise between different political forces of the left and right.

The law established a parliamentary democracy with social and liberal rights for its citizens. The main legislative body of the Reichstag was elected for four years. He accepted the state budget and could dismiss the head of government (Reichskanzler), as well as any minister.

The restoration of Germany after the First World War could not be carried out without a well-functioning and balanced political system. Therefore, the constitution introduced a new post of head of state - the Reich Presidency. It was he who appointed the head of government and got the right to dissolve the parliament. The Reich President was elected in the general election for a seven-year term.

The first head of the new Germany was Friedrich Ebert. He held this post in 1919-1925. The Weimar Constitution, which laid the foundation of a new country, was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on July 31. The Reich President signed it on August 11. This day was declared a national holiday in Germany. The new political regime was named the Weimar Republic in honor of the city where an epochal constituent assembly passed and a constitution appeared. This democratic power existed from 1919 to 1933. The beginning was laid by the November Revolution in Germany after the First World War, and she was swept away by the Nazis.

Treaty of Versailles

Meanwhile, in the summer of 1919, diplomats from all over the world gathered in France. They met to discuss and decide what will be Germany after the First World War. The Treaty of Versailles, which was the outcome of a long negotiating process, was signed on June 28.

The main points of the document were as follows. France received from Germany disputed provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which she lost after the war with Prussia in 1870. Belgium got the border districts of Eipen and Malmedy. Poland received land in Pomerania and Poznan. Danzig became a neutral free city. The victorious powers gained control over the Baltic Memel Region. In 1923, it was transferred to the newly independent Lithuania.

In 1920, as a result of popular plebiscites, Denmark received part of Schleswig, and Poland - a piece of Upper Silesia. A small section of it was also transferred to neighboring Czechoslovakia. At the same time, as a result of the vote, Germany retained the south of East Prussia. The losing country guaranteed the independence of Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The territory of Germany after the First World War changed and in the sense that the republic lost all the Kaiser colonies in other parts of the world.

Restrictions and reparations

The left bank of the Rhine, which belonged to Germany, was subject to demilitarization. The armed forces of the country could no longer exceed the mark of 100 thousand people. Compulsory military service was abolished. Many of the ships not yet sunk were handed over to the victorious countries. Also, Germany could no longer have modern armored vehicles and combat aircraft.

Reparations from Germany after the First World War amounted to 269 billion marks, which amounted to approximately 100 thousand tons of gold. So, she had to compensate for the losses incurred by the Entente countries as a result of the four-year campaign. A special commission was set up to determine the amount required.

The economy of Germany after the First World War suffered greatly from reparations. Payments depleted the ravaged country. It was not helped even by the fact that in 1922 Soviet Russia refused reparations, exchanging them for agreement with the nationalization of German property in the newly formed USSR. For all of its existence, the Weimar Republic has not paid the agreed amount. When Hitler came to power, he completely stopped transferring money. Payment of reparations was resumed in 1953, and then again in 1990, after the reunification of the country. Finally, reparations from Germany after the First World War were paid only in 2010.

Internal conflicts

There was no peace after the end of the war in Germany. The society was embittered by its plight, it constantly spawned left and right radical forces, who were looking for traitors and perpetrators of the crisis. The economy of Germany after the First World War could not be restored because of the constant strikes of workers.

In March 1920, the Kuppov putsch took place. The attempted coup d'état nearly led to the liquidation of the Weimar Republic in just the second year of its existence. Part of the army, disbanded under the Versailles Treaty, rebelled and seized government buildings in Berlin. Society split. The legitimate authority was evacuated to Stuttgart, from where it urged people not to support the putschists and strike strikes. As a result, the conspirators were defeated, but the economic and infrastructure development of Germany after the First World War again received a serious blow.

Then in the Ruhr region, where there were many mines, there was an uprising of the workers. The troops entered the demilitarized region, which contradicted the decisions of the Versailles Treaty. In response to the violation of the agreement, the army of France entered Darmstadt, Frankfurt am Main, Hanau, Homburg, Duisburg and some other western cities.

Foreign troops once again left Germany only in the summer of 1920. However, tension in relations with the victorious countries persisted. It was caused by the financial policy of Germany after the First World War. The government did not have enough money to pay reparations. In response to downtime in payments, France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr area. Their armies remained there in 1923-1926.

Economic crisis

Germany's foreign policy after the First World War was guided by the task of finding some kind of beneficial cooperation. Guided by these considerations, in 1922 the Weimar Republic signed the Rapallo Treaty with Soviet Russia. The document provided for the initiation of diplomatic contacts between isolated rogue states. The rapprochement between Germany and the RSFSR (and later the USSR) caused discontent among the European capitalist countries that ignored the Bolsheviks, and especially France. In 1922, terrorists killed Walter Rathenau, the foreign minister who organized the signing of the treaty in Rapallo.

The external problems of Germany after the First World War faded before the internal. Because of armed actions, strikes and reparations, the country's economy has been dragging on to an abyss. The government tried to save the situation by increasing the issue of money.

The natural result of such a policy was inflation and mass impoverishment of the population. The value of the national currency (paper mark) was steadily decreasing. Inflation has developed into hyperinflation. The salary of small officials and teachers was paid by kilograms of paper money, but there was nothing to buy for these millions. The stove was heated in a currency. Poverty led to bitterness. Many historians later noted that it was the social upheavals that enabled the nationalists to take advantage of populist slogans.

In 1923, the Comintern tried to take advantage of the crisis and organized an attempt at a new revolution. She failed. The center of confrontation between the Communists and the government was Hamburg. The troops entered the city. However, the threat did not come only from the left. After the abolition of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, Munich became a stronghold of nationalists and conservatives. In November 1923, a coup took place in the city, organized by a young politician Adolf Hitler. In response to another rebellion Reich President Ebert introduced a state of emergency. Beer putsch was suppressed, and its initiators were tried. Hitler spent only 9 months in prison. Returning to freedom, he with renewed vigor began to ascend to power.

The Golden Twenties

Hyperinflation, shaking the young Weimar Republic, was thwarted by the introduction of a new currency - a rental mark. The monetary reform and the arrival of foreign investment gradually brought the country to life, even in spite of the abundance of internal conflicts.

Especially beneficially affected by funds that came from abroad in the form of American loans under the plan of Charles Dawes. In a few years, the economic development of Germany after the First World War led to the long-awaited stabilization of the situation. The period of relative prosperity in 1924-1929. Was called the "golden twenties."

Germany's foreign policy after the First World War of those years was also successful. In 1926, she joined the League of Nations and became a full member of the world community created after the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. Friendly relations with the USSR were maintained. In 1926, Soviet and German diplomats signed a new Berlin treaty on neutrality and non-aggression.

Another important diplomatic agreement was the Briand-Kellogg Pact. This treaty, signed in 1926 by key world powers (including Germany), declared the rejection of war as a political tool. Thus began the process of creating a system of European collective security.

In 1925, elections were held for a new Reich Presidency. The head of state was General Paul von Hindenburg, who also wore the title of Field Marshal. He was one of the key commanders of the Kaiser's army during the First World War, including directing actions at the front in East Prussia, where battles were fought with the army of tsarist Russia. Hindenburg's rhetoric differed markedly from the rhetoric of his predecessor, Ebert. The old military actively used populist slogans of an anti-socialist and nationalistic character. The seven-year political development of Germany after the First World War led to such ambiguous results. A few more signs of instability were observed. For example, the parliament did not have a leading party force, and the compromise coalitions were constantly on the verge of collapse. Almost for every reason, the deputies clashed with the government.

The Great Depression

In 1929, the Wall Street stock market crash occurred in the United States. Because of this, foreign loans to Germany ceased. The economic crisis, soon called the Great Depression, affected the whole world, but it was the Weimar Republic that suffered the most from it. And this is not surprising, because the country has achieved a relative, but not very stable stability. The Great Depression quickly led to the collapse of the German economy, the violation of exports, mass unemployment and many other crisis phenomena.

The new democratic Germany after the First World War, briefly, was swept away by circumstances, which it could not change. The country strongly depended on the United States, and the American crisis could not fail to inflict a fatal blow on it. However, local politicians also poured oil on the fire. The government, the parliament and the head of state were constantly in conflict and could not establish much-needed interaction.

The natural result of discontent among the population was the growth of radicals. Headed by an energetic Hitler, the NSDAP (National Socialist German Party) received more and more votes every year in different elections. In the society, arguments about a blow in the back, betrayals and Jewish conspiracy became popular. Especially acute hatred for unknown enemies was experienced by young people, who grew up after the war and did not recognize her horrors.

The coming to power of the Nazis

The popularity of the Nazi Party led its leader Adolf Hitler into a big politics. Members of the government and parliament began to consider an ambitious nationalist as a participant in internal power combinations. Democratic parties did not form a united front against all the Nazis who were gaining popularity. Many centrists sought an ally in Hitler. Others considered him a short-lived pawn. In fact, Hitler, of course, was never a controlled figure, but cleverly used every opportunity to increase his popularity, whether it was an economic crisis or a criticism of the Communists.

In March 1932, regular elections were held by the Reich Presidency. Hitler decided to participate in the election campaign. The barrier for him was his own Austrian citizenship. On the eve of the election, the Interior Minister of the province of Braunschweig appointed a policy attaché in the Berlin government. This formality allowed Hitler to obtain German citizenship. In the elections in the first and second round, he took second place, second only to Hindenburg.

Reichspresident treated the leader of the Nazi Party with caution. However, the vigilance of the elderly head of state was euthanized by his numerous advisers, who believed that Hitler was not to be feared. January 30, 1930, a popular nationalist was appointed Reichskanzlerom - head of government. Approached Hindenburg believed that they could control the dowager of fate, but they were wrong.

In fact, on January 30, 1933, the democratic Weimar Republic came to an end. Soon the laws "On Extraordinary Powers" and "On the Protection of the People and the State" were adopted, which established the dictatorship of the Third Reich. In August 1934, after the death of the aged Hindenburg, Hitler became the Führer (leader) of Germany. The NSDAP was declared the only legal party. Ignoring the recent historical lesson, after World War I Germany once again took the path of militarism. An important part of the ideology of the new state was revanchism. Defeated in the last war, the Germans began to prepare for an even more terrible bloodshed.