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The Weimar Republic
War and Revolution in
Germany
• German Generals knew they were
losing
– Asked Kaiser for peace
• Was all done in secret
• Soldiers stationed in Kiel mutinied
– Suicidal attack
War and Revolution in
Germany
• Formed a democracy
– Thought Allies more
sympathetic
– Asked Social
Democrats to form a
republic
– Friedrich Ebert was
the party leader
– All done in secret
War and Revolution in
Germany
• Kaiser fled to
Netherlands- Nov. 9th
• Paul Von Hindenburg,
commander of German
forces, and others who
signed treaty called the
“November Criminals”
– Generals didn’t set
record straight
• New government called
Weimar Republic
• Imposition of the enemy
Spartacus Uprising
• 1919- Spartacus Uprising
– By communists
– General strike and occupy public buildings
– Led by Karl Libeknecht and Rosa
Luxemburg
– Ebert uses the Free Corps to put it down
• Ex-army soldiers who hated communists and
loved violence
Setting Up Weimar Government
August 1914
• Reichstag- German parliament
• President- chose among candidates
• Members of Reichstag- choose a party
and party chooses members
– Called proportional voting
• Majority Party in Reichstag chooses
Chancellor, or Prime Minister
Setting Up Weimar
Government
• Whenever there was controversy, could
call for new election
– 14 years- 20 different elections
Germany’s Constitution
Kaiser Wilhelm II
(hereditary monarch)
appoints
Government
Chancellor
Ministers
Calls/dismisses
controls
Reichstag
(elected)
which can stop laws proposed by the
government, but can’t make laws
Electors
Men over 25 can vote
The Army
The Weimar Constitution of 1919
Bill of Rights
promises all Germans equality
before the law and political and
religious freedom
Electors
All men and women over the
age of 20 can vote
elect
safeguards
Reichstag
Freidrich Ebert
(elected)
(elected President)
from which is selected
The Army
Government
Chancellors and Ministers
must have a majority in the Reichstag and do
as the Reichstag says
Weimar Constitution
• 56 articles that spelled out rights
– Freedom press, speech, religion
– Gave women right to vote and hold office
– Many laws discriminated against gays and
Gypsies (Roma and Sinti)
– Article 48- allowed the President to
suspend the Reichstag in times of national
emergency
Weimar Constitution
• 109- All Germans equal in front of the
law
• 111- All Germans enjoy the freedom to
move and settle anywhere
• 118- Every German can express
opinion freely in word, writing, print or
image
The Weimar Government
• Jan. 1919- almost every eligible voter
voted for parties that supported the
republic.
– They won less than half in every other
election
1920 Berlin Kapp Putsch
• First major attempt to overthrow Weimar
Republic
– Putsch- uprising
• Led by Wolfgang Kapp and General Walther
Luttwitz
• President Ebert- fled the town and called on
supporters to strike and bring transportation
and commerce to a standstill.
– Military refuses to fight
1920 Berlin Kapp Putsch
• Kapp and Luttwitz flee realizing they
can’t overthrow government
• Ebert returns
• Judges did not impose harsh
punishments on plotters
• Lack of military support
• Showed that the new government was
weak
1920: Founding of the Nazi Party
• National Socialist German Workers
Party
1920: Jazz in Germany
• Jazz is symbol of American culture
– Paul Whiteman “The King of Jazz”
– Rhapsody in Blue
• Nazi’s viewed it as a symbol of moral
degeneration which embodied the
Negro who created it and the Jew who
promoted it.
Jungenbund der NSDAP
March 1922
• Was the first Nazi
Youth organization
– Disbanded when
Hitler was in jail in
1923
• 1926 younger
members were
officially named the
Hitler Youth
(Jugend)
1922: Walter Rathenau Assassinated
• Allocated resources
in WWI
– Negotiated armistice
– Was the foreign
minister
– Was also a Jew
Reich Foreign Minister Walther
Rathenau in his car, in which
he was fatally wounded by a
gunman on June 24, 1922.
1923 France Invades the Ruhr
• Germany is not paying reparations so
France and Belgium invades the Ruhr
– Workers told workers to carry out passive
resistance and refuse to work
– In 8 months shot 132 Germans, including a
7 yr. old boy
– Expelled 150,000 from region
1923 France Invades the Ruhr
• To meet economic crisis, Germany
prints unbacked currency
• World leaders lose confidence and pull
money out of Germany
• Leads to massive hyperinflation
• Streseman, the new Chancellor, orders
Rohr workers back to work and calls off
strike
German Inflation
• Huge inflation after the war
• Hyperinflation
– Runaway prices
– Brought an urgency to shopping
– Workers demanded paid twice a day and
given one hour off
– Germans blamed Jews for hyperinflation
• Believed they controlled the economy
• Really hurt people on fixed incomes
Berlin Riots on Hyperinflation
Nov. 5 & 6 1923
• Mob of 30,000 people rioted in Berlin to
protest misery brought on by
hyperinflation
• Blamed their plight on Jews who
mistakenly controlled the German
economy and involved in international
conspiracy to dominate the world
economy
American Reaction
• American leaders played down the
seriousness of the situation.
– Did not want to call attention to themselves
by making it appeals on behalf of their
German Jewish brethren
Munich Beer Hall Putsch
Nov. 8, 1923
• Hitler leads a group of soldiers in a beer
hall and tries to overthrow government
• Sentenced to 5 years, serves 9 months
in Landsberg prison
• Could have been tried for treason
– Austrian citizen, not deported
• Trial gives him a forum to speak
Hitler’s Trial
• “In the case of a man whose thoughts and
feelings are as German as Hitler’s,
the court is of the opinion that the intent
and purpose of the law have no
application.”3
– What if the judges had followed the law and
deported Hitler?
– Would people have protested the decision?
– was Hitler so unknown and unimportant at the
time that his case was likely to be overlooked?
Mein Kampf
• Writes Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
• Goals of Mein Kampf
– Loyalty to Germany
– Racism, all other races inferior to Aryans
– Lebensraum- living space in Poland and
Russia
– Obedience to the Fuhrer
Quotes from Mein Kampf
• “The Jew has always been a people
with definite racialcharacteristics and
never a religion.”
• “[T]he personification of the devil as the
symbol of all evil assumes the living
shape of the Jew.”
Quotes from Mein Kampf
• “What we must fight for is to safeguard
the existenceand reproduction of our
race and our people, the sustenance of
our children and the purity of our blood,
the freedom and independence of the
fatherland, so that our people may
mature for the fulfillment of the mission
allotted it by the creator of the universe.”
1924: Dawes Plan
• Allies negotiated loans to Germany and
brought an end to hyperinflation
– Introduced a period of stability
1924-1929 The Golden Age
• Gustav Stresemann
becomes the foreign
minister
– Had been the
Chancellor in 1923
• Currency became
stable
Politics in Weimar Germany
• 1925 Stresemann restores relations with
France
– Sign Locarno Pact- agree to never change the
border between them
• 1925- Ebert dies
• Paul Von Hindenburg becomes 2nd President
– Could set record straight, but doesn’t
1926 - "Black Reichswehr"
Investigation
• Critics of the military accuse them of
funding and arming paramilitary groups,
the so called “Black Reichswehr”
• This trial made it clear that funds and
arms had gone to Anti-Republican
groups
– Even some generals were involved
Weimar Republic
• 1926- Germany joins League of Nations
• 1927- Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for
Anthropology, Human Genetics, and
Eugenics opens
– Paved way for Eugenics movement
Politics in Weimar Germany
• 1928- Kellogg-Briand-Stresemann Pact
– All nations signing it agree to settle
disagreements peacefully
• 1928 Young Plan
– Lowered reparations and U.S. would
continue loans
Election 1928
Politics in Weimar Germany
• 1929- Nazi’s Protest Opening of All
Quiet on the Western Front
1929 US Stock Market Crash
• World Depression hits
• U.S. has to call back loans
• Unemployment increases
– 978,000 in 1924
– 5,109,000 in Oct. 31, 1932
• Many Germans feel a renewed sense of
despair.
Election 1930
Politics in Weimar Germany
• 1930- Max Schmelling defeats Joe
Lewis
• 1932- Unemployment reaches 5 million
1932 Elections
• Nazi Party receives 38% of the votes
– Over 30 parties represented
1933
• Jan. 30, 1933- Hitler named last
Weimar Chancellor
• 1933 elections- Nazi’s receive 44% of
the vote, the highest percentage ever
won by their Party
– Even though they have destroyed much of
the opposition
– Social Democrats only ones to resist
.
1933
• Hitler passes the Enabling Act
– Permits government to decree laws without
parliament.
Culture in Weimar
Metropolis by Otto Dix 1928