, Research Paper

Germany? s licking in World War One created political, economic and societal instability in the Weimar Republic and led to the rise of the National Socialist German Workers? Party ( NSDAP ) or Nazi party.

The First World War placed progressively heavy strains and forfeits on the German people. The spread between the rich and hapless widened and divisions between categories increased. It had direct consequence on the workers? populating standard as net incomes fell and nutrient deficits grew. Food was sold on the turning black market but the monetary values were high and the hapless could non afford to purchase. This led to a crisis in the metropoliss and every bit many as 700 000 died of hypothermia and famishment in the winter of 1916-17.

In order to coerce the German people to bear the adversity of the war, Chancellor of the Exchequer Bethmann Hollweg promised political reform in a address in the

Reichstag in February 1917. This promise led to political agitation and an organised work stoppage of 400 000 ammo workers in Berlin, which threatened to stultify weaponries production. However, every bit long as the military held their dominant place and the possibility of triumph remained, the chances of reform seemed distant. After the Chancellor of the Exchequer was forced to vacate in July 1917 military repression increased. There were terrible limitations on the right of assembly, stricter control of meetings to discourse grudges, a return to military service for striking workers and the forbiddance of all anti-war stuff. In September 1918 the military attempt all of a sudden collapsed. The allied powers, in peculiar President Wilson of the United States, demanded that Germany be transformed into a democracy. On November 1918 the SPD declared the stepping down of the Kaiser and the birth of the new Weimar Republic.

On 28 June 1919 the German authorities signed the Treaty of Versailles imposed on it by the winning powers. Clause 231 blamed Germany for doing the war and huge bulk of Germans rejected this. They blamed the Weimar authorities for losing the war and subscribing the hideous Treaty. Linked to this was the demand for fiscal compensation for the cost of the war paid to France and Britain. This shocked the Germans badly as it would be difficult to pay reparations since the war had weakened the state. Germany? s ground forces forces was to be reduced to 100 000 and was forbidden to bring forth? violative? arms. There was to be no air force or pigboats and the naval forces was to be reduced to six little battlewagons and six patrol cars. Possibly the hardest status to bear was the territorial losingss. Germany? s land was reduced by 13 % and all of its settlements were confiscated. Finally, because of Gallic frights of another onslaught, German district of Rhineland was to be for good demilitarised.

Political struggle besides arised within the Weimar authorities. The Worker? s Councils Congress demanded further reforms but was rejected by the SPD. The far left-wing, called the Spartacist League or the Communist Party, created an rebellion, which was crushed by the Free Corps? a group

of former ground forces officers who subsequently became active Nazis. The leaders of the Rebels, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were arrested and murdered. These factors led to a lasting split between the SPD and the USPD.

Army decreases, demanded by the Versailles Treaty, triggered the Kapp Putsch. The extremist right group known as the National Association attempted to prehend the authorities utilizing the aid of the Free Corps units. The rebellion was defeated due to a general work stoppage by the workers. The extremist right so used political blackwash as a arm to sabotage the democracy.

There was besides an economic instability in Germany during the 1920s. Inflation in Germany began with the war in 1914 and remained a policy tool of the authorities until the currency stabilisation in November 1923. Inflation allowed the authorities to pay back war debts in progressively worthless currency and full employment and economic growing at a clip when the winning powers were enduring war slack. Inflation and high involvement rates besides attracted short-run investing. Hyperinflation in Germany led to a redistribution of wealth and those whose wealth ballad in nest eggs lost everything. Meanwhile the stableness of the republic continued to be unstable against the finding of the nationalist resistance to convey it down.

Some facets of the Weimar Constitution allowed the devastation of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi party. Article 20 stated, ? Reichstag deputies were to be elected by universal, secret, direct ballot utilizing the method of relative representation? . The system of relative representation made it easier to organize new parties and hard to make and keep alliances. The SPD failed to set up a alliance between USPD to oppose the Nazis and this helped the Nazi Party to lift and derive power. Article 48 stated, ? If public order was endangered the president could suspend the cardinal rights guaranteed elsewhere in the fundamental law, and could step in if necessary with armed force? . This granted an tremendous sum of power to a individual member of the authorities? the president. Once the Nazi Party rose to power and Hitler became the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was able to enforce on the cardinal rights of the German citizens during wartime and direct the armed forces.

Social and political effects of the German licking in WW1, the humiliation of the Versailles Treaty and the political and economical instability of the Weimar Republic led to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party.

BIBLIOGRAPHYGERMANY 1918? 1945

Democracy to Dictatorship

Anne McCallum

Heinemann, 1992

A HISTORY OF GERMANY 1918? 1945

Republic to Reich

K. J. Mason

McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1996

GERMANY BETWEEN THE WARS

Hitler and the Third Reich

Tony D. Triggs

Oliver & A ; Boyd, 1990

Encyclopedia Encarta, 1997

Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999