The twentieth-century world, Year 10: the Kaiser's Germany, defeat and hyperinflation (Germany 1890–1945 option)

The Kaiser (the emperor)

HintNot the voters, and not the parliament they elected.

The whyThe Reichstag was elected by adult men, and it debated and voted on laws and budgets. It could not choose or remove the government. The Chancellor answered to the Kaiser, who also commanded the armed forces.

SPD

HintIt spoke for industrial workers and wanted to reduce the Kaiser's power.

The whyThe Social Democratic Party won 110 of the 397 seats. It still could not form a government, because ministers were chosen by the Kaiser, not by the Reichstag.

Weltpolitik

HintA German compound: its first half means the globe.

The whyIt replaced Bismarck's cautious policy of keeping the peace in Europe. Germany already had fast-growing industry; Wilhelm wanted the colonies and the fleet to match.

Build a much larger battle fleet

HintAdmiral Tirpitz was the man behind them.

The whyFive laws were passed between 1898 and 1912. At home the navy was popular: it meant orders for shipyards and steelworks and gave Germans of every class something to be proud of. It was also expensive, and it alarmed Britain.

To win workers' loyalty away from the socialists

HintAsk which political movement was growing fastest in the factory towns.

The whyBismarck began the schemes in the 1880s and they were kept and extended under Wilhelm II. They did improve workers' lives, but support for the socialist SPD went on rising all the same.

Food

HintGermany had imported much of what its people ate.

The whyThe winter of 1916 to 1917 is remembered as the 'Turnip Winter', after the animal feed people ate when the potato harvest failed. Hunger at home wore down support for the war.

Kiel

HintThe home of the German fleet's main base on that sea.

The whyDays earlier, sailors at Wilhelmshaven had refused orders to put to sea for a last battle with the Royal Navy. When the unrest reached this port it turned into open mutiny, and within days workers' and soldiers' councils had taken over many German cities.

9; 11

HintThe two events were two days apart, in the second week of the month.

The whyA republic was declared in Berlin on the day the abdication was announced. So it was the new republic's politicians, not the Kaiser or his generals, who signed the armistice.

Friedrich Ebert

HintThe leader of the Social Democrats.

The whyIn February 1919 the new National Assembly, meeting in the town of Weimar, elected him the republic's first President.

The 'stab in the back' myth

HintIt blamed the politicians who signed the armistice.

The whyIn fact the army's own commanders, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, had told the Kaiser in autumn 1918 that the war was lost. The myth let nationalists call the politicians who signed the armistice the 'November criminals'.

132

HintBetween 130 and 135.

The whyThe figure was set by an Allied commission two years after the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Germans of every party thought it unpayable and unjust.

Germany had fallen behind with its reparations

HintThey came to take goods in place of money.

The whyThe Ruhr was Germany's industrial heartland, rich in coal and steel. The occupiers meant to take what they were owed directly from its mines and factories.

Passive resistance

HintThe Ruhr produced almost nothing while it lasted.

The whyIt united Germans against the occupation, but the government had to go on paying the strikers while the Ruhr produced nothing. Stresemann called it off in September 1923.

It printed more banknotes

HintThe answer made prices rise faster and faster.

The whyWith more and more paper money chasing fewer goods, the mark lost its value: hyperinflation. By November 1923 a single US dollar was worth 4.2 trillion marks.

People with savings or fixed incomes, such as pensioners

HintThink about who held money rather than property or goods.

The whyMoney saved over a lifetime would no longer buy a loaf. People with debts or mortgages gained, because they could pay them off with worthless notes. Many middle-class Germans never forgave the republic.