The twentieth-century world, Year 10: Weimar democracy and the Stresemann years (Germany 1890–1945 option)

The Spartacists (communists)

HintTheir leaders were Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.

The whyTheir leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, wanted a revolution like Russia's in 1917. The rising was crushed within days and both leaders were killed.

Freikorps

HintMany had only just come home from the trenches.

The whyThey hated communism, but most had no love for the republic either. In 1920 some of the same units marched on Berlin against the government in the Kapp Putsch.

A general strike by workers

HintThe army would not act, so ordinary Berliners did.

The whyThe rebels held Berlin and the government fled. But with no gas, water, power or transport the capital could not be run, and the putsch collapsed within a few days.

Munich

HintIt began in a beer hall.

The whyHitler and the SA burst into a beer hall meeting on 8 November. The next day police fired on their march and the putsch fell apart. Hitler was arrested and tried for treason.

That the Nazis must win power legally, through elections

HintForce had just failed him.

The whyHe was sentenced to five years in Landsberg prison and released in December 1924, after less than nine months. There he wrote 'Mein Kampf'. His trial had made him known across Germany.

proportional representation

HintThe opposite of a 'first past the post' system.

The whyNo party ever won a majority on its own, so parties had to share power, and coalitions often fell apart. In an emergency, Article 48 let the President rule by decree without the Reichstag.

Rentenmark

HintIts value was tied to land and industry, not gold.

The whyThe amount issued was strictly limited, so people trusted it. In 1924 it was replaced by a permanent currency, the Reichsmark.

The United States

HintCharles Dawes was a banker in the same country.

The whyReparations payments started low and rose over five years as the economy recovered. The French and Belgians left the Ruhr in 1925.

It cut the total and gave Germany longer to pay

HintTwo changes: one to the size of the bill, one to the timetable.

The whyIncluding interest, the new total came to about 112 billion marks, with payments to run until 1988. German nationalists, including Hitler, campaigned against it because it still accepted that Germany owed anything at all.

The League of Nations

HintGermany had been shut out of it when it was founded.

The whyMembership followed the Locarno treaties of 1925, in which Germany accepted its western borders. It showed that Germany was being treated as a great power again.

Short-term American loans, which could be called back

HintAsk where the money came from.

The whyMost of the loans were short-term, so they could be called in quickly if the lenders ran into trouble at home. Stresemann died in October 1929, the month of the Wall Street Crash.

The Bauhaus

HintIt was based first in Weimar and later in Dessau.

The whyIt stood for simple, practical design without decoration. Weimar Germany was also known for bold cinema, such as Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis', and for the Berlin cabaret. Many conservatives saw all of this as a sign of moral decline.