HIST 272 - Week 5 Study Guide
Key Terms:
Erich Ludendorff Kiel Mutiny Armistice 11/11/1918 Spartacist Uprising
Freikorps SPD Friedrich Ebert Weimar Republic
Treaty of Versailles League of Nations Stab-in-the-Back Kapp Putsch
Myth
Hyperinflation Adolf Hitler NSDAP Beer Hall Putsch
Mein Kampf Paul von World Economic SA (Stormtroopers)
Hindenburg Crisis
Study Questions:
1. What caused the outbreak of a revolution in Germany by November 1918?
a. 1918 - The final year of the war
i. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
1. Russia would drop out of the war
ii. Failure of the German Spring Offensive
iii. Surender of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire
iv. Sep 1918
1. General Ludendorff realizes the war can’t be won and they hope
for a lenient “Wilsonian Peace” (i.e. based on Wilson’s Fourteen
Points)
b. 1918 - The Home Front
i. 7 million casualties - 1 million POWs
ii. Widespread food shortages and war weariness
iii. Max von Baden became Chancellor in October and requested an armistice
iv. The German population was shocked
2. What problems was Germany facing after the end of World War I?
a. The Fall of the Empire
i. Peace movement erupts
ii. Naval commanders oder fleet on a final suicide mission
1. Mutiny breaks out and spreads nationwide
2. Worker strikes and army strikes
iii. Kaiser Wilhelm II flees to Belgium and abdicates (Nov 9, 1918)
iv. The Republic is proclaimed
b. The Armistice (Nov 11, 1918)
i. Terms: (given by the Allies)
1. Evacuate all occupied territory and leave the bank of the Rhine
2. Hand over ships and locomotives
3. Release Allied POWS
4. Annul the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
c. The political situation in 1918
, i. General paralysis, widespread strikes, and economic chaos
ii. Preparations to hold elections for a constituent assembly (Jan 19, 1919)
iii. The political spectrum (from left to right)
1. Spartacists / KPD (communist revolutionaries)
2. USPD (independent social democrats
3. SPD (social democratic party)
4. DDP (German democratic party)
5. Center Party (Catholic party)
6. DVP (German People’s Party)
7. DNVP (German National People’s Party)
3. What happened in the Spartacist Revolt in January of 1919?
a. Jan 5-12, 1919
b. Led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
c. Small revolutionary outfit (inspired by the Bolsheviks)
d. Disorganized and half-hearted attempt to seize power in Berlin
e. Brutally crushed by the Freikorps
f. Creates civil-war-like state
g. The election of January 1919
i. 4 days after the end of the Spartacist Uprising
ii. SPD wins 38% of the vote
iii. Coalition government with Center Party and DDP
iv. The national assembly convened in Weiman
v. President: Friedrich Ebert (SPD)
vi. Chancellor: P. Scheidemann (SPD)
4. In what sense was the Weimar Republic a "makeshift democracy?"
a. Makeshift democracy
i. Not much democratic experience in German history
ii. The fragile alliance of the workers’ movement and the democratic middle-
class
iii. Continued chaos and instability (e.g. strikes, attempted overthrows of
government, political violence)
iv. Opposition to the Republic from the left and the right
b. The Weimar Constitution
i. Ratified in August 1919
ii. Created a federal state with 16 Reich districts
iii. Proportional representation
iv. Right to vote for women
v. Protected fundamental right
vi. Abolish nobility
vii. Allowed for plebiscites and referendums
viii. “The world’s most perfect democracy, at least on paper”
5. What was problematic about the spectrum of political parties in the Weimar
Republic during the 1920s?
a. Hard to get a majority
b. Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution
Key Terms:
Erich Ludendorff Kiel Mutiny Armistice 11/11/1918 Spartacist Uprising
Freikorps SPD Friedrich Ebert Weimar Republic
Treaty of Versailles League of Nations Stab-in-the-Back Kapp Putsch
Myth
Hyperinflation Adolf Hitler NSDAP Beer Hall Putsch
Mein Kampf Paul von World Economic SA (Stormtroopers)
Hindenburg Crisis
Study Questions:
1. What caused the outbreak of a revolution in Germany by November 1918?
a. 1918 - The final year of the war
i. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
1. Russia would drop out of the war
ii. Failure of the German Spring Offensive
iii. Surender of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire
iv. Sep 1918
1. General Ludendorff realizes the war can’t be won and they hope
for a lenient “Wilsonian Peace” (i.e. based on Wilson’s Fourteen
Points)
b. 1918 - The Home Front
i. 7 million casualties - 1 million POWs
ii. Widespread food shortages and war weariness
iii. Max von Baden became Chancellor in October and requested an armistice
iv. The German population was shocked
2. What problems was Germany facing after the end of World War I?
a. The Fall of the Empire
i. Peace movement erupts
ii. Naval commanders oder fleet on a final suicide mission
1. Mutiny breaks out and spreads nationwide
2. Worker strikes and army strikes
iii. Kaiser Wilhelm II flees to Belgium and abdicates (Nov 9, 1918)
iv. The Republic is proclaimed
b. The Armistice (Nov 11, 1918)
i. Terms: (given by the Allies)
1. Evacuate all occupied territory and leave the bank of the Rhine
2. Hand over ships and locomotives
3. Release Allied POWS
4. Annul the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
c. The political situation in 1918
, i. General paralysis, widespread strikes, and economic chaos
ii. Preparations to hold elections for a constituent assembly (Jan 19, 1919)
iii. The political spectrum (from left to right)
1. Spartacists / KPD (communist revolutionaries)
2. USPD (independent social democrats
3. SPD (social democratic party)
4. DDP (German democratic party)
5. Center Party (Catholic party)
6. DVP (German People’s Party)
7. DNVP (German National People’s Party)
3. What happened in the Spartacist Revolt in January of 1919?
a. Jan 5-12, 1919
b. Led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
c. Small revolutionary outfit (inspired by the Bolsheviks)
d. Disorganized and half-hearted attempt to seize power in Berlin
e. Brutally crushed by the Freikorps
f. Creates civil-war-like state
g. The election of January 1919
i. 4 days after the end of the Spartacist Uprising
ii. SPD wins 38% of the vote
iii. Coalition government with Center Party and DDP
iv. The national assembly convened in Weiman
v. President: Friedrich Ebert (SPD)
vi. Chancellor: P. Scheidemann (SPD)
4. In what sense was the Weimar Republic a "makeshift democracy?"
a. Makeshift democracy
i. Not much democratic experience in German history
ii. The fragile alliance of the workers’ movement and the democratic middle-
class
iii. Continued chaos and instability (e.g. strikes, attempted overthrows of
government, political violence)
iv. Opposition to the Republic from the left and the right
b. The Weimar Constitution
i. Ratified in August 1919
ii. Created a federal state with 16 Reich districts
iii. Proportional representation
iv. Right to vote for women
v. Protected fundamental right
vi. Abolish nobility
vii. Allowed for plebiscites and referendums
viii. “The world’s most perfect democracy, at least on paper”
5. What was problematic about the spectrum of political parties in the Weimar
Republic during the 1920s?
a. Hard to get a majority
b. Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution
