The Collapsing Empire
       World War I, 1918; Germany was losing. The United States had entered the war in 1917 and what had been a standoff on the western front had become a killing field. Germany had been ill-prepared for the war in the first place and by was by in 1918, ready to collapse. The German high command had lied to the German people, Germany was not winning the war.

To Make Matters Worse ... The Influenza Pandemic
       The first wave of influenza appeared early in the spring of 1918 in Fort Riley Kansas (USA). By the end of the summer the virus had reached the German Army, possibly by coming to trenches with American soldiers. The virus created serious problems for the German military leadership. They found it impossible to replace their sick and dying soldiers. The infection had reached Germany civilian population and over 400,000 civilians died of the disease by the end 1918.

Mutiny at Kiel
       Food supplies in Germany had fallen to starvation levels; Germany was exhausted. The German fleet was blockaded in Kiel by the British navy. Even food could not be imported. The Kaiser’s Imperial Navy was ordered to set out on a suicide mission and attack the British fleet. Instead, the German sailors mutinied at Kiel Naval Base on 28 October. Soon after, the port cities along the Baltic Sea and North Sea were falling into the hands of sailors’ and workers’ councils in the fallout from the naval mutiny.
       This mutiny lead to the soon to fail German Revolution.

The Changing of the Guard
       Emperor Wilhelm II appointed Maximilian, Prince of Baden, as Reich Chancellor and also as the President of the Prussian State Ministry on 3 Oct 1918. On 23 October, President Wilson insists that the United States and the Allies not negotiate an armistice with the existing military dictatorship of Germany. Maximilian von Baden signed the cease-fire memorandum and insisted on dismissal of Army Chief of Staff General Erich Ludendorff. On the 26th, General Ludendorff resigns his command, immediately before formal dismissal, to permit the desperate German government to comply with Wilson’s demand. Hindenburg retains his post as German Field Commander.
       As the last attempt to save the monarchy, Maximilian announced the abdication of Wilhelm II both as Emperor and King of Prussia on 9 Nov 1918, even though the Emperor did not authorize this proclamation. The same day, Maximilian transferred the office of Reich Chancellor to the leader of Social Democratic Party (“Majority Socialists,”), Friedrich Ebert.
       German Emperor Wilhelm II fled the country with his family. He lived in Holland for the remainder of his life.
       On 11 November 1918, the Armistice was signed near Compiègne France effectively ending the War. Neither Hindenburg nor Ludendorff were there to sign the Armistice. That chore fell to Matthias Erzberger. He signed the Armistice with the consent of the new German government.

The German Revolution
       Starting with the mutiny at Kiel, a short lived but brutal so called revolution occured in Germany. The Spartacists (Communists), inspired by the successes of the Bolsheviks (Communists) in Russia, attempted to take control and the ultra-conservative Germans stood firmly in their way. (The Spartacus League was founded by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and developed as breakaway from the more moderate Social Democratic Party.) The unstable post World War I political and economic climate was seen by the Communists as opportunity to kindle an international proletarian revolution.
       Ebert had to leave the capital Berlin and move to the safer city during the revolution.
       Between 5 and 12 January 1919, there was a general strike and Spartacist uprising in Berlin. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were executed in Berlin on 15 January.

The Accidental Republic
       Friedrich Ebert intended to save the imperial system from revolution. He believed that the way to accomplish this would be to transform the Germany government into a constitutional monarchy.
       On 9 November, Ebert had just left the governmental headquarters in the Reichstag building. Out side the building was the “Liebknecht rally.” Ebert’s friend and fellow Majority Socialist, Philipp Scheidemann, found it necessary to address the crowd.
       “ ... The old and rotten, the monarchy has collapsed. The new may live. Long live the German Republic!”   (Full Text)
       So was born the Weimar Republic -- many say, by accident.
       Then on 6 February 1919, the National Constituent Assembly which had convened in Weimar Thüringen (Thuringia) and on 10 February implemented an emergency constitution. The revolutionary period was effectively over, but not all the troubles that were to follow. Later, on 11 August, a permanent Weimar Constitution was addopted.

Playing a Bad Hand
       Versailles Peace Treaty was signed 28 June 1919. The treaty, with its harsh peace terms that were imposed on Germany, played an important part as the cause of World War II.
       The treaty imposed on Germany the burden of the reparations payments. Also imposed on Germany was the restoration of Alsace and Lorraine (Elsass-Lothringen) to France; placing of the former German international colonies under League of Nations mandates; awarding most of West Prussia, including Poznan and the Polish Corridor, to Poland; establishing Danzig as a free city. The treaty also called for plebiscites, which resulted in the transfer of Eupen and Malmédy to Belgium, of North Schleswig to Denmark, and of parts of Upper Silesia to Poland. The Saar Territory was placed under French administration for fifteen years.
       The Rhineland was to be occupied by the Allies for fifteen years; the right bank of the Rhine was to be permanently demilitarized. The German army was reduced to a maximum of 100,000 soldiers, the German navy was similarly reduced. Germany was forbidden to build major weapons of aggression.
       Article 235 of the treaty called for the payment by Germany of the equivalent of 20,000,000,000 gold marks. That amount was later reduced.

The Monetary Crisis, 1922-1923
       At the beginning of the war, the Reichsbank suspended redeeming paper notes with gold. Then the state encouraged Germany’s citizens redeem their gold coin hoards for paper marks to help the cash strapped government. This came back to haunt all those who redeemed their gold for paper. The paper became worthless.
       Money, especially coinage, was in short supply. During and after the war, German state banks allowed towns, villages and municipalities to issue their own money. These local issues were called Notgeld (emergency money). More paper, less value.
       The huge debt that Germany had amassed in financing the world war lead to inflation. Germany had floated loans instead of raising taxes to pay for the war. The new republic bureaucrats conveniently blamed the French and other Allies for years of Germany’s fiscal malfeasance and went a worthless paper money printing spree.
       On 11 January 1923, French and Belgian forces seized and occupied German industrial district in the Ruhr valley because Germany could not meet it second reparations payment. The purpose of the seizure was to ensure that the coal destined for France and Belgium would actually be shipped.
       The German government had no military option so it resorted to a policy of passive resistance.
       A general strike of sorts was called by the political and economic leaders in the Ruhr. German leaders supported the Ruhr workers with cash and other aid. This passive resistance was financed by authorizing the indiscriminate printing of money. From early January to November 1923, Germany went through huge hyperinflation. In January, it took 17,972 marks to buy one American dollar, at the very end, 20 November, it took 4.2 trillion marks to buy the same dollar. At the beginning of the war, it would have taken just over 4 marks buy the US dollar. A new Mark was issued with a value of 4.2 marks to the dollar, the Rentenmark finally stabilized the economy.

       American, Charles G. Dawes, Allied Reparations Commission, with European representatives in Paris, worked out the Dawes Plan for solving the problem of collecting German reparations and fixing the amount. The German currency was stabilized by a loan of 800 million gold marks from abroad, by raising 11 billion gold marks by mortgaging the German railways, and by realizing another 5 billion gold marks as a mortgage on German industries. For his work on a program to enable Germany to restore and stabilize its economy, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925
       The Dawes Plan worked for awhile and German economy and the Weimar Republic stabilized.
       President Ebert died on 28 February 1925 and Paul von Hindenberg was soon after elected President. For Hindenberg, it was time to get move Germany forward.

Weimar’s Golden Years, or Life is a Cabaret
       “Weimar ... for better or for worse, the first truly modern society.”
       Avant garde or just plain decadent? During the Weimar Republic, there existed a Weimar culture. Embraced by many, it was despised by others, mainly the ultra right. This modernist movement was in the architecture and arts and gave the world such things such as Bauhaus architecture and the paintings of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and many others. This liberalization of the arts was not the direct political policy of the Weimar Republic, in fact, the modernist movement had started before the Republic was formed. Yet the Republic was attacked by the ultra right claiming that cultural movement was non-traditional and decadent. Since the movement and the Republic occurred concurrently, the Republic was used as the scapegoat for “cultural pollution.”
       One example is the Bauhaus School which was Germany’s most important and most avant-garde art and design school. It existed from 1919 to 1933 when in that year, the Nazi’s forced the school to close.

The Beginning of the End
       On 24 October 1929, Stock Market crashed in the United States. The crash was soon followed by the Great Depression and a world economic depression. The depression itself may not have been caused by the crash, yet it has been often named as the chief culprit. Major internal and some international fiscal mal-practices within the United State’s capitalistic system and the reactions of international bankers were the real culprits.
       By 1929, Germany had for the most part recovered economically and politically. Soon after the world economic depression brought about mass unemployment and business failure.
       Germany found itself back to the immediate post-war position of serious economic problems. Political and social tensions mounted. Then came the Stock Market crash and worldwide economies stumbled, including the recovering German economy.
       In 1929, a new commission under banker, Owen Young, was set up to reconsider reparations. Young’s report suggested that the total amount of raparations should be reduced by about three-quarters and that Germany should make annual payments on a sliding-scale up to 1988.
       In 1923 Hjalmar Schacht became Reich currency commissioner and was instrumental for bringing Germany’s inflation under control. Schacht was rewarded by being appointed president of the Reichsbank. In 1929 he headed the German delegation that negotiated the Young Plan.
       The Young Plan was accepted by all the concerned governments but it was severely criticized in Germany by ultra right-wing politicians such as Adolf Hitler and Alfred Hugenberg. Hjalmar Schacht, then President of the Reichsbank, opposed the plan and resigned from office.
       After failing to receive a majority vote in the national elections in March, Paul von Hindenberg is compelled to run again this time in a runoff election. He is reelected President on 10 April 1932. Hindenburg receives a definite majority, but Hitler received 36.8% of the vote.
       On April 13 1932, the SA (Sturm Abteilung, a.k.a, Brownshirts) and SS (Schutzstaffel) were banned after plans for a coup are discovered. Then on June 16 Hindenburg revoked the ban on the SA and the SS.
       During the months of June and July, nearly 500 intense battles took place between Nazis and Communists in Prussia alone. At least 82 people were killed and 400 injured.
       Unemployment continued to expand in Germany and again, Germany’s economy was in chaos. In July 1932, a conference of creditors at Lausanne decided to cancelled reparations. By this time Germany had paid one eighth of the sum originally demanded. Unfortunately, this action was too late to save the Weimar Republic. Adolph Hitler and his National Socialist German Worker’s Party was on the move.
       In December 1932, Kurt von Schleicher became Chancellor. He was fearful of civil war and so he attempted to build a broad-based coalition of the right and let. Franz von Papen, with the support of industrial leaders such as Hjalmar Schacht, Gustav Krupp, Alfried Krupp, Fritz Thyssen, Albert Voegler and Emile Kirdorf, persuaded President Hindenburg to appoint Adolf Hitler as Chancellor (30 January 1933).


       The Reichstag caught fire on 27 February 1933. The police found Marinus van der Lubbe on the premises. After being tortured by the Gestapo, van der Lubbe confessed to starting the Fire. In spite of van der Lubbe’s denial that he was part of a Communist conspiracy, Hermann Goering orders the arrest of several leaders of the German Communist Party (KPD). Marinus van der Lubbe was found guilty of the Reichstag Fire and was executed on 10 January 1934. The rest of the defendants were acquitted.
       On 28 February 1933, a series of emergency decrees were declared in Germany; government suspends many civil rights including freedom of press, speech, assembly, and association. The German Constitution allowed for the suspension of fundamental rights when public safety and order are threatened:
       Article 48, German Constitution of 11 August 1919: “If public safety and order in Germany are materially disturbed or endangered, the President may take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order, and, if necessary, to intervene with the help of the armed forces. To this end he may temporarily suspend, in whole or in part, the fundamental rights established in Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153.”
       During the 24 March session, the Reichstag (lower house of parliament) passed Enabling Act which gave Hitler legislation enabling him to exercise dictatorial rule for four years, leaving the Nazis free to undermine Germany’s free institutions and subordinate both state and people to the ideological demands of the new regime.
       The Bauhaus School closed 11 April 1933 by police.
       Then came the 14 July law against the “Establishment of Parties.”
       The German Cabinet has resolved the following law, which is herewith promulgated:
       ARTICLE 1. The National Socialist German Workers Party constitutes the only political party in Germany.
       ARTICLE 2. Whoever undertakes to maintain the organizational structure of another political party or to form a new political party will be punished with penal servitude up to three years or with imprisonment or with imprisonment of from six months to three years, if the deed is not subject to a greater penalty according to other regulations.
       (See: Murphy, Raymond E., et al; National Socialism. Basic Principles, Their Application by the Nazi Party’s Foreign Organization, and the Use of Germans Abroad for Nazi Aims, Washington: United States Printing Office, 1943)
       Hitler considered the SA and its leader Ernst Roehm, a potential threat to his power. On 29 June 1934, Hitler, with his SS, arrived at Wiesse. Hitler arrested Roehm and during the next 24 hours, 200 other senior SA officers were arrested. Many were shot and shortly after, Roehm was shot by two SS men. This event is known as the “Night of the Long Knives.”
       On 2 August 1934, Paul von Hindenberg died and the next day, Hitler assumed powers of both President and Chancellor.
       Hitler and the Nazis had exploited the concerns arising from the economic crises of the last fifteen years. Hitler controlled a large portion of the popular vote; through his elected representatives and by gross intimidation of other parties Hitler effectively controlled the Reichstag. By passing the Enabling Act, which allowed Hitler to rule by decree, and an emergency decree suspending civil liberties, Hitler had effectively replaced the constitution and turned the Weimar Republic into a Fascist dictatorship.