Wilhelm was a strong independent leader, he was happy giving orders and directions and that is what Germany needed. The majority of German people weren’t very aware that they had to think for themselves in that point of their lives. Many Germans who were ready for the war probably weren’t fully aware of the seriousness and the outcome of the war.
After four years, three months and fourteen days, Germany came out of the war with the largest amount of casualties: 1, 800, 000. This was one of Germany’s major shocks. Hundreds of thousands of people were left after the war without providers.
However, Germany did break through some social barriers that they were facing in before the war. During the war the percentage of women in the workforce had risen to 37%, an undeniably shocking difference. This dramatically changed traditional family life in Germany and now women faced a significant role to play in the German economy. Germany had moved on from their original look on the role of woman at home, nevertheless, the positively of this change of events was nothing in reflection to the problems that they were yet to face.
France, with 1,385,000 casualties needed revenge. The revenge was brutal and had severely changed Germany’s situation. Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles.
Germany was bankrupt. People couldn’t afford food or any other essentials. Dignity was essential to Germany, yet the Treaty took this from them.
One condition stated in the Treaty was that Germany must become a democracy. After the war Wilhelm fled to Germany due to revolts, this meant that someone else must take over. This man was Friedrich Ebert; he was Germany’s new leader. Germany eventually became so democratic that they introduced proportional representation.
The Weimar Government had betrayed Germany by signing the Treaty; they had stabbed Germany in the back. The Weimar government being a democratic government caused great controversy with extremist parties. They were keen to destroy the Weimar government.
Because Germany couldn’t pay the reparations stated in the Treaty (£6600 million), French and Belgium troops invaded the Ruhr. Germany became very short of money, so the government printed more money to pay workers and debts. This is where hyperinflation for Germany started. The more money Germany printed, the more worthless it became. People lost confidence in the German mark (currency). The price of goods rose at an incredible rate. In January, 1919, one US dollar was worth approximately 9 marks, by November it was worth nearly 200 billion marks. In four years time the German mark was worthless.
The economy had fallen apart and Germany was looking for somebody else to blame for the fact that the government couldn’t handle money due to hyperinflation.
Germany led this all back to the Treaty of Versailles. When the allies assembled at Versailles in 1919 to draw up the Treaty, it soon became clear that the Germans were not going to get what they hoped for. Clemenceau (the French President) had the biggest thirst for revenge; therefore the emphasis on the Treaty seemed to be on punishing Germany. France didn’t want any chance of a revolt from Germany. The threat to Germany was that of another war breaking out if they did not sign the Treaty, therefore they were forced to accept. They called it the shameful diktat of Versailles. The Treaty was such a big blow on Germany because of a number of reasons.
Article 231 stated that Germany was fully to blame for causing the War. As Germany was held responsible for the war, the allies could claim reparations for the damage caused. Reparations stood at £6600 million to be paid in annual instalments. The Treaty also took away 10% of Germany’s industry and 15% of its agricultural land.
The Treaty gave Germans colonies to the League of Nations, which Britain and France ran.
Of course France was keen to restrict Germany’s navy. It was restricted to 15,000 sailors, six battleships and no submarines.
The Rhineland was occupied by the allies for 15 years and no troops were allowed in that area.
Clemenceau took back Alcae-Lorraine, they lost West Prussia to Poland and Saarland was taken over by the League of Nations for 15 years. The Treaty humiliated Germany before the world. Germans across the country, including Hitler, suddenly had a passionate desire to throw off the `shackles` of the Treaty and regain its proud status.
Not only did Germany have to make huge sacrifices, but for a particular one: paying reparations, they couldn’t accept, as they couldn’t afford it and they announced that they wouldn’t be able to for three years. The allies weren’t going to take this lightly, especially Clemenceau. So in 1923, French and Belgium troops invaded the Ruhr.
The Ruhr was a crucial industrial German area, at this point; the German government didn’t want to reason or negotiate with France in any way. This was taking France’s agreement and the Treaty greatly for granted. 60,000 troops attacked the Ruhr, which was undoubtedly going to lead to trouble when German workers went on strike by the government’s preference. The strike was called the “passing resistance” and it was supposedly a non-violent solution, unfortunely, many of them were killed as a result of it from collision with the troops.
The government had promised to pay the German workers who went on strike so that family life wouldn’t be affected; however, this was another situation that amounted to hyperinflation. Germany was no longer making money from the Ruhr, and now they were producing more money for the loyal workers. The Ruhr invasion greatly damaged and ultimately destroyed Germany’s once stable and efficient industrial state. France was beginning to enforce their much prolonged revenge. WW1 may have ended five years ago, but Germany and France’s battle was yet to be finished.
Germany’s new government and political status was a mockery. What is more, revolts from left-wing Germans were not helping the Weimar Republic.
In 1919 long before the attack on the Ruhr, “Spartacist Rising” was set up by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. They didn’t believe that Ebert would improve the lives of working class people. They even attempted to turn it into a revolution. However, the revolt was badly planned, and the government were prepared for this. Many were murdered and the Spartacist Rising had died as a revolt.
But the Weimar government had not seen the end of the revolts. In 1920 groups of workers were disappointed and angry with working conditions and pay. They created a revolt known as the “Red Rising in the Ruhr”. It was led by a Communist Party and one of their attempts was to take control of raw materials. This was controlled by the “Red Army”. However, thousands of workers were killed due to weak leadership.
The Kapp Putsch (1920) was an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic in thought of the Treaty of Versailles. It was led by Wolfgang Kapp. Two significant officers chose to support Kapp, General Luddwitz and General Ludendorff. In 1920 the government ordered that the Freikorps brigades had to be disbanded. The Freikorps had overtaken Berlin and Wilhelm was forced to leave. The Freikorps put Kapp to be the new leader of Germany. There was not Universal support from the Weimar Government; the government had limited means of dealing with uprisings of this nature. Politicians were not necessarily safe in Berlin.
Ludendorff returned in a revolution in 1923. He had joined forces with Hitler, who was also, of course, very right wing. They became the Nazi Party. They created the “Munich Putsch” Hitler and the Nazi Party didn’t agree with democracy and they thought it only lead to unstable government. Like many other revolts the Putsch had not been properly planned, and so the German government forced the army to be destroyed, however, Hitler was merely sent to prison. He was sentanced to five years, but amazingly released after nine months. In that time, however, the Nazis had practially fallen apart.
The bombardment of revolts after the war clearly damaged the Weimar Government and weakend its confidence.
The defeat of Germany in the Great War shook the German people throughout the country. They were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles which added insult to injury. Germany, the once considered brave, admireable nation was now turned into a disgrace. Germany’s path to complete self-destruction intirely depended on how the country were taken into the war, which of course was practically intirely dependable on their leader. Germany fought throught their fears in World War One to extreme suffering and torture merely through ambition to regin and hold power over any consiquence. Acts like Wilhelms flee and The Treaty of Versailles showed Germanys complete lack of planning and understanding of what was ahead and the traumatic outcome of the Great War.