Explain how the Treaty of Versailles created many problems for Germany in the period 1919-1923?

The Treaty of Versailles created many problems and instability in Germany between 1919-1923. Their were many economic and political problems for attempts to overthrow the new democracy and depression. On 28th June 1919 the treaty was signed by two ministers of the German government. The Treaty was forced on Germany and was seen as a ‘Diktat’ (Dictated peace.) The government made sure that the allies knew of its disapproval. It showed them that, although it had signed the treaty, it believed its conditions to be unjust.

One of the things that caused many problems for Germany was the loss of land and colonies. The Treaty took away all Germany’s colonies. These were administrated by other powers under the League of Nations control; until they were ready for independence (these were called mandates.) The loss of colonies meant that trade was lost. Germany was to lose 10 per cent of its land which was over 70,000 square kilometres of land. Many industries which were part of that lost land. There was 16 per cent of its coalfields, and half of its iron and steel industry gone! This meant people lost jobs and money and went in to other countries which caused resentment towards the government and also affected the wealth of the Germany.

The area of Rhineland was turned into a demilitarised zone with the treaty disallowing German forces within 50 kilometres of the Rhine. This meant less defence as many people were lost in the army and the army was cut down to just 100,000 people. The biggest loss of land had 45,000 square kilometres of land and 2,023,000 people were given to Poland. This was named ‘The Polish Corridor’ and it separated East Prussia from West Germany. This had an affect on the people who lived there and had a loss of prestige and pride which caused resentment towards the government.

The loss of land and colonies in Germany mainly meant losses and shortages in their forces and people did not respect the government anymore.

Another major problem for Germany was the harsh military cuts that restricted Germany’s armed forces to a level far below what they had been before the war! The German army was to be reduced to 100,000 people and the navy limited to just six battleships. Germany was not allowed to build tanks, planes, battleships or to have any submarines. Germany was also forbidden to unite with Austria and conscription was banned which meant that all soldiers had to volunteer. All this meant many people lost jobs and were left unemployed. This again caused more resentment towards the government who were highly under pressure by all the angry Germans. An area 50 kilometres wide on the east bank of the Rhine was to be demilitarised. This meant that Germany could not station troops or keep weapons in this area, even though the allies intended to station stoops there themselves for the next fifteen years. The Germans definitely felt the loss of pride and all Germans, even those who were not in German territory anymore, felt highly humiliated and hated the government. All these losses in military cuts and limited restrictions made them weaker and weaker and unable to defend themselves. Germany’s army was demoralised.

One of the clauses of the Treaty was Article 231, forced Germany to accept responsibility for the losses and damage caused by the war, but the person who could be held responsible, Kaiser Wilhelm II, had fled the country, which had the new democratic government (known as the Weimar Government.) The Germans were annoyed by this and felt they had not lost the war. Fours years of warfare had reduced the German people to poverty and humiliation and they began to get seriously annoyed with the government. The Germans felt that the Treaty had been forced onto them and this ...

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In later years Germans began to argue that they could have won the war in 1918. They said that the politicians of the new republic, who became known as ‘The November Criminals,’ had betrayed them when the armistice, was agreed to. They said they had been ‘stabbed in the back,’ and by this they meant they could have won the war if the politicians had not made peace. The reactions of the Germans after the allegations and the way they had been treated were that they were annoyed with the government and believed they had been cheated. They were happy to believe there country had been betrayed by cowards or those whom many thought might be disloyal to the country, like the Jews.

As we know the Treaty ordered the reduction of the German army. Many of the soldiers who had been demobbed joined the Free Korps. These had supported the government in defeating socialist and communist’s risings. On 13th March 1920 5,000 of the Free Korps marched into Berlin. The government had fled from the city. An extreme right-wing military nationalist called Doctor Kapp, set himself up as head of the new government. His aim was to recover the land taken from Germany by the Treaty, and to rebuild Germany’s military strength. The people in Berlin defeated Kapp and they organised a general strike. As a result of this strike Berlin came to a halt. The ‘putsch’ (Armed Uprising) instantly collapsed and Kapp abandoned his planes and fled to Sweden and the government returned to Berlin. The putsch was a sign of hatred for the Treaty and Kapp resented the treaty. This was a political problem. I think the German people did not trust Kapp and they did not want another dilemma on top of the problems they were already faced with. Many German people may have wanted their country to start re-building with the government they had now even though they had hatred for the government. The Weimar Government now hoped for a period of calm to allow the new constitution to be put in to operation.

However no sooner had Kapp fled the Treaty ordered to pay reparations, which were fixed at a huge sum of £6600 million in 1921. The Germans somehow paid the first instalment of this huge bill in 1921. In 1922it was a different story. The Germans announced that they could not afford any payments for the next three years and this put on enormous strain on German economy. The French refused to believe this and invaded the Ruhr industrial region to take what they were owed. This invasion began on 9th January 1923. The determination of the French and Belgium soldiers was showed in the statistics. About 60,000 French and Belgium soldiers took control of every mine, factory, steelworks and railway in the region to make up for the missing payments. However from here things went badly wrong. Encouraged by their government, the German workers in the Ruhr staged a general strike against the French occupation. Industrial production collapsed, and the German economy suffered. The value of the mark fell rapidly. The only way the government could raised such large sums of money was to print huge numbers of banknotes. This, however, led to an Inflation, which meant that the value of money went down as prices went up. The more the government printed, the faster the prices went up. The foreign exchange value of the mark showed just how bad the inflation was. In 1919 it was 8.9 marks to one U.S dollar; by November 1923 the exchange rate was an unbelievable 4,200,000,000 marks to one U.S dollar!

Such steep price rises caused terrible hardship for millions of people. The hardest hit, were the people who lived on fixed incomes such as a pension. This caused the people to hate the government and Germans began to feel ashamed and humiliated. They struggled to buy food and clothes and were faced with suffering starvation. Savings in banks were now worthless and people were understandingly upset by this. Some Germans gained from this as those who had debts or had taken out loans would now pay the money back with ease. However, many more Germans suffered from the Hyperinflation than those who gained from it. They laid the blame for their problems on the government. The Weimar Republic became even more unpopular and German people were frustrated. They felt they were stuck in a hole and this was all because of the signing of the treaty.

The Ruhr led to this Hyperinflation which led to a serious depression around Germany and had the worse affects on families.

On 8th November, as Kahr (leader of the Bavarians,) addressed a meeting at a Beer hall in Munich, Hitler (one of Bavaria’s best known politician) arrived with 600 storm troopers. He decided that the Nazis were strong enough to attempt a ‘putsch’ in Munich. Hitler declared a ‘revolution’ had begun. The arrival of Ludendorff (an old army general) at this point appeared to win over Kahr. Ludendorff supported Hitler and forced Kahr to support him by putting a gun to his head. Hitler wanted to hold a putsch in 1923 as Hyperinflation had caused a depression and he thought he would get support. He also wanted to put an end to ‘passive resistance’ and people disheartened the government.

Hitler was called out to sort out a disturbance so he left but Kahr managed to escape. Kahr informed the army and police of Hitler’s attempts for this putsch. As the Nazi’s marched to the city centre, their route was blocked by armed police and soldiers.

Firing broke out and 16 Nazi’s and 3 policemen were killed. Hitler and Ludendorff were arrested. The putsch failed largely because Hitler over-estimated his support, and the army and police stayed loyal to the government. Hitler also had no national party organisation and had no support over Bavaria. The Munich Beer Hall Putsch happened due to the hatred of the treaty and Hyperinflation. This putsch again caused political problems due to the signing of the treaty.

All these problems were caused by the terms of the treaty however, Germany were also faced with other problems.

The spartacists tried to seize power on 5th January 1919. They occupied public buildings, organised a general strike and formed a revolutionary committee. Groups roamed around the streets, firing guns and putting up red flags (the symbol of communism.) But the spartacists were doomed to failure. The day before they began their rising, Ebert had created a volunteer force of 4,000 soldiers known as the Free Korps. On 10th January the Free Korps attacked. They captured a newspaper building held by the spartacists, shot several of them and beat the rest. The next day they captured all other occupied buildings in central Berlin. Two days later they caught the Spartacist leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and murdered them. Therefore the rising failed. This event was to be of vital importance. The communists never forgot the spartacists uprising, and throughout the history of the republic, they saw the social democrats as their deadliest enemies.

The new Weimar constitution which was published in August 1919 has several weaknesses. The president had the power to appoint and dismiss the chancellor. If he thought there was an emergency, he could use Article 48 to suspend democracy as he could act as a dictator. Because of proportional representation, no party ever had an overall majority in the Reichstag. This meant that all governments were coalitions, which has to be put together from several parties. This often led to weak governments that could not agree on policies. Proportional representation also encouraged the growth of extremist parties such as the communists and National socialists.

Any hopes that the newly elected government would be accepted by all Germans were quickly ended. In March 1919 the communists organised riots and strikes in Berlin. Again the destructible Free Korps destroyed this opposition. The Weimar Republic was again threatened by the setting up of a Socialists Republic in Bavaria in November 1918 On 7th April 1919 it was made a Soviet Republic like Russia with Munich as its capital. Food, money and houses were taken from the rich and given to the workers. The people who lost food, money and houses were left on the streets and already showed hatred to the new government within months! The Weimar government had established its control of Germany by defending opposition with the help of Free Korps.

All these problems were caused by the treaty and here on in Germany would be faced with more problems as I explained. The German people were already beginning to show frustration within months and this would surely increase in the years ahead.

My conclusion is that all the political and economic problems were caused by the treaty. The people of Germany hated the treaty and government who signed it. The people of Germany did not want to go into this treaty however the government signed it. The people of Germany paid the consequences for their own government’s mistakes and these problems led to the depression later on in Germany and the treaty led too all the problems and instability in Germany.

By Harvey Bhachoo