Another trigger factor was the collapse of Germany’s allies between September and November 1918. The 3 nations: Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria all surrendered to the Allies after fierce fighting on the Eastern Front. This led to Germany having to fight on two fronts so men and resources were very scarce. The arrival of the USA in 1918 was another factor which was to prove costly for the Kaiser.
August 8th proved to be one of the final blows to Germany as the Allies smashed through their lines by the River Somme covered in a blanket of deep fog. There was said to be around 600 allied tanks and a further 10,000 troops which dealt this blow.
Events like these lead to the collapse of morale in the Germany army and the German people as they finally learnt that the war, which was said to be short and victorious was turning out to be everything but that. This collapse of morale was blamed at the Kaiser and is therefore seen as one of the main triggers of his abdication.
Despite the war being fought outside of Germany, there were many repercussions back home. The Anglo-French Naval Blockade resulted in vital imports of food and fuel being cut off. Germany also suffered other embargos. This resulted in meat consumption falling to 12% of 1913 levels and Germans using acorns, burnt bread and sawdust to make coffee. In the winter of 1917 – things went from bad to worse as turnips were the only named food available. All of these incidents resulted in the malnutrition and hypothermia of thousand of German people: 121,000 in 1916 and 293,000 in 1918. Those who survived were hit and effectively ‘finished off’ by the great Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919 which killed thousands daily. These factors were not trigger events but they did leave the German people extremely distressed and added to the disillusionment of the Kaiser.
Another long term factor was the economic pressures which were caused from the war. At the start of the war, the Germans had one of the strongest economy’s in the world if not the strongest. But as time went on, money was spent on resources for the war and the collapse of Germany’s allies meant that they were fighting on two fronts. Even they could not cope with this strain.
Germany’s economy depended on high employment levels and conscription meant that they lost a lot of their workforce. This resulted in the introduction of female labour but this only partially resolved the problem. The starvation that I described earlier on was a direct problem of this shortage of manpower as Germany suffered major agricultural losses and the decrease in consumer goods availability.
To counter-act this problem, the German industry started to print money and loan it to finance the war but this had the opposite effect as it led to a massive national debt and rising inflation. This kind of situation was mirrored later on in Germany in the 1920’s where German banks printed off money which was almost worthless. This situation was not as extreme as the one in the 1920’s but it still led to growing unrest amongst the German people.
The war also brought out the divisions in Social classes in Germany. The rich did not endure any pain or suffering from the weakening Germany economy but the middle and lower class certainly did. This led to resentment from the middle and lower classes. They were infuriated that they should suffer events like ‘The Turnip Winter’ whilst the rich enjoyed extravagances like luxury Baltic spas. Once again, the German people placed there blame upon the Kaiser as it was he who was responsible for this division in their eyes.
Many people in the lower class were extremely annoyed with the social divisions and they had seen situations like that of the revolution in Russia. They had seen the overthrow of the Czar and creation of the ‘workers state’ by the Bolsheviks. This inspired the radical Germans but the majority of the working class did not want a Communist state despite the fact that they hated the social divisions they were enduring at the time. This was why the revolution in 1918 failed as many Germans did not support it.
In October 1918, The German High Command privately revealed that victory was impossible but Woodrow Wilson would still not deal with a military dictatorship and would therefore not negotiate with the Kaiser. This led to the creation of a Parliamentary Monarchy by the new Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden. This was effectively the rejection of the Kaiser and instead of the Kaiser holding powers – it was now the Reichstag who held the greater powers including the control of the Army. The war seemed to be coming to an end but the Reichstag had been campaigning for over a year after the passing of the ‘Peace Resolution’ in `1917.
The Kaiser however had been merely a figure head in the last two years of his reign. The real leaders were the generals – people like Ludendorf and Hindenburg. They controlled food and fuel supplies and labour in Germany. They also controlled the loans that Germany made during the war and the strategies that Germany army implemented.
These generals were very ruthless and overconfident of a German victory and so they blocked any peace talks from the Allies and ignored the ‘Peace Resolution passed by the Reichstag in 1917. One example of this ruthlessness was the mutiny in Kiel which many historians believed was the ‘final nail in the closet’ for the Kaiser and German war efforts.
This started off as a mission headed by Naval Supreme Commander Scheer and a few of his close allies. Their plan was to launch a major attack against the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet in an attempt to restore the lustre of the tarnished German Navy. Their mission however needed verification from the new Chancellor - Prince Max Von Baden. Scheer realised that this mission would be vetoed so he decided to not inform Von Baden of his plans. However, word of the mission got to Kiel and Wilmershaven, both key naval ports for the German Navy. The sailors at these ports were determined not to embark upon a ‘suicide mission’ and requested unauthorised leave. This resulted in the abandonment of the mission but this was not the end of naval unrest in Germany. Workers began to mutiny against their generals and this resulted in Kiel base commander Prince Heinrich of Prussia fleeing under cover of disguise. The workers demanded peace and reform in Germany and this mutiny was repeated with revolts in Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck in the space of a week.
It was obvious that the war was over and a group of parliamentary socialists led by Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the onset of revolution on 9 November. This was an action which finally sealed the fate of both the Kaiser and the war's closure.
Kaiser Wilhelm II finally surrendered the throne and fled to neutral Holland and two days later – the war had finally ended. But several years later on, German people ironically were still longing for a figure like the Kaiser to rescue them from social and economic disaster. The years of 1933 and more officially 1934 saw this longing stop.
