Political Instability & Extremism, 1919–1924 (AQA A Level History: Component 2: Depth study): Revision Note

Summary

• The Weimar Republic faced several significant challenges and problems between 1919 and 1924

  • There were violent attempts to overthrow the Republic from both extreme left-wing and extreme right-wing groups

• The first came in 1919 when the communist Spartacists seized control of key buildings in Berlin

  • It was violently crushed, and its leaders were killed

• The second came in 1920 and was from right-wing ex-soldiers known as the Freikorps

  • This failed after a general strike brought Germany and Berlin to a standstill

  • Its leader, Wolfgang Kapp, fled the country but was arrested upon his return

• The final attempt to seize power from the Republic came from the Nazi Party in 1923

  • It was triggered by the hyperinflation crisis and led by Adolf Hitler

  • The putsch collapsed when the Bavarian state police opened fire on the marchers, and the army did not come over to Hitler

• The Republic was vulnerable to criticism and attacks because proportional representation often led to coalition governments

  • This led to compromises and no clear direction for those in charge

The Spartacist Uprising, 1919

• The Spartacist League began as an anti-war faction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)

• Due to their opposition to the war, they helped establish the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD)

  • In December 1918, they branched away from the USPD

  • They founded the KPD (Communist Party of Germany)

  • Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht led the Spartacists

• Spartacist comes from the name Spartacus, the leader of a slave revolt in Ancient Rome

• The Spartacists started an uprising on 4th January 1919

  • This uprising was triggered by events within the Weimar government

    • Chancellor Ebert sacked Emil Eichhorn, Berlin’s police chief

    • Eichhorn was popular amongst the workers

  • Luxemburg and Liebknecht saw this as an opportunity to challenge the Weimar government

• By 6th January, Berlin was in chaos

  • Luxemburg and Liebknecht had encouraged the workers to go on a general strike

  • Over 100,000 workers protested on the streets

  • The Spartacists had taken control of the government’s newspaper and various telegraph offices across Berlin

• Chancellor Ebert did not know what to do

  • The First World War had weakened the Reichswehr 

  • There were too many protestors on the streets

• Ebert turned to another organisation to defeat the Spartacist Uprising

  • He ordered the Reichswehr to organise the Freikorps units to fight the Spartacist Uprising

  • The Freikorps held extreme right-wing opinions and hated communists

• The Spartacist Uprising ended on 13th January 1919

  • The Freikorps and Reichswehr were fighting mainly unarmed communist workers

• On 15th January, both Luxemburg and Liebknecht were brutally killed by the Freikorps

The Kapp Putsch, 1920

• The Freikorps was a dangerous organisation

  • After the army released them from military duty in November 1918, they kept their weapons

  • They held extreme right-wing beliefs

  • This did not match the government’s moderate approach to politics

• After they had repressed the communists, Ebert feared the power of the Freikorps

  • The Freikorps believed that the government had committed a ‘dolchstoss' by signing the armistice and the Treaty of Versailles

  • There were roughly 250,000 Freikorps members by March 1919

• In March 1920, Ebert planned to disband the Freikorps units in Berlin

• Fearing unemployment, 5,000 Freikorps members attempted to overthrow the government

  • They announced Wolfgang Kapp, a right-wing politician, as their leader

  • Ebert attempted to use General Seeckt, the head of the Reichswehr, to stop the Freikorps. General Seeckt saw the Freikorps as fellow soldiers and refused to attack them

• The Freikorps successfully captured Berlin

  • Forcing the Ebert government to retreat to Dresden, and then later Stuttgart

• At this point, Kapp and the Freikorps made a critical error. Kapp and Lüttwitz proclaimed a new government with Kapp as Reich Chancellor

"We are strong enough not to have to begin our rule with arrests and other violent measures. But we will strike down any revolt against the new order with ruthless determination. We will not rule according to theories, but according to the practical needs of the state and the nation as a whole.

According to the best German tradition the state must stand above all the struggles of occupational groups and parties. The state is the impartial judge in the current struggle between capital and labour. We reject every class preference, whether for the right or the left. We recognize only German citizens. Every German citizen who in this difficult hour gives to the fatherland what belongs to the fatherland can count on us.

Let each person do his duty! Today work is the most noble duty for everyone. Germany is to be a moral working community! The colours of the German Republic are black–white–red!”

An extract from a speech by Wolfgang Kapp in 1920, in which he proclaimed a new government with himself as Reich Chancellor

• The workers, with the Weimar government’s encouragement, called for a general strike

  • Berlin lost gas, electricity and water supplies

  • There was no public transportation 

• After four days, Kapp left Berlin

  • He could not govern the city without essential services

  • He and his conspirators fled to Sweden

  • By 1922, Kapp returned to Germany to stand trial for conspiracy and treason

    • He died before the trial began

The Establishment of the Nazi Party

• Anton Drexler founded the German Workers Party (DAP) in February 1919

  • Drexler was a railway mechanic from Munich

  • In September 1919, the DAP had 23 members

  • It was a right-wing party that targeted the working classes

• The Army hired Hitler to spy on political parties in Munich

  • The Weimar Republic had struggled to survive threats from extremist parties

  • As an ex-soldier, Hitler desperately needed the work

    • The majority of Germany’s armed forces had been made unemployed after the Treaty of Versailles restricted the German army to 100,000 soldiers

• Hitler attended his first meeting of the DAP on 12th September 1919

  • The ideas discussed at the meeting aligned with Hitler’s personal beliefs

  • On 19th September 1919, Hitler signed up as a member

    • This went against his government assignment

• By 1920, the DAP had changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (the NSDAP or Nazi Party)

• Hitler implemented his takeover of the NSDAP by 1921 in five ways:

1. Changing the party’s policies to the Twenty-Five Point Programme

2. Hitler’s personal appeal

3. Developing the party’s organisational structure

4. Forcing a change of leadership and choosing members for key positions

5. Creating the NSDAP’s private army, the SA (Sturmabteilung)

• When Hitler became responsible for the DAP’s propaganda, he realised the party needed an official document stating its policies

  • The DAP already spoke on key issues such as:

    • The removal of Weimar politicians who had signed the Treaty of Versailles

    • The rewriting of the Weimar Constitution and restrictions on democracy

    • The blaming of the Jewish people for all of Germany’s issues

• In January 1920, Hitler and Drexler wrote the Twenty-Five Point Programme, which formalised the aims of the DAP

  • This laid out the party's anti-democracy, anti-capitalist, anti-semitic and ultra-nationalist beliefs

The Munich Putsch, 1923 (Beer Hall Putsch)

• The hyperinflation crisis triggered the Munich Putsch and was one of the political consequences of the invasion of the Ruhr

  • Hitler hoped and believed that Germans were so angered and humiliated by the occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian soldiers that they would join his uprising

    • It was also inspired by Mussolini's successful 'March on Rome' which led to the Italian fascist dictator seizing power

• On 8th November 1923, Adolf Hitler attempted to seize power in Germany

Events of the Munich Putsch

• Hitler plotted with Kahr, the Bavarian State Commissioner, and Lossow, the Bavarian army commander, to take over Munich

4th November 1923

• Kahr and Lossow decided not to go ahead with the revolution

8th November 1923

• Hitler and 600 members of the Sturmabteilung (SA) stormed into a meeting of the Bavarian government

  • The meeting was being held at a beer hall called Burgerbraukeller

• Hitler jumped on a table and fired a gun

  • He then made a speech stating that he was taking over Munich and marching on Berlin

• Hitler took Kahr, Seisser and Lossow (the leaders of the Bavarian government) into a side room

  • Kahr and Lossow had previously plotted with Hitler to take over Munich

  • At gunpoint, he made the men agree to his plan

  • He made Erich Ludendorff Head of the Army

• Kahr, Seisser and Lossow asked Ludendorff if they could return home

  • Ludendorff released the men

  • They went to warn Ebert of Hitler's putsch

9th November 1923

• Hitler realised the Bavarian leaders had betrayed him

• At midday, 1,000 SA and 2,000 volunteer supporters continued the putsch

• They marched to the centre of Munich

• Göring (leader of the SA) and the SA had not taken control of the main army barracks

• Police and the army formed a barricade

  • The police opened fire on the SA and the supporters of the putsch

  • An estimated 15-16 Nazis were killed as well as four police officers

  • Göring was shot in the thigh

  • Ludendorff was arrested

11th November 1923

• Hitler was arrested

1924

• At the trials following the putsch, Ludendorff and Hitler were tried for high treason

  • Ludendorff, a war hero, was found not guilty (acquitted)

  • Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison

    • He served only nine months of this sentence

    • His speeches at the trial persuaded the judges not to deport him to Austria

"The Bavarian Ministry is removed. I propose that a Bavarian government shall be formed consisting of a Regent and a Prime Minister invested with dictatorial powers. I propose Herr von Kahr as Regent and Herr Pohner as Prime Minister. The government of the November :white_check_mark: Criminals and the Reich President are declared to be removed. I propose that, until accounts have been finally settled with the November criminals, the direction of policy in the national Government be taken over by me. Ludendorff will take over the leadership of the German National Army, Lossow will be German Reichswehr Minister, Seisser Reich Police Minister.... I want now to fulfil the vow which I made to myself five years ago when I was a blind cripple in the military hospital: to know neither rest nor peace until the November criminals had been overthrown, until on the ruins of the wretched Germany of today there should have arisen once more a Germany of power and greatness, of freedom and splendour."

An extract from the speech given by Adolf Hitler at the Burgerbraukeller, 8th November 1923.

Problems of Coalition Government

• Proportional representation meant achieving over 50% of the vote was difficult

  • Numerous moderate parties reluctantly joined together to gain a majority in the Reichstag and form governments

  • These coalition governments were slow to pass legislation and make decisions

    • Coalition partners had to agree with one another before they could command the majority needed to pass a law, which made legislation slow

  • The extreme left and extreme right parties attacked the coalition governments in the Reichstag

  • The extremists had the power to cause disruption

How stable was the Weimar Republic by 1924?

• The issue of the stability of the Weimar Republic has divided the opinions of historians

• Some argue that the Republic had weathered the storms of hyperinflation and attempts to overthrow it from the political Left and Right

  • They believe the attempts to overthrow the Republic had failed and that the economic problems were solved

• Others argue that the structural and constitutional problems of the Republic remained and that the stability was a temporary illusion

  • They believe the problems of proportional representation and weak coalition governments remained unsolved