Explain why there was so much social hardship in Germany between the years 1918-1923.
Level: GCSE Subject: History Topic: Modern World History Word count: 594
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“Explain why there was so much social hardship in Germany between the years 1918-1923.”
During the years 1918-23 there were many reasons why there was so much social hardship in Germany, but the main reason was bankruptcy; its reserves of Gold had all been spent on the war. Also Occupation of the Ruhr made things worse because it increased Germany’s debts, unemployment and the shortage of goods. All of this effected people to a great degree and led to German people becoming furious about the Government not being able to find a way out of the hardship, that the German people faced.
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Even though Germany asked for a reduction, it was rejected by France because she had to pay war debts to the USA. This deprived Germany from a lot of its income and with no Gold reserves Germany was in the worst Bankruptcy it had ever experienced. Due to the fact that Germany was unable to pay reparations, because it was bankrupt, France sent troops into the German industrial area of the Ruhr- they confiscated raw materials, manufactured goods and industrial machinery. This led to workers going on strike and the French replied by arresting those who obstructed them and bringing in their own workers, causing many German workers to become unemployed and the German economy to drastically drop. Thus the German people wanted the Weimar republic to retaliate against Frances vicious and brutal acts but unfortunately due to Germanys 100,000 soldiers, reduced under the treaty of Versailles, they were unable to do anything against 750,000 soldiers in the French army. This was another factor that increased unemployment because many soldiers were sacked from their jobs due to the reduction of the German army to 100,000 members. Although many factories and around 80% of German coal iron and steel where based there, the occupation of the Ruhr did the French little good but crippled Germany. Hence the Government needed money to pay their debts, so the government started to print more money, in 1923 the government had 300 paper mills and 2000 printing shops just to print
Exploring the Reasons Behind Public's Discontent with the Weimar Government There were a number of reasons why the German people were unhappy with the Weimar government. One of the main reasons for this was the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The result of this was that Germany has to take the war guilt, Germany had to pay reparations of 6,600 million marks to the allies in particular France, Germany lost its colonies, it lost its air force & tanks, and its soldiers were restricted to 100,000. The Ruhr was demilitarised. Also they lost their colonies and its land was cut up such as the Polish Corridor and Alsace Lorraine.
In late 1923 and early 1924 the German economy seemed to experience a mild period of economic stabilisation and "prosperity". In November, the government issued a new currency and ensured that tight restrictions were imposed. The economy was further stimulated by loans principally from the USA. However despite all this there simultaneously, was increasing numbers of unemployed persons. A well cited example of this is the coal mining industry where the introduction of more efficient machinery meant that one in four miners lost their jobs. No doubt that increased unemployment meant that the German population grew increasingly discontent with the Weimar government and this is the beginnings of the swing towards more radical political voting. Hitler knew that he had to have attractive political policies in order to attract a greater pool of voters, looking for alternative parties, and he recognized a possible solution to this was to attract the attention of the farming and rural community. The Nazi Party took this opportunity quickly and campaigned hard to win over the votes of the farmers and rural workers by promising tax reductions, cheaper electricity and a promise to rebuild the farming industry. "The peasants, the Nazis said, were of true German blood and their life was the true German life. They had shamefully been neglected by the Weimar Republic." Hitler told the people of the land that under a Nazi Government, rural people would be the most important people in Germany. The rural Germans were on the brink of bankruptcy, constituting approximately 11 Billion marks by 1932. The Nazi's promise of a return to rural prosperity was too good for them to resist. Yet this adoption of the rural Germans also proved useful in another sense because it allowed the Nazi party to use the Jewish people as a scapegoat towards the problems faced by the rural Germans.
In order for Germany to pay the debt that they owed they kept changing the value of their currency. This action caused inflation. The Bourgeoisie was suffering greatly from inflation as well. Infla...
At the end of World War One, Germany was required to pay a large sum of money to the Allies consequently resulting in the German Depression. The sum Germany had to pay was set after the Treaty of Versailles was enacted at approximately six billion, six hundred million – twenty-two billion pounds, (World War Two – Causes, Alan Hall, 2010). The large amount of reparations that Germany had to pay resulted in a depression and angered the Germans because they thought it was an excessive amount of money to pay, (World War Two – Causes) The Germans hatred of the Treaty of Versailles was of significant importance in propelling the Nazis to power. Germany could not pay their reparations and was forced into a depression, (World War II – Causes). The Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of its economic production and its available employments, (World War II – Causes). The German Depr...
The general public of Germany had never had any say in political matters; they allowed the Kaiser to make all the decisions regarding themselves and their once-prosperous country. The groups controlling Germany began to change during October and November 1918. More power began to fall into the hands of the people as they realised the blame for their involvement in the war was the Kaiser’s. People such as the armed soldiers, sailors and workers started protesting and going on strike. This was a far cry from before the war, when Germany was wealthy, proud and ambitious. So for a brief period, it seemed that a revolution would take place, with the people of Germany wanting a social and political revolution.
Ordinary German people felt that they had not actually lost the First World War and that the Weimar government had signed the treaty unnecessarily. This meant that Germany lost land, had to pay reparations and had their army restricted severely. The German people blamed the government for all of this and this is why they were known as "the November criminals". This made the government very unpopular and the people were more likely to follow extremists like the Nazis and vote for them in the elections.
This action resulted in an increase of fear amongst the public making people believe the true power of the S.A. and S.S. Further more encouraging them to 'keeping their heads down.' German workers feared losing their jobs if they did express opposition. The public were encouraged to report to the Nazis if they heard someone speak against them. This spread distrust around the community and people no longer knew who they could trust.
Richard Bessel’s article stresses the political structure of Weimar Germany as the cause of its failure. Its structure was flawed in numerous ways, all of which contributed to its inevitable failure. First of all, the problems within Germany due to the First World War were massive. This caused economic, political and social problems which first had to be dealt with by the new Weimar government. The loss of the war had left Germany with huge reparations to pay, and massive destruction to repair. In order to gain the capital needed to finance efforts to rebuild, and repay the Allies, the economy had to be brought back to its prewar levels. This was not an easy task.
The main reason was that people were discomposed that Germany had lost a war and most of the people blame for the defeat. On the other hand, during 1929-1933, the worldwide Great Depression, which impacted Germany, and there was no leader of Weimar could solve the economic problem.
After the terrible causes of World War I, Germany was stuck in the ruins. They were still trying to rebuild and recover from the war. The Treaty of Versailles, along with the Great Depression severely affected Germany. The unemployment lines increased, and food was scarce. Money was a huge hassle too, the factories were all closed and the savings were completely wiped out.
...After we consider all these points mentioned we begin to see how everything worked and connected to form one huge disaster for Germany. We start to see how all these things played a part, the reparations led to unemployment that led to no money that led to overprinting of money. How the huge consequence of the reparations led to the unsuccessful paying of it leading to the French invasion of the Ruhr which led to strikes and therefore no products to trade with. How the unstable Weimar government led to extremist parties that damaged the economy further and brought inflation to its highest. The effects were probably the worst, the starvation coupled with the disease epidemic that killed people off and the worthless tonnes of paper notes roaming around the nation. It all in all was a very bad time in Germany one that they always found it hard to recover from.
“The German government began to print money to pay its bills.” (McKay, 872). In order to make up for the massive debt and reparations connected to the Treaty of Versailles, the government started to print loads of money. The influx of money across Germany due to newly printed bills caused prices to rise. Money became rather worthless with an abundance of it, which hurt many people’s incomes.
Just military failures on the fronts, along with other problems directly affected internal politics in a great way. This horrible catastrophe also left most of the countries in huge debts, especially Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia, and many others. This led to poverty and chaos, and the people were suffering. That is why they started to revolt, but the political system was so exhausted after the war that it didn't do anything to solve this. The effects of the war sped up the changes.
Savings accounts, the result of years of hard work, were instantly wiped out. Inflation soon followed. hard for families to purchase expensive necessities with devalued money. I will be able to make it. Overnight, the middle class standard of living so many Germans families enjoyed was ruined by events outside of Germany, beyond their control.
The war left Germany with few allies with which to trade. This caused a growth in national debt, which the Treaty of Versailles worsened. To counter this the new government printed off more money causing hyperinflation, which upset people on fixed incomes. The nature of the revolution also upset people. It was fairly limited, despite the liberal constitution.