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The Last Years of the War
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Germany – The Early Years of the Weimar Republic, 1918-23
In this course, Dr Nadine Rossol (University of Essex) explores the early years of the Weimar Republic (1918-23). In the first module, we trace events in the final years in the First World War up to the events in Kiel in late October/early November 1918. In the second and third modules, we explore the events of the German Revolution, before turning in the fourth module to the drafting of the new Weimar Constitution by the German National Assembly. In the fifth module, we think about the Treaty of Versailles, signed by representatives of the new government in June 1919, before turning to the national conservative reaction to the Weimar Republic in the period 1920-22, including the Kapp Putsch (1920) and the assassination Walther Rathenau by ultra-nationalists (1922). In the seventh module, we think about the events of 1923, including the problem of hyperinflation, the Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr Valley, and Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch, before moving on in the eighth and final module to offer some concluding remarks about the period as a whole. In short: how did Weimar manage to survive this period at all?
The Last Years of the War
In this module, we trace events in the final years of the First World War, focusing in particular on: (i) the enthusiasm with which Germany had entered the First World War in 1914, and the extent to which that enthusiasm had all but disappeared by 1918; (ii) the severe food shortages in Germany; (iii) the extent to which political power in the country had shifted to the German High Command, in particular the figures of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff; (iv) the extent to which the political establishment supported Germany's continued participation in the war; (v) the split of the SDP in December 1915; (vi) the deteriorating military situation and the attempts by German to negotiate a peace settlement; (vii) the extent to which the Kaiser was seen as an obstacle to peace by 1918; (viii) the increasing unrest in the cities by 1918; and (ix) the Kiel mutiny.
Hello.
00:00:06I'm Doctor Nadine Russell, and I work at the University of XX,
00:00:06and this lecture will look at the early years
00:00:10of the Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1923.
00:00:13We have to think about the fact that the early years of the
00:00:19Weimar Republic will often considered as years
00:00:21of political crisis and economic turmoil,
00:00:24and we will see that there's a lot of truth in that.
00:00:27But we need to remember that the
00:00:30fact that the republic survived those difficult early
00:00:32years also suggests that there's quite a bit
00:00:35of support for this new democratic state form
00:00:38and that we should not look at the Obama years
00:00:42as one of a succession of difficult situations and as
00:00:45a succession of doomed years of republic that would eventually
00:00:51fail and give rise to the Nazis coming to power.
00:00:55Because, actually that suggests we're looking
00:00:59at the via my years with the knowledge of hindsight.
00:01:02While we need to look at these years,
00:01:05even the difficult first years with the knowledge of um
00:01:07with the knowledge the people at the time period actually had
00:01:13about how they could and wanted to shape the future development,
00:01:16let's start with looking at the end of the first
00:01:22World War in Germany because we need to think about,
00:01:26um, the first World War first before we think about the Weimar Republic.
00:01:29Large sections of German society entered the war
00:01:37in August 1914 with much of enthusiasm,
00:01:40but this had considerably changed by 1918.
00:01:44The human costs of the First World War became blatantly, obviously many had loved,
00:01:49many had lost loved ones, and we also see
00:01:55considerable lack of food in German cities at the time.
00:02:01The Allied blockade,
00:02:06a failed system of distributing food stuff
00:02:08as well as the deteriorating militaristic situation,
00:02:12created a very tricky situation in Germany, not just at the front, but also, uh,
00:02:16at home at the so called home front.
00:02:23Food protests became
00:02:27obvious throughout German cities.
00:02:29Often these protests were led by women who had the difficult task of organising
00:02:32daily food for their families.
00:02:37People were hungry, desperate and tired of the war and the calls for more breath.
00:02:40We're joined by calls for bread and peace,
00:02:47and that created quite a dangerous situation because it
00:02:52combined demands for better material provision with political demands.
00:02:55We also first have to think a little bit about what the
00:03:04power the political power was in Germany throughout the war years.
00:03:06It had almost completely shifted to, um, the High Command, Um leaders of those were,
00:03:10by 1916
00:03:18Eric Ludin off and powerful Hindenburg.
00:03:20So power had shifted to the militaristic leadership in the country,
00:03:24and all of Germany's political parties had supported, um, the war as well.
00:03:29This also goes for Germany's biggest political parties,
00:03:36the Social Democrats who had supported the Kaiser's war effort.
00:03:39But by 1917, we see,
00:03:48um,
00:03:51difficulties in this political consensus.
00:03:52Some members of the Social Democrats felt that
00:03:57they couldn't support this party's decision anymore.
00:04:00And the party split into two in the independent Social Democrats,
00:04:04the much smaller section of the party that clearly rejected
00:04:09to continue the war.
00:04:14And in the majority Social Democrats who still supported the war effort.
00:04:16So in terms of the political situation,
00:04:21we find that by 1917 we have at least one
00:04:23party that openly opposes the continuation of the war.
00:04:26Despite Germany's constant war propaganda,
00:04:33militaristic situation was rather desperate by the autumn of 1918,
00:04:38and even though war propaganda tried to tell
00:04:46the German population that everything was going fine.
00:04:49The militaristic leadership knew that this was not the case,
00:04:52and nobody knew this better than the high command, um, Ladendorf and Hindenburg.
00:04:56So by autumn 1918,
00:05:04we find efforts by Germany's militaristic leadership to negotiate a
00:05:06peace treaty and to negotiate peace talks with the allies,
00:05:11and particularly with the American president Wilson.
00:05:17These to convince President Wilson that the German side
00:05:22was serious about what they wanted to do.
00:05:25Germany's militaristic leadership supported the so
00:05:27called October reforms of October 1918.
00:05:30That meant that the country was turned into a constitutional monarchy.
00:05:34It gave more power to parliament and and it
00:05:39included also the opposing political parties into a new
00:05:42government.
00:05:49These October reforms would have created, um,
00:05:50what a massive impact if there had actually been put through earlier.
00:05:55By October 1918,
00:06:00the general mood in the population had been one were
00:06:03a few political reforms didn't seem to be good enough.
00:06:09By that time, we haven't just seen food strikes.
00:06:14We also have seen mass strikes throughout the year
00:06:17of 1918 across different parts of the country,
00:06:20and the
00:06:24suggestion that it was now the Kaiser, who was standing
00:06:27in the way of
00:06:31an end to the war and peace talks with the allies,
00:06:34had had spread among the German population.
00:06:37More and more calls were there for the Kaiser to abdicate,
00:06:42but the problem was the Kaiser didn't want to go.
00:06:46Why we see political Storm eight in Berlin
00:06:50in October and late or early November 1918.
00:06:53Others took matters into their own hands,
00:07:00and now we need to shift to sailors and soldiers in the northern city of
00:07:02Kiel who started to solve the situation in their own way with a sailor's uprising.
00:07:08
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Rossol, N. (2021, March 11). Germany – The Early Years of the Weimar Republic, 1918-23 - The Last Years of the War [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/germany-the-early-years-of-the-weimar-republic-1918-23/the-german-revolution
MLA style
Rossol, N. "Germany – The Early Years of the Weimar Republic, 1918-23 – The Last Years of the War." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 11 Mar 2021, https://massolit.io/courses/germany-the-early-years-of-the-weimar-republic-1918-23/the-german-revolution