Describe the Problems the Weimar Republic Faced in the Early 1920’s free essay sample

The treaty stated that not only did the Germans have to accept full responsibility in the war but also they would have to pay huge reparations that were thought to be around ? 6600 million pounds. As the Germans land was taken away from them a huge 12. 5% of the German population now found themselves living on the outside of the new German boarders which meant that some previously German people would now have to learn a new language depending on which country owned the land they lived in. The treaty also ordered for the German army to be reduced down to just 100,000 people which was a huge cut to what they were before. The Treaty of Versailles had a clear link to the ‘Stab in the Back’ because it was the stab in the back that the Germans felt because Ebert had decided to because he didn’t really have a choice at the time to sign the terms of the Treaty of Versailles but the German people didn’t realise this because the government had being spreading propaganda which led the Germans to believe they were winning the war so when they found out that they were being defeated they were angry at their government and thought it was a weak government for signing the Treaty of Versailles. Hyper inflation also has an important link to the Treaty of Versailles because Germany was forced to pay ? 6600 million as reparations to the treaty which then led to the Germany marks to become worthless, therefore I believe it was because of the Treaty of Versailles that then created the problem of Hyper Inflation. During the 1920’s in Germany, Hyper Inflation was a problem because Germany had to pay back so much money in reparations. This then caused the value of German Money to drop drastically and hyper inflation had few positives however the positives were that they people in Germany who were previously in debt could easily pay it off because they were earning so much money however the money was worthless. It was also a positive for business men as they could also pay off any loans they had taken out to start up their businesses. Although there are a few positives for hyper inflation they is far more negatives that out weight the positives. These were the German people who had savings were hit the hardest because all their lives they had been saving and now the money was worthless so they had lost everything. An example of the money being worthless was that just before the 1920’s in 1919, 6000 marks would of been a small fortune for the working man however by 1923, 6000 marks couldn’t even buy a stamp for a letter. Workers were also hit pretty badly because their wage increases just couldn’t keep up with the constant rising of prices in Germany. Hyper inflation and the workers that were hit because of it also links onto the invasion of the Ruhr because the workers decided that they were just going to stop working and passively resisted attending work. The workers had stopped working but the Government still had to pay the workers’ wages but they had no money to pay them with so they had to print more bank notes which then links back to hyper inflation because this was the reason why money had become worthless. Germany started to struggle keeping up with the reparations to the Allies that they had promised to pay because of The Treaty of Versailles. It was in 1922 that Germany announced that they could no longer keep up to the payments which resulted in 6000 French and Belgium troops marched into the Ruhr. These troops seized control of all the mines, factories and railways within Germany. The German government told the German workers not to co-operate with the French and Belgium troops and ordered all German workers to strike. The German workers did as the government told them and went on strike. This was a passive resistance. The government had promised that they workers who striked would still be payed for striking. This all links to the Treaty of Versailles because they told Germany they had to pay the reparations and because Germany couldn’t afford to keep up with them was the reason why France invaded the Ruhr. The invasion of the Ruhr also links to political violence because the red rising of the Ruhr was an important reason why the German workers were turning their back and going against the Government. The German people in the 1920’s believed they were ‘stabbed in the back’. The stab in the back was the theory that the German people widely believed in right-wing circles in Germany after 1918, that the German Army did not lose the First World War but was instead betrayed by the Government at the time. The German people believed they were stabbed in the back because the Kaiser told people through propaganda that they were winning the war but when it finally came out that they were being defeated the German people were becoming increasingly worried of starvation. The Germans blamed the government for this because they were lead to believe that they were winning the war. The stab in the back then links to political violence which was another huge problem. It was because of the stab in the back that caused the numbers of Freikorps to rise. The Germans thought they were winning the war even thought they had been stabbed in the back. The first party that came forward and used political violence against the current government was the Spartacist Rising in 1919. The party was led by Rosa Luxemburg and also Karl Liebknecht but their ideas were badly planned which lead to them both being murdered however they did manage to gain to support of the German workers who were protesting at the time but didn’t manage to gain to support of the other left wing groups. This party didn’t get far in their plans to take over the country as they were stopped by the Freikorps and there were not much of a threat overall. The Red Rising in the Ruhr was a party in 1920 that were lead by members of the communist party. They had support from German workers who were protesting for better working conditions in the war however this party didn’t have a clear plan and had very weak leadership meaning that again this party was a slightly larger threat than the Spartacist Party but not a huge threat overall. Another party in 1920 was the Kapp Putsch Party which was led by Freikorps units led by Wolfgang Kapp. This party had the support from the Freikorps brigades and 12,000 Freikorps soldiers. The party striked in protest at the putsch and because of the amount of support the party had, this was the party that came closest to taking over Germany but they didn’t quite manage it. The final party supporting political violence was the Munich Party in 1923. It was the Nazi party which was led by Adolf Hitler and the General Ludendorff. The support this party had gained was 55,000 members and they also had they own private army. The party planned to take over the government and they started in Munich. The party made many mistakes as their ideas were not planned properly resulting in Hitler being sent to prison for 5 years, because of this, I believe this was the party that was the least threatening of all the political violence parties. Political violence can be linked to hyper inflation because the right wing groups blamed the government for hyper inflation and the extremist groups didn’t think the government was doing enough so they wanted to have a quick change. It was because of hyper inflation that gave Hitler the chance to take over and the right wing government was weak and also angry which then led back to hyper inflation. Another problem that political violence can be related back to is the Treaty of Versailles because the Treaty meant that the German people needed a strong government and there was plenty of different groups wanting that power. All of the political groups blamed the Treaty of Versailles for weaken the county which was what the German people liked to hear. In conclusion I believe that the biggest problem that the Weimar Republic faced in the 1920’s was the Treaty of Versailles because almost all of the problems could be linked or related back to the Treaty. Money was one of the biggest problems in Germany at this time and a money problem was because of the Treaty again. The Treaty Of Versailles treated Germany very unfair which I believe is the reason why Germany got itself into all of the problems it did in the early 1920’s.