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Germany Before War
Germany was very proud of it's power; the army was one of the best of the world, there was a prospering business and the workforce was well-educated and well-fed -
Germany After War
The German army was defeated, people were surviving with bread and there was an epidemic killing a lot of people. -
No More Kaiser
At first, the Kaiser didn't accepted the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which stablished that Germany should become more democratic, but after some revolts took place, he had no choice but accept, so Fredrich Ebert became the new leader of the Republic of Germany. -
Ebert Won
The first elections took place, and although he had opposition from both right and left wings, he won and became president of de Weimar Republic -
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Left Wing Rebellions
In the left wing were the Communits, who felt that what Germany needed was a Communist revolution. There were several rebellions, but they were all defeated with help of the Freikorps, a group from the right wing which was composed of anti-communists ex-soldiers. The Freikorps had arraived to an agreement with Ebert, so they fighted in many bloody battles until the Communists stopped. -
Treaty Of Versaillevs Announced
When the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced, the Germans weren't happy, specially the right wing, who blamed Ebert of betraying the Germany, although he didn't actually wanted to sign the Treaty. -
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Right Wing Rebellions
On the right wing were the ones that really liked how the Kaiser ruled and thought that people like Ebert caused the country to lose the war. The Freikorps were with them, so Ebert couldn't use them when they started a rebellion, and the soldiers didn't wanted to attack them. Fortunately for Ebert, the workers came on strike, so there was no water, power or gas, so finally they had to end the rebellion. Hitler was part of the right wing, and tried to gain power, but also failed. -
Reparations Bill Announced
The reparations bill was of £6.600 million to be paid in instalments annually, wich was 2 per cent of Germany's annual output. Many Germans protested of this, but were ignored. -
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The Ruhr
Germany paid the first £50 millon, but the next year the instalment wasn't paid, so the French ran out of patience, so their troops entered the Ruhr and started taking they payment in raw materials and goods, wich was permitted by the Treaty. Ebert told the workers who lived there to go on strike so that France couldn't take anything, but the French started killing them and expelling them from the region, so the workers had to abandon the strike. -
Hyperinflation
As they didn't have any goods to trade, the government started printing money. This caused a big hyperinflation, to the point that it was cheaper to burn banknotes than buying wood. People had to carry their wages in wheelbarrows. -
End Of Hyperinflation
Gustav Stresemann, leading the government, took over the situation, and quickly solved it. Although, the Weimar Republic was very politically damaged; the right-wing was even angrier than before and they had lost their support from the middle classes. -
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Gustav Stresemann's Government
Gustav Stressmann wasn't too much time as Chancelor, but managed to take Germany back to prosperity. He paid the pensions and gave people a better living quality. Also, there weren't more attempted revolutions, so everything was calm.
