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Sparticist Revolution
The Sparticists aimed for a real social revolution and wanted to seize power from the Social Democrats. On 5 January the Sparticists captured the headquarters of the government's newspaper and telegraph bureau. But on 10 January their own headquarters was captured and by 15 January they had been crushed and their leaders (Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht) had been murdered. -
Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles
A defeated Germany is forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles which is designed to punish them for starting the war. -
Weimar Established
The government was unpopular for signing the armistice and eventually agreeing to the Treaty of Versailles. They eventually became known as the 'November Criminals'. Violence on the streets of Berlin was so bad that the politicians were forced to move for their own safety. They moved south to the city of Weimar and the new German government became known as the Weimar Republic. -
Berlin Kapp Putsch
A group of army officers, Freikorps and right wing nationalists attempted to overthrow and replace the SPD government. This putsch was a fail due to public opposition, divisions within the military and misjudgements by the men who initiated it. Even though this putsch didn't work, it showed that German militarism was far from dead. -
Founding of the Nazi Party
In 1919, the German Workers party was founded by Anton Drexler, Dietrich Eckhart and Gottfried Feder. The name was later changed to the National Socialist German Workers' Party or Nazi and Adolf and Anton Drexler came up with a 25 Point Programme which summed up the party's aims. -
Walter Rathenau Assassinated
Walter Rathenau was a German industrialist, politician, writer, and statesman who served as Foreign Minister of Germany during the Weimar Republic. Walter was assassinated by right-wing nationalists, who hated him as a Jew and a democrat. -
Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan was a solution to end the hyperinflation in Germany. This plan involved international loans (which were mainly from the US) to help Germany pay off the reparations and become stable again. -
Stresemann becomes Chancellor
In Weimar Germany's dark times, Gustav managed to bring an end to the passive resistance in the Ruhr and resumed payment of reparations. He also delt with the problem of inflation by establishing the Rentenbank. -
Berlin Riots on Hyperinflation
A group of 30,000 protestors rioted in Berlin to protest the misery that the hyperinflation brought upon them. Many of these Germans blamed the Jews for their suffering. -
Munich Beer Hall Putsch
Hitler and the Nazis tried to kidnap the leaders of the Bavarian government and force them at gunpoint to accept Hitler as their leader. The next morning Hitler and 3,000 Nazi supporters began a march on Munich. However, they encountered a road block manned by 100 armed police. Shots were fired and 16 Nazis and 4 police officers were killed. Hitler was arrested on 12th November and charged with treason. -
Friedrich Ebert Dies Before Re-Election, Hindenburg Becomes President
Friedrich Ebert was a German politician and leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Ebert was Weimar Germany's first President and was in favour of winning the re-election but suddenly died. As a result, Paul von Hindenburg was elected as President and then later re-elected in 1932. He was important to Hitlers' rise to power as he appointed him as Chancellor. -
Germany Joins The League Of Nations
In the mid 1920s, Germany was allowed to join the League of Nations and they did so to show that they were a peace loving country and that they were recovering from their economic depression and were getting back on track. -
The Young Plan
The Young Plan was an agreement between the Germans and the Americans, British, and French. It expanded the loan of the Dawes Plan and also lowered Germany’s reparations payments from the Treaty of Versailles. -
US: Wall St Crash
In the 1920s the stock market in USA was extremely steady and prices kept rising. As a result, more people started to invest in the stock market. But when prices started to decline people started to panic and sell their shares. So many people sold their shares at once that the Exchange couldn't keep up and $3 billion was lost crashing the market, pushing the nation into the Great Depression. Millions lost their jobs and thousands of companies went bankrupt. -
5 Million Unemployed
After 1929, Germany faced massive unemployment. During the winter of 1929-30, more than three million Germans (14 percent of the population) were jobless. By the autumn of 1932, five million Germans were out of work, weakening support for the Weimar Republic. -
Elections
Hitler and the Nazis received 38% of the votes making them the most popular party in the history of Weimar. -
Hitler named the last Weimar Chancellor
When President Paul von Hindenbur named Hitler the Chancellor, it made his plans of getting rid of politics and making Germany a powerful, unified one-party state became possible. He began immediately, expanding the state police, the Gestapo, and putting Hermann Goering in charge of a new security force, made up of Nazis who were dedicated to wipe out any opposition. From that moment on, Nazi Germany had started and there was little anyone could to about it. -
The Reichstag Fire
On 27 February it was reported that the Reichstag had caught fire. A young communist Marinus van der Lubbe was discovered on the premises dressed in just trousers and footwear. A number of small fires had been started around the building but most failed to light except the fire started in the great chamber. Van der Lubbe and four other communists, Ernst Torgler, Georgi Dimitrov, Blagoi Popov, and Vassil Tanev were arrested and charged with arson and attempting to overthrow the government. -
Weimar Republic Destroyed: The Enabling Laws are Passed
In the Reichstag election only 44% voted for Hitler, so that only with the aid of the Nationalists (8%) was Hitler able to get the bare majority in the Reichstag, but that was enough. Hitler then had Communist deputies banned from the Reichstag and while they were banned passed the Enabling Bill which gave him unlimited power. From now on, Hitler could draft and pass any laws without the Reichstag.
