Nazis WeimarRepublic1 WeimarRepublicEconomy2 WeimarRepublicPolitics2 WeimarRepublicSociety2
The Weimar Government and Nazi Party
Why do you think so many German supported the Nazis Party by the 1930’s?
– What problems were Germans facing?
– What solutions did the Nazis promise?
To what extent was democracy in jeopardy in Weimar Germany?
Assignment Objective: To inquire about the problems Weimar Germany faced that
set the stage for the Nazi Party.
Instructions:
● Complete the tasks inside this document by analyzing the primary sources in the
attachments: “Society”, “Politics”, and “Economy”.
Task 1: Using the primary sources, identify examples that were good for the Weimar
Republic, and examples that were bad for the Weimar Republic.
>>>Use this sentence stem to shape your entries:
We see/find in the primary source (description of primary source; what is
happening/what does it say?)______________________________. This shows that
(explain how it was either good or bad for the Weimar Republic)__________________.
Politics
Excerpts from the
Weimar Constitution
Stabbed in the Back
Spartacists
Proclamation
Soldiers in German
Revolution
Kapp Putsch
Economy
Hyperinflation
statistics
Children stack inflated
currency
Women and Children
in line
Homeless Shelter
Worker’s
Demonstration
Society
Christian women go
vote
Jewish women
provides ID card
Anti Semitism incident
Education in Weimar
Germany
Task 2: Connections
1. How would you describe the overall mood and feelings by Germans in Weimar Germany?
2. What do you think was the most important factor in shaping distrust toward the Weimar
government? Explain.
3. In what ways was Germany divided in an “Us vs Them” society during this time? Be sure
to explain.
4. What do you think was the Weimar democracy’s greatest challenge to its existence?
Why?
Task 3: To what extent was democracy in jeopardy in Weimar Germany?
Write in a complete paragraph. State a clear topic sentence. Provide multiple points
supported with evidence from the primary sources, and a concluding sentence.
In the period following the end of World War I, Germany experienced a disastrous period of
inflation (where prices rise, at the same time, the value of currency decreases).
For example: One day, it costs $
1
to buy a soda. The next day there is hyperinflation, and it now
costs $10,000 to buy a soda. As a result, your $1 has a much weaker buying power as it did.
The German government’s method of financing the war by borrowing heavily and printing
large quantities of unbacked currency began the inflationary spiral. This was elevated by the
loss of resources and reparations, which resulted from the Treaty of Versailles. And these
difficulties were in turn elevated by political violence. The unwillingness of industrialists and
labor leaders to put aside their narrow interests and work for the common good was yet
another factor which aggravated the situation. Many Germans, particularly those on fixed
incomes and pensions, endured great hardships and lived in sharply reduced circumstances.
By November of 1923, hyper-inflation paralyzed Germany and only foreign loans and the
issuing of a entirely new currency restored confidence and ended the crisis.
Date Marks U.S.
Dollars
1919 4.2 1
1921 75 1
1922 400 1
Jan. 1923 7,000 1
Jul. 1923 160,000 1
Aug. 1923 1,000,000 1
Nov. 1, 1923 1,300,000,000 1
Nov. 15,
1923
1,300,000,000,000 1
Nov. 16,
1923
4,200,000,000,0
0
0
1
German children build a pyramid with stacks of inflated currency, virtually worthless in 1923.
Women and children wait in line in Berlin, in hopes of buying sub-standard meat during a
period of hyper-inflation in Weimar Germany (1923).
The original caption for this photo, taken in Weimar Germany during the Great Depression,
reads: “When night comes! Picture taken in the municipal refuge for the homeless. View of one
of the dormitories which can house up to 100 people.”
Workers Demonstration in Weimar Germany
First Sign: Workers demonstration against bread tax and high rents! Second Sign: The upperclass
form a dictatorship of wealth against the working class!
Excerpts from the Weimar Constitution
Article 20
The Reichstag (house of government) is composed by the representatives elected by the
German People.
Article 48
If a state (8) does not fulfil the obligations laid upon it by the Reich constitution or the Reich
laws, the Reich President may use armed force to cause it to oblige.
Article 109
All Germans are equal in front of the law.
In principle, men and women have the same rights and obligations.
Legal privileges or disadvantages based on birth or social standing are to be abolished.
Article 113
Reich communities speaking a foreign language may not be deprived by legislation of their
national identity
Article 114
The rights of the individual are inviolable. Limitation or deprivation of individual liberty is
admissible only if based on laws.
Article 118
Every German is entitled, within the bounds set by general law, to express his opinion freely in
word, writing, print, image or otherwise.
Article 135
All Reich inhabitants enjoy full freedom of liberty and conscience. Undisturbed practise of
religion is guaranteed by the constitution and is placed under the protection of the state.
“Stabbed in the Back”
An illustration from a 1919 Austrian postcard showing a caricatured Jew stabbing a personified German
Army in the back with a dagger. The “defeat” of Germany was blamed upon the unpatriotic populace,
Communists, the Weimar Republic, and especially the Jews.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews
Political Violence
During the stable periods, Weimar Chancellors formed legislative majorities based on
coalitions primarily of the Social Democrats, the Democratic Party, and the Catholic Center
Party, all moderate parties that supported the Weimar Republic. However, extremist left- and
right-wing parties formed to try to stir revolution and to seize power from the government.
Some of these organizations formed from paramilitary groups made up of disgruntled soldiers
who returned from the war. Political violence filled the void for many returning soldiers who
lost their positions in the German army after the Treaty of Versailles shrunk it to merely
100,000 men. As time went on, as the economic situation deteriorated in 1930, many
disillusioned voters turned to extremist parties, and the Republic’s supporters could no longer
command a majority. German democracy could no longer function as its creators had hoped.
Spartacists Proclamation of the Free Socialist Republic
The Spartacus League – communist group who wanted a full-scale revolution. They did not
trust the Weimar government to protect the proletariat (working class).
“The day of the revolution has come. We have enforced peace. Peace has been concluded in this
moment. The old has gone. The rule of the Hohenzollern (former German monarch dynasty),
who have resided in this palace for centuries, is over. In this very hour we proclaim the Free
Socialist Republic of Germany. We greet our Russian brethren, which have been ignominously
chased out four days ago … The day of liberty has begun. Never again a Hohenzollern will enter
this place. 70 years ago at this place Friedrich Wilhelm IV was standing, and he had to take off
his cap to honour the 50 corpses, covered with blood, of those who died fighting at the
barricades in the defense of the cause of liberty. Another defile passes here today. It is the
spirits of the millions who have given their lives for the sacred cause of the proletariat (working
class). With a split skull, soaked in blood these victims of the rule of force totter along, followed
by the spirits of millions of women and children who were depraved in the cause of the
proletariat. And further millions of blood-victims of this very world war follow them. Today an
incalculable mass of inspired proletarians stands at this very place, to pay homage to the liberty
newly gained. Party comrades, I proclaim the Free Socialist Republic of Germany, which shall
include all tribes (1), where there are no more servants, where every honest worker will receive
his honest pay. The rule of capitalism, which has turned Europe into a cemetery, is broken …
We have to collect all our force to establish a government of workers and soldiers, to create a
new stately order of the proletariat, an order of peace, of fortune, of liberty of our German
brethren and of our brethren all over the world. We stretch out our hands to them and call on
them to complete the world revolution.”
Karl Liebknecht (Spartakusbund)
The Freikorps (right-wing German paramilitary group) were employed by the government to
fight off Communists and other left-wing extremist groups attempting to overthrow the
government during what was known as the German Revolutions between 1918-1919. In some
instances, hundreds of Germans were killed in fights between left- and right-wing extremists
groups.
Freikorps In Berlin During the German Revolution 1918
Kapp Putsch (Putsch = violent overthrow of the government) occurred in 1920, where Wolfgang Kapp
and the Freikorps (mostly ex-soldiers) stormed Berlin and managed to remove the Weimar leader from
power for 4 days.
1. German Christian women voting in 1919. German Christian women were newly
enfranchised.
Eastern European Jewish women are asked for ID cards in Berlin’s “Barn Quarter” in 1920.
Life in Weimar Germany was often unpredictable, as a former soldier, Henry
Buxbaum, discovered one evening in the early 1920s:
“The train was pitch-dark. The lights were out, nothing uncommon after the war when
the German railroads were in utter disrepair and very few things functioned orderly. . . . That
night, we were seven or eight people in the dark, fourth-class compartment, sitting in utter
silence till one of the men started the usual refrain: “Those God-damned Jews, they are at the
root of all our troubles.” Quickly, some of the others joined in. I couldn’t see them and had no
idea who they were, but from their voices they sounded like younger men. They sang the same
litany over and over again, blaming the Jews for everything that has gone wrong with Germany
and for anything else wrong in this world. It went on and on, a cacophony of obscenities,
becoming more vicious and at the same time more unbearable with each new sentence echoing
in my ears. Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I knew very well that to start up with them
would get me into trouble, and that to answer them wasn’t exactly the height of wisdom, but I
couldn’t help it. . . . I began naturally with the announcement: “Well, I am a Jew and etc., etc.”
That was the signal they needed. Now they really went after me, threatening me physically. I
didn’t hold my tongue as the argument went back and forth. They began jostling me till one of
them . . . probably more encouraged by the darkness than by his own valor, suggested: “Let’s
throw the Jew out of the train.” Now, I didn’t dare ignore this signal, and from then on I kept
quiet. I knew that silence for the moment was better than falling under the wheels of a moving
train. One of the men in our compartment, more vicious in his attacks than the others, got off
the train with me in Friedburg. When I saw him under the dim light of the platform, I
recognized him as a fellow I knew well from our soccer club. . . . I would never have suspected
this man of harboring such rabid, antisemitic feelings.”
In the Weimar Republic, Germany’s schools remained centers of tradition. Most
teachers were conservative, both in their way of teaching and in their politics, and
many were anti-socialist and antisemitic. A young man known as Klaus describes
his schooling in the 1920s:
“We were taught history as a series of facts. We had to learn dates, names, places of
battles. Periods during which Germany won wars were emphasized. Periods during which
Germany lost wars were sloughed over. We heard very little about World War I, except that the
Versailles peace treaty was a disgrace, which someday, in some vague way, would be rectified.
In my school, one of the best in Berlin, there were three courses in Greek and Roman history,
four in medieval history, and not one in government. If we tried to relate ideas we got from
literature or history to current events, our teachers changed the subject. I really don’t believe
that anyone was deliberately trying to evade politics. Those teachers really seemed to think that
what went on in the Greek and Roman Empires was more important than what was happening
on the streets of Berlin and Munich. They considered any attempt to bring up current political
questions a distraction . . . because we hadn’t done our homework. And there was always a
great deal of homework in a school like mine, which prepared students for the university. At
the end of our senior year, we were expected to take a detailed and exceedingly tough exam
called the Abitur. How we did on the exam could determine our whole future. Again, the Abitur
concentrated on our knowledge of facts, not on interpretation or on the expression of personal
ideas.”
