German History · Chronicle V of VII

The Weimar Republic

Weimarer Republik

Fourteen fragile years between Versailles and Hitler: revolt, hyperinflation, jazz, and collapse.

Span: 1919 – 1933 AD
Entries: 13
Next: Nazi Germany & World War II

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Entry 1 of 13

January 1919
Spartacist UprisingPolitical
Murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
After a week of street fighting in Berlin between Spartacist communists and government-backed Freikorps, the captured leaders of the Communist Party of Germany — Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht — are beaten and shot on 15 January. Luxemburg's body is thrown into the Landwehr canal.
Meanwhile, elsewhere
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
June 1919
VersaillesPolitical
The Treaty of Versailles signed under protest
On 28 June, five years to the day after Sarajevo, the German foreign minister Hermann Müller signs the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors where Wilhelm I was proclaimed emperor in 1871. Germany loses 13 percent of its territory and 10 percent of its population, accepts the 'war guilt' of Article 231, and is presented with a reparations bill to be set later.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
August 1919
Weimar ConstitutionPolitical
The Weimar Constitution adopted
Meeting in the National Theatre at Weimar — chosen for its association with Goethe and Schiller, away from revolutionary Berlin — the National Assembly under jurist Hugo Preuß adopts a constitution. Germany becomes a federal parliamentary republic with proportional representation, universal suffrage for men and women, and an emergency-powers article — Article 48 — that will prove fatal.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
March 1920
Kapp PutschPolitical
The Kapp Putsch and the general strike
On 13 March, rebel Freikorps under Wolfgang Kapp and General Walther von Lüttwitz march on Berlin. The army refuses to defend the Republic — General Hans von Seeckt declares 'Reichswehr does not shoot at Reichswehr' — but the trade unions call a general strike that paralyses the country within hours. The putsch collapses in four days.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
April 1922
Rapallo and RathenauPolitical
Treaty of Rapallo and the murder of Rathenau
On 16 April, on the margins of the Genoa Conference, Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau signs the Treaty of Rapallo with Soviet Russia: the two pariahs of Europe restore relations, renounce reparations, and open the way for secret German military cooperation on Russian soil. Two months later, on 24 June, Rathenau is murdered by right-wing assassins in Berlin.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
January 1923
Year of CrisisPolitical
Ruhr occupation and hyperinflation
When Germany defaults on reparations, French and Belgian troops occupy the Ruhr industrial basin in January. The government calls for passive resistance and prints money to pay striking workers; the result is the most spectacular hyperinflation in history. By November, one dollar costs 4.2 trillion marks.
Political
The Beer Hall Putsch in Munich
On 8-9 November, a thirty-four-year-old Austrian agitator named Adolf Hitler tries to launch a 'march on Berlin' from a Munich beer hall. The National Socialists are dispersed by sixteen rifle shots from the Bavarian police at the Feldherrnhalle. Hitler flees, is captured two days later, and is sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
August 1924
Dawes PlanPolitical
The Dawes Plan and the start of recovery
An international committee under the American banker Charles G. Dawes restructures German reparations on a sliding scale tied to economic capacity, and underwrites a stabilisation loan of 800 million gold marks. American capital begins to flow into Germany; by 1928 the Reich is once again the largest industrial economy in Europe.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
October 1925
LocarnoPolitical
Locarno Treaties; Hindenburg elected president
In April, the seventy-seven-year-old Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg is elected Reichspräsident after Ebert's death. In October, foreign minister Gustav Stresemann signs the Locarno Treaties: Germany voluntarily guarantees its western frontier with France and Belgium. Aristide Briand and Stresemann share the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
January 1927
Weimar CultureCultural
The brilliance of Weimar culture
Fritz Lang's Metropolis opens in Berlin; the Bauhaus moves to a new Gropius-designed campus in Dessau; Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill stage the Threepenny Opera the next year. Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig, Heinrich Mann, Alfred Döblin, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Erich Maria Remarque, Marlene Dietrich — Weimar's brief flowering remakes modern culture.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
October 1929
CrashPolitical
Death of Stresemann; the Wall Street Crash
On 3 October, Gustav Stresemann dies of a stroke at fifty-one. Three weeks later, on 24 October — Black Thursday — Wall Street crashes. American banks call in their short-term loans; the German economy enters free fall. By the end of 1932, German industrial production has been halved and six million Germans are unemployed.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
March 1930
Presidential CabinetsPolitical
Brüning and the Article 48 government
On 30 March, the SPD-led Müller cabinet falls over unemployment insurance contributions — the last parliamentary majority of the Republic. President Hindenburg appoints Heinrich Brüning of the Centre as chancellor, governing by emergency decree. In the September Reichstag election the Nazis explode from 12 to 107 seats; the KPD also gains. The democratic centre is shattered.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
April 1932
Year of Five ElectionsPolitical
Hindenburg re-elected; the Nazis become the largest party
In April, Hindenburg defeats Hitler for re-election to the presidency. In the July Reichstag election, the NSDAP wins 230 seats and 37 percent of the vote — the largest party in German history at that point. In November the Nazis lose 34 seats; their wave has crested. But by then Hindenburg's advisers are convinced that Hitler must be brought into government to control him.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
January 1933
MachtergreifungPolitical
Hitler appointed Chancellor
On 30 January, after weeks of intrigue by Papen, the agrarian magnate Oskar von Hindenburg, and the banker Kurt von Schröder, the eighty-five-year-old Reichspräsident Hindenburg signs the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor. The cabinet contains only three Nazis. By summer it will be the only party in Germany.
Political
The Reichstag Fire and the Enabling Act
On the night of 27 February, the Reichstag building burns. A young Dutch Communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, is found inside. The next morning Hindenburg signs the Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending civil liberties under Article 48. On 23 March, with Communist deputies arrested and Social Democrats coerced, the Reichstag passes the Enabling Act — 441 to 94 — granting Hitler four years of dictatorial powers. The Weimar Republic is over.
Meanwhile, elsewhere · 3
5 more entries, to January 1933

The Weimar Republic

Murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht

The Treaty of Versailles signed under protest

The Weimar Constitution adopted

The Kapp Putsch and the general strike

Treaty of Rapallo and the murder of Rathenau

Ruhr occupation and hyperinflation

The Beer Hall Putsch in Munich

The Dawes Plan and the start of recovery

Locarno Treaties; Hindenburg elected president

The brilliance of Weimar culture

Death of Stresemann; the Wall Street Crash

Brüning and the Article 48 government

Hindenburg re-elected; the Nazis become the largest party

Hitler appointed Chancellor

The Reichstag Fire and the Enabling Act