- Date:
- August 11, 1919 - January 30, 1933
- Related Topics:
- reparations
- German National People’s Party
- Freikorps
- Spartacus League
The “Weimar coalition” of the Social Democrats, Centre, and Democrats, which had been the basis of Scheidemann’s ministry (February–June 1919), was reestablished by Bauer when the Democrats joined his government in October 1919 and maintained by Hermann Müller (also a Social Democrat) when he took Bauer’s place as chancellor at the end of March 1920. The elections of June 6, 1920, however, showed a marked swing against the parties most closely identified with the republic: the Social Democrats and the Roman Catholic parties—that is, the Centre and the Bavarian People’s Party. The opposition parties—the Nationalists and the People’s Party on the right and the Independent Socialists on the left—all showed heavy gains. Thus, 1920 marked the end of the brief period during which the Social Democrats were the dominant party in the republic. At the end of June the Weimar coalition was replaced by a new combination under Konstantin Fehrenbach (Centre), representing the Centre, the Democrats, and, for the first time, the People’s Party. The left wing of the People’s Party, led by Gustav Stresemann, was willing to cooperate in the development of the republic on the pattern of a bourgeois and capitalist democracy.
In the plebiscite held in Upper Silesia on March 20, 1921, an overall majority voted to remain with Germany. Therefore, Germany claimed that the whole area should remain German. However, in making that claim, it was disregarding the treaty provisions for partitioning the area according to the wishes of the inhabitants of each commune there. Poland retaliated by organizing an armed revolt and attempting to seize territory by force. After a division of opinion among the Allies, with France supporting the Poles, the dispute was referred to the League of Nations. The League awarded two-thirds of the territory to Germany but left the coal mines, the principal industrial areas, and a considerable German minority on the Polish side of the frontier. The decision was hotly resented in Germany.
On April 27, 1921, the Allied reparation commission fixed the total to be paid by Germany at 132 billion gold marks. Regarding this as far in excess of the country’s capacity to pay, the Fehrenbach government resigned on May 4. The Allies retorted with an ultimatum calling on Germany to announce its unconditional acceptance of the figure within six days, under threat of the occupation of the Ruhr. The Nationalists demanded the rejection of the Allies’ demand, but Karl Joseph Wirth (Centre), the new chancellor of another “Weimar coalition,” secured a reluctant vote from the Reichstag in favour of accepting. Once again, the republican parties were saddled with the responsibility of carrying out the decisions forced on a resentful country by the Allies. The German government, however, found it impossible to pay the sums required on time. Relations with France had in any case remained bad. The French had twice already marched troops into German cities on the grounds that Germany was not carrying out its obligations under the treaty. French attempts to develop a separatist movement in the Rhineland succeeded only in strengthening German impressions of inflexible hostility and determination to break up Germany on the part of France. Then, in January 1923, on the pretext of a technical default by Germany on its deliveries of timber, the French occupied the Ruhr.
The Rapallo Treaty
One way of breaking the hostile ring with which the Germans felt themselves encircled was to make common cause with the other outcast among the European powers—the Soviet Union. This idea was attractive not only to many on the left but to some on the right, who believed that another war with France was inevitable and were looking for allies. Economic negotiations with the Soviet Union in 1921 proved successful, and support for a rapprochement between the two countries came from Gen. Hans von Seeckt, the commander in chief of the army. On April 16, 1922, a treaty of friendship was signed between Germany and the Soviet Union at Rapallo, Italy, waiving reparations claims by both sides and promising the expansion of Soviet-German trade. The French and British were surprised and furious. No counteraction was taken, but Rapallo no doubt helped to harden French opinion. The most important practical consequence was the conclusion of secret agreements between the German and Soviet armies, which allowed German officers and units to acquire experience with the Red Army. The agreement also provided opportunities for experimentation with the design of forbidden weapons, such as tanks and aircraft.
Political disturbances at home
At home, the republican regime was challenged from both right and left. A workers’ rising led by Communists took place in the Ruhr in the spring of 1920. There was fierce fighting between workers and army and Freikorps units before the revolt was suppressed at the beginning of April. When miners in the Mansfeld district of central Germany took up arms against the police in March 1921, the Communists unsuccessfully called for a general strike, and order was rapidly restored.
However, there was still widespread fear of a German revolution on the Soviet model. Against this, the powerful and moderate Social Democratic Party and the trade union movement proved an effective barrier. After the left wing of the Independent Socialists joined the Communists in December 1920, the majority of the Independents drew closer to the Social Democrats, and a union of the two parties was achieved in September 1922.
The greater danger to the republic came from the right. As early as March 1920 a coup d’état was attempted by Gen. Walther von Lüttwitz, who commanded the troops in the Berlin area, and Wolfgang Kapp, an East Prussian official. With the help of the Ehrhardt Brigade, a Freikorps formation, they assumed power in Berlin for a few days. However, the Kapp Putsch failed to receive the anticipated support from the army or from the parties of the right. It was ultimately put down by solid resistance from working-class organizations, led by the trade unions, who called a highly successful general strike that forced Lüttwitz and Kapp to abandon their endeavour.
Inside the Reichstag, the Nationalists kept up an unrestrained campaign against the republic and its leaders. However, not even the Nationalists were sufficiently extreme for groups like the German Racial Freedom Party in the north or Adolf Hitler’s National Socialists in Munich. These groups combined anti-Semitism, antisocialism, and inflammatory nationalism with open demands for the overthrow of the republic. Closely linked with these groups were paramilitary organizations under a variety of names, drawing their membership largely from ex-servicemen (many of whom had served in the Freikorps after the war). The paramilitary forces were in close contact with right-wing officers in the regular army who provided them with arms and looked upon them as a reserve for the day when they would rise to destroy the republic and avenge the defeat of 1918. From this underworld of conspiracy, which was a breeding ground of the Nazi movement, were recruited gangs like the notorious Organisation Konsul which assassinated, among others, Matthias Erzberger (August 26, 1921) and Walther Rathenau (June 24, 1922). One of the most disturbing features was the marked leniency shown by the courts toward political terrorism when practiced by the right.
The stronghold of these counterrevolutionary forces was Bavaria. The most powerful party in southern Germany, the Catholic Bavarian People’s Party, made no secret of its anti-republican and particularist views or its sympathy with proposals to restore the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria. Relations between the state government in Munich and the Reich government in Berlin were continually strained by the refusal of the Bavarian authorities to proceed against the extremist organizations that found shelter in their territory, including Hitler’s National Socialists, who throughout the 1920s constituted a predominantly Bavarian movement.