PHASES IN THE HISTORY OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

PHASES IN THE HISTORY OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC 1918/19: Founding the republic (suppression of the radical Left, constitution writing, disappointment at Versailles) 1920/23: Inflation becomes hyper-inflation, climaxing in the Ruhr Struggle of 1923 1924/29: Economic stabilization and apparent normalcy —the “golden twenties” 1930/33: The Great Depression and dissolution of the Weimar Republic *Chancellor Heinrich Brüning, Apr 1930 --May 1932 *Chancellor Franz von Papen, June--November 1932 *Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, Dec 1932 --Jan 1933

In early November 1918, Prince Max of Baden appealed to Friedrich Ebert of the SPD to become Chancellor, prevent a Communist revolution, and safeguard national unity.

Germany’s lop-sided federalism (Prussia in blue), and provinces lost through the Treaty of Versailles (compare Epstein, 12)

The SPD led the Prussian state government with one brief interruption from 1919 to July 1932 (under Otto Braun and Carl Severing)

German veterans who had nowhere to go, housed in a Heimkehrerlager, 1919/20

“The Stab in the Back” (Nazi magazine cover, 1924)

French troops occupy the Ruhr Valley, January 1923

President Ebert visits the Ruhr to encourage passive resistance

A businessman picks up a wagonload of cash to meet the weekly payroll (1923)

A tense crowd waiting to buy bread in 1923

Anton Drexler, the railroad machinist who invited Hitler into his “German Workers’ Party” in September 1919 and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) in 1920

“HITLER SPEAKS!” (mass rally in Munich’s Cirkus Krone, 1923)

Alfred Rosenberg and Adolf Hitler review marching stormtroopers in Munich, 4 November 1923

THE BEER HALL PUTSCH Nazi Stormtroopers outside Munich City Hall, 9 November 1923

Postcard of Hitler in Landsberg Prison (1924), where he dictated Mein Kampf

Gustav Stresemann made peace with France as Chancellor (Aug. -Nov. 1923) and Foreign Minister. The U. S. banker Charles Dawes negotiated a new reparations plan in 1924….

Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg as presidential candidate, 1925: “I extend my hand to every German who supports the nation and desires confessional and social peace. ”

The Weimar Coalition united behind the Center Party chairman & ex-chancellor Wilhelm Marx But Hindenburg’s campaign aroused more enthusiasm, and he defeated Marx, 48. 3% vs. 45. 3% This Hindenburg truck features the monarchist flag

President Paul von Hindenburg (born in 1847) reviews the troops in 1925

Aristide Briand Gustav Stresemann, who signed the Treaty of Locarno in 1925 and won the Nobel Peace Prize

The DNVP walked out of the Reich government in October 1925 to protest the Treaty of Locarno, but it rejoined the coalition in January 1927

Hermann Müller’s cabinet of the Great Coalition (from SPD to DVP), June 1928 -April 1930

Stresemann explains the Young Plan in a turbulent Reichstag session, 1929; unfortunately, its final version was not all that much better than the Dawes Plan

DNVP chairman Alfred Hugenberg and the leaders of the Stahlhelm allied with the NSDAP to combat the Young Plan “Unto the third generation must you slave away!” (“Freedom Law” referendum campaign poster, 1929)

CAUSES OF THE PARALYSIS OF THE REICHSTAG A deepening rift on the Left between the SPD and a Stalinized KPD The growth of single-issue parties for farmers, inflation victims, small business owners, and regionalists that drained support from the moderate parties The turn of the DNVP toward a fascistoid course under the press baron Alfred Hugenberg The growing impatience of President Hindenburg and the Reichswehr with Social Democratic opposition to rearmament

Heinrich Brüning of the Center Party formed a cabinet in April 1930 that relied on Article 48 emergency decree powers to balance the budget

Brüning and Foreign Minister Curtius bid farewell to U. S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson, Berlin, July 1931

Brüning visits Mussolini in Rome, August 1931)

GERMANY’S UNEMPLOYED (IN MILLIONS OF WORKERS)

“Resignation & Discussion, ” photo by Walter Ballhause from the series “Unemployment” (1930)

Until 1930, the KPD was larger than any far right group (Ernst Thälmann leads the Red Combat Veterans in Berlin, 1927)

HITLER ADDRESSES NAZI LEADERS, AUGUST 1928: Analyzing their election defeat, they noted some success in rural areas….

Gregor Strasser (1892 -1934), pharmacist & Reich Organization Leader of the NSDAP Dr. Joseph Goebbels (1897 -1945), appointed Gauleiter of Berlin in 1926

The Nazis campaigned in Aug/Sep 1930 on the platform that war reparations had caused the economic crisis “Freedom and Bread” They astonished everyone in September 1930 by winning 18% of the vote & 107 Reichstag seats

Gauleiter. Joseph Goebbels addresses a campaign rally in Berlin, 1932: The Nazis had learned how to transform a hall

Brüning united a broad front from the SPD to moderate conservatives to secure Hindenburg’s reelection in April 1932

“Our last hope: HITLER” (March 1932)

THE FALL OF BRÜNING, MAY 1932 Hindenburg had long desired a rightist majority cabinet stretching from the Center to the NSDAP; Brüning sought to demonstrate that this was not feasible. Hindenburg was deeply wounded when most of his monarchist friends endorsed Hitler for President. In April 1932 Brüning banned the SA and sought to partition bankrupt agricultural estates for homesteaders. Hindenburg appointed the right-wing Catholic monarchist Franz von Papen to replace Brüning at the end of May, hoping that his government would be tolerated by the Center Party and NSDAP.

Chancellor Franz von Papen and his defense minister, General Kurt von Schleicher. They sought Nazi support by lifting the ban on the SA, holding new elections, and forcibly removing the SPD-led state government of Prussia.

THE POLARIZATION OF THE GERMAN ELECTORATE IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION: In the election campaign of July 1932, many felt that Germany was on the brink of civil war.

By 1932 the Nazis focused their propaganda on the traditional enemies of middle-class Protestants, the Reds and the Blacks: “The Final Blow!” (July 1932)

“Women! Millions of Men Without Jobs, Millions of Children with no Future. Save the German Family, Vote Adolf Hitler!” (Nazi campaign poster, July 1932)

Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher addresses a rally in Berlin in January 1933; he was opposed by all parties, and Papen sought to undermine his successor by reaching out to Hitler

The “Cabinet of National Renewal, ” appointed on January 30, 1933: Only 3 of 11 ministers are Nazis, but Papen allows Hitler to control the Prussian police & hold elections