The Kaiser agreed and Germany went from being an autocracy, where all the political power had lied in the hands of the Kaiser, to a parliamentary democracy, where the supreme power lied in the hands of the people and the Kaiser became simply nothing more than a ceremonial head of state. The ‘revolution from above’ was quickly overtaken by events, Germany demanded for the Kaisers abdication. The chief of the naval staff ordered an attack on the British however the sailors refused to obey order and the mutineers seized control of the port. This meant that people across the country could finally see that Imperial Germany’s ruling class had lost control. The German government couldn’t stand up to the people so they gave them what they wanted, the Kaisers abdication.
Instead of the government taking forceful action against the attempted take over they pleaded for the german people to go on a general strike and the kapp putsch no longer took place showing another win for the Weimar republic. However this then cause chaos in the 1920’s when the Ruhr crisis happened. Due to them not paying one of the reparation fees the French took an invasion on the Ruhr which is the rich land of germany. Due to this
The limitations it placed on Germany's armed forces, and especially the War Guilt Clause that blamed Germany and her allies for starting the war, left many Germans feeling humiliated. For these reasons it was deeply unpopular. Economic The Republic failed to pay full reparations to France so the French invaded the Ruhr region of Germany and took control of key industries and natural resources. This worsened the economic crisis in Germany. The inflation rate rose so dramatically that the German currency lost virtually all value.
This violence led many leaders of the SPD to flee abroad and in June its party was officially banned and the 3000 that remained were arrested and a number were killed. This ultimately portrays the brutality of the Nazis, which effectively contributed to their consolidation of power. After the Reichstag fire the police were given the powers to detain suspects indefinitely without reference to the courts. The decree ‘For the protection of the people and the state’ was used to justify the arrest, imprisonment and often torture of thousands of political opponents, and on 23 March 1933 Hitler presented the Enabling Act to an intimidated Reichstag in order to consolidate Nazi power. The Reichstag passed laws which voted itself out of existence; the communists were barred from voting.
The first key issue I would like to discuss is the limited nature of the German revolution and how this damaged the prospects of German democracy. The way that Ebert used to take control lead damaged the prospects of democracy from the outset. Historians have criticised Ebert’s use of force to crush radical groups such as the Spartacists and his use of the Freikorps. Together with the crushing Spartacists in 1919 caused these left wing radicals to become divided and were therefore unwilling to compromise on reforms in the Reichstag. This made it far more difficult for coalitions to form and for democracy to function in the designed fashion.
The British political system has no such formal separation of the powers. Until recently one person was a member of all three arms of government, since the Lord Chancellor was a member of the Cabinet (the executive), a member of the House of Lords (the legislature) and the head of the legal system (the judiciary). In the United States, because of the separation of the powers, no Cabinet member is allowed to be a member of the Congress. In Britain, every Government Minister must be a member of one of the two Houses of Parliament and, if he or she is not already in the Parliament, he or she is made a peer. This changed the way power was distributed within the government, due to the Constitution.
Although it has obtained some successes at the beginning, the dramatic changes were not far away. Russia was badly equipped and led; the army suffered a run of disastrous defeats as well as the rail way signalling system breakage of food transportation, causing blocked lines and trains being abandoned, over 200,000 men were found dead. Food riots broke out in Russia’s countryside and major cities. Because Russia was receiving supplies and support from their European allies the provisional government refused to pull out of the war, and began announcing new offensives. Loyal army has been replaced with around 15 million peasants, the army had sympathised with workers and themselves along with the navy began mutiny against a government they had no wish to fight and die for with the Bolsheviks rioting.
Stalin did this on his own; he lied to the people and accused the government of being enemies of the people. In February 1917 after the people of Russia already had lost faith in their leadership and the Imperial government was forced to resign. A provisional government was formed and worked with the Petrograd Soviet for control of the revolution. In March the Petrograd Soviet forced the Russian soldiers obey the orders that did not conflict with the directives of the Soviet. This led to Czar Nicholas to step down from his throne.
This made the new Weimar government, who signed the Treaty, extremely unpopular and there was a lot of opposition to the government. Hitler promised to get rid of the treaty. In 1929, the US called in its loans to Germany, and the German economy collapsed. The number of unemployed grew; people starved on the streets. In the crisis, people wanted someone to blame, and looked to extreme solutions - Hitler offered them both, and Nazi success in the elections grew.
Assess the reasons for Lloyd’s Georges fall from power in 1922? Lloyd George was prime minster of the coalition government (conservatives, liberals) but fell from power in 1922 due to many reasons. His declining reputation, the poor dealing of foreign affairs and the economic problems that he failed to deal with could all be argued for his fall from power but I feel the strongest argument for his fall would be the lack of support he received from the conservatives and their abandonment of the coalition government. After Stanley Baldwin’s speech at the Carlton club to abandon Lloyd George as a leader it caused him to lead a divided liberal party in to the election which then caused him to fall from power. Without the conservatives losing support for him I feel he would have stayed in power which is why I feel this was the strongest argument for his fall from power.