The new regime headed by Prince Max, attempted some reforms but ultimately this was ineffective due to the discontent and anger within the population of the failed war. Under extreme pressure of a full-scale revolution breaking out, Prince Max announced the former Kings abdication and stepped down from his position, giving the chancellorship to the socialist leader Friedrich Ebert. (J Hite & C Hinton. 2000) A republic was then proclaimed by Phillip Schneidemann to cheering crowds, the first point of business for the new government was to sign the armistice with the Allies. This was
To understand and identify the aspects of the totalitarian system in both countries it's important to consider both countries history. On November the 11th 1918 Germany agreed to signed the Armistice. After Germany was forced to accept Versailles agreement by accepting guilt for WW 1. As a consequence the German people were demotivated and had no confidence in the new liberal democratic Weimar government and international forces. This resulted in risings such as the Spartacist rising where communists fuelled by the success of the Russian revolution almost occupied nearly every major city in Germany.
How far did the political changes in Germany between October 1918 and May 1919 amount to a revolution? There were many changes in Germany between October 1918 and May 1919 that amounted to revolution. Firstly one of the most important actions was the Ebert-Groener pact. The pact was formed on the 10th November and it led the army to support the new government. This meant that the government had back up from the army if anything were to up rise.
However as the war progressed and more issues became apparent, the divide between the rich and the poor and the left and the right wing became vaster. Before the war had commenced liberals and socialists were aggravated with German democracy. Germany portrayed itself as a democratic state, however all the power belonged to the elite. Kaiser Wilhelm II even boasted that he had never read the constitution. Therefore Liberals wanted constitutional reform and more power to be given to the Reichstag.
After the failure of the Knapp Putsch the Freikorps were disbanded and Hitler got a few key members to act as an army for the party, giving them the name of the S.A, and instructing them to disrupt the meetings of political opponents and protect Hitler from revenge attacks. He realised that the growth in the party was mainly due
These consequences were significant for many reasons, particularly due to their impact on society, allies and the opposition, as well as inducing the beginning of WWII. The first cause of Hitler becoming Chancellor was Germany signing the Treaty of Versailles in June of 1919. After the end of WWI, the allies forced Germany to sign a peace treaty. In this treaty Germany was forced to take the blame for the War, pay reparations (which were set at 6.6 billion pounds in April 1921) as well as reducing their army to 100,000 men, getting rid of any air force, as well as being limited to 6 battleships. Germany also lost all overseas colonies, and their boundaries within Europe were reduced, losing in total 13.5% of their territory, which included losing 7 million people to neighbouring countries.
Later that year in Potsdam, many open disagreements took place because Germany had lost the war so Russia had promised to fulfil, Churchill had lost the 1945 election and Roosevelt died so Truman, who replaced him was angered by the large scale reparations imposed on Germany and the setting up of a communist government in Poland. He did not trust Russia, so kept him in the dark about him having the atomic bomb in 1945 before he dropped it on Japan to get them to surrender. By America using the atomic bomb, Stalin knew that it was possible for it to be used against them. Russia was therefore tricked by America preventing the Red Army from going to Japan. This threatened Russia and warned them that America was wary of them and could act on it.
Von Papen had no support in the Reichstag but he hoped that he could form a right-wing coalition with the Nazis and other right-wing parties. Hitler said no, and so Hindenburg called another election in which the Nazis lost 34 seats and all was looking dark and gloomy for the Nazis. But then luck came around as General von Schleicher turned against von Papen and stopped supporting him. Schleicher decided that he should be Chancellor. This triggered of a huge power struggle between von Papen and von Schleicher.
Communism’s goal was to bring down capitalism in any way possible. When Stalin came into power in 1924, the US mistrusted him even more. During this time, Germany was in the process of building itself up. Stalin was concerned that Russia would be attacked and the US was concerned watching Hitler spread his rule. Stalin and the US created a brief alliance because they were both concerned with stopping Hitler.
Dominic Zagara Gadel IB Euro 5/26/2014 Why Communism doesn’t work! Featuring East Germany and Poland East Germany and Poland both had numerous factors, both short-term and long term that led to the fall of communism. The oppressive rule of Erich Honecker led to disintegration from communism in East Germany, whereas in Poland, Lech Walesa and Gorbachev’s loosening of Russian Enforcement led to its disintegration. In East Germany, a Chancellor, Erich Honecker, rose to power and employed harsh, repressive methods. In addition, the berlin Wall was in the construction process, increasing the cultural divide between eastern and western Europe along the Iron Curtain.