Germany was not happy about losing all this land as it made them smaller, it damaged the economy and they lost colonies to make them look stronger and to help them if another war broke out. Another reason Germany was unhappy was because they were force to take war guilt. Germany had to take all of the blame for the war. This made Germany angry as they did not actually start the war and there were other people involved. Germany also had to pay reparation.
Although the conditions of the agreement seemed extremely severe, the allied countries had no sympathy for the Germans. They were forced to pay excessive amounts of money as reparation fees to make up for all the damage and destruction that was caused during the war. 13% of German territory was given away and many important industrial areas were controlled by western allies. This caused a major impact on the economy and had many affects to not only the government, but German citizens as well. Many people became unemployed and were no longer able to support their families.
Following the Auxiliary Service Law in December 1919, which required all able-bodied Germans to work for the war effort, there was a sharp increase of social unrest as Germans felt their rights being curtailed. The winter of 1916-17 was the peak of discontent as the severe food and fuel shortages were at their worst. Civilian deaths from starvation and hypothermia increased from 121,000 in 1916 to 293,000 in 1918 and infant mortality increased by over 50% over the duration of the war. This led to huge resentment among Germans as they questioned the injustice of the loss of lives. 16% of the 1.8million who died at war were conscripted and all families were somehow impacted by the war, which consequently led to a decline in the popularity of the Royal Family.
The leaders of Britain, France and US agreed to bring peace to Europe and created a list of terms that ended WW1. These terms were known as the treaty of Versailles. The terms of the treaty mostly only applied to Germany and were really harsh on them. The treaty deprived 13% of Germany's land and demilitarized Germany's mainland, Rhineland. It also required Germany to pay 6,600 million Euros to countries that faced damages due to the war.
The number of people unemployed rose by five million from the start of the great depression1929 to when Hitler became chancellor in 1933. Some people were still in works but they were paid low wages and worked short time works. The number of unemployment left many people hungry as they had no work so they couldn’t get the money to buy food. Also many people became homeless. The great depression gave huge boost to the extremist parties as the German people started to blame the government to the depression and therefore lost confidence in them.
The Weimar Republic had signed the Treaty of Versailles, 1919, which increased their unpopularity. The Germans hated the Treaty because they saw it as accepting the blame for causing the First World War and admitting defeat. Also, the Treaty came with very harsh including paying reparations of £660 million to Britain and France. The people of Germany did not understand why the government signed this questioned whether they wanted the best for Germany. The hatred for the Weimar Republic kept on growing and this led to the Kapp Putsch, 1920.
Known also as Black Tuesday, October 29th left stockholders shattered with recorded losses reaching $40 billion dollars (Kelly, n.d.). Many banks and financial institutions began collapsing which led to irretrievable, uninsured deposits and savings. Fearing further loss, people began spending less which led to a decrease in production and an increase in unemployment. As companies began to fail, the government devised the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in order to protect American businesses. The Tariff placed high taxes on imports leading to a decline in international trade.
Describe the effects of hyperinflation on Germany in 1923. (9) The Weimar government was short of money after the First World War and so began to print more and more banknotes. The sudden flood of paper money into the economy, on top of the general strike - which meant that no goods were manufactured, so there was more money, chasing fewer goods - combined with a weak economy ruined by the war, all resulted in hyperinflation. Prices ran out of control, for example, a loaf of bread, which cost 250 marks in January 1923 had risen to 200,000 million marks in November 1923. German's currency became worthless.
In 1923, Germany had failed to make a reparations payment resulting in France occupying the Ruhr. This had a disastrous effect on the German economy, resulting in the German government printing more money as the currency collapsed and by November 1923, one US dollar was worth 4.2 trillion marks. Leading economists still believe that the reparations accounted for most of Germany’s deficit in 1921 and 1922 and that they caused hyperinflation. Furthermore, Germany was stripped of 25,000 square miles of
Citizens were treated differently than the ones in the West. East Germany was always facing repressions so the biggest problem was requiring all workers to work more. If they did not follow this new law then their income dropped by one-third of their original paycheck. This already showed how unfair the life was becoming in the East. Many of the workers became angry and started protesting against the government.