Weimar Germany and the rise of the Nazis.

I. The End of Imperial Germany. During the final weeks of World War I, the German Imperial government unraveled. The outbreak of a sailors' at Imperial Naval base at Kiel, purred on similar uprisings in other armed force units and bread riots in the major cities. By November 9, Kaiser Wil1iam II, like his cousin Nicholas, was forced to abdicate. But unlike Nicholas, he lived out his life in exile in Holland. Two days later an armistice was signed between Germany and the Allies.

A.The Provisional Government. A provisional government was organized and led mainly by the Social Democratic party.

B The Social Democrats. The SPD was largest political party in Imperial Germany. The SPD was divided into factions.

1. The Majority Socialists or gradualist faction supported a broad-based party, parliamentary road to power and gradual development of socialism.

2. Independent Socialists favored immediate socialization of society and nationalization of industry, but like the gradualist supported non-violent means to this end.

3. The Spartacists favored immediate violent overthrow of the government and the establishment of a Dictatorship of the proletariat like the Russian Bolsheviks.

C. The Spartacist Putsch. The Spartacists attempted a revolution in Berlin in January 1919.

1. The Provisional Government withdrew to Weimar and raised volunteer units of demobilized troops (freikorps) and deployed them against the Spartacists in Berlin.

2. The bulk of the German army opposed the Spartacist revolt and the coup was smothered within a few days.

3. The army's action in suppressing the Spartacist revolt tended to restore the Germans' esteem for the army even though it had been defeated in the war.

D. The Weimar Constitution. The provisional government did not wait long to convene a constitutional convention, like the Russian Provisional government in 1917. In February 1919, less than a month after the Spartacist Revolt, National Assembly convened at Weimar and formed a constitution. The Weimar Constitution gave interwar Germany a republican government with federal, democratic features and a strong presidency. in which all parties would be included by their election strength throughout Germany.

E. Further Left Wing and Right-Wing Putsches. The Weimar Republic continued to face a threat to its existence from both the extreme left and the extreme right.

1. In the summer of 1919, an attempt was made to organize a Bavarian Soviet Republic center in Munich in the summer of 1919. Ironically one of the military leaders of this abortive revolt was Ernst Rohm, who later was the head of the Nazi Storm troopers.

2. In 1920, an armed putsch by rightist army officers forced the republican government from Berlin. This revolt was foiled when the labor unions of Berlin halted all public utilities and telecommunications.

3. In 1923, a second rightist coup was attempted in Munich led by retired Field Marshal von Ludendorff and Adolph Hitler. While this "Beer Hall Putsch" was crushed its fanatical ringleader, Hitler, was only given a token sentence in a comfortable jail, in which he wrote his blueprint for Nazism.

4. In 1924, both right wing nationalists and Communists gained strength at the expense of centrist parties parliamentary elections.

This was followed by the election of retired Field Marshal Paul von Hindenberg in 1925 that was considered a victory of the conservative right.

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