Germany After World War One

Germany After World War One Timeline, 1920-1929
Read through the timeline below and complete the analysis questions on the back.

1920 - Announcement of the Treaty of Versailles, and the responsibility of Germany to pay for the war causes general strikes and uprisings by groups who want to take over the German government.

June 1920 - A new government is elected to run Germany.  They are called the Weimar Republic.  They accept the terms of the Treaty and promise to pay for the war.  This enrages most working-class Germans and some organizations threaten to shoot members of the new government.
1921 - The newly created Polish nation defeats a small force of German soldiers in Upper Silesia. Poland is now unified.  The German public is outraged because the Allies provided aid to the Polish army, and they are disappointed that their army was eliminated.
April 1921 – France and Britain create a schedule of payments for Germany so they can repay those two nations for the cost of the war.  Germany is expected to pay $250 million each month.  How they are to come up with this money is not stated.

August 1921 – Political assassinations (murders) begin, with the killing of the Weimar Republic Finance Minister by a German nationalist (someone opposed to the new gov’t)
1922 - Assassination of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, a Jew, by anti-government “terrorist”. The police force is doubled in reaction to the increasing political murders.           
July 1922 – Protest marches begin in Bavaria (southern Germany) – the people there want to break away from Germany and form their own nation (Adolf Hitler and the Nazis are based in Bavaria at this time)
1923 - Due to a delay in the payment of German reparations, French and Belgian forces occupy the Ruhr valley in western Germany.  The German people are angry about it, but do not have an army to do anything about it.  The German government declares passive resistance (a gigantic, state-sponsored mass strike), which fans hyperinflation, since the government in Berlin pays the strikers in the Ruhr. Having no monetary reserves left, the government resorts to printing extra money, thus destroying the value of the currency. Hyperinflation wipes out all middle-class savings and increases unemployment (50%). Inflation reaches record heights: 1 US dollar = 4 trillion German marks
October 1923 – Discussions begin amongst German political groups (including the Nazis) to begin re-arming (giving guns and training) the army.  There are many marches against the government, including those by the Communists, the Nazis, and the Radicals.
November 1923 – Adolf Hitler and 3,000 Nazis storm into a meeting of the Munich government and try to takeover.  After a day and a half the Nazis and Hitler are attacked by German police and Hitler is arrested.  Event is called “Beer Hall Putsch (Rebellion)”.
1924 - Hitler receives a five-year prison term for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch, of which he serves only one year. While in prison, Hitler writes the first volume of his autobiography/political program, Mein Kampf (My Struggle).
May 1924 – Elections show how divided the country is.  German nationalists gain the most seats in the government, with Radicals on the left also having significant gains.  The Nazis gain 6% of the seats in the German government.

1925 -After his amazingly early release from the prison, Hitler reorganizes his Nazi party and starts to expand it to the rest of Germany.
Gustav Stresemann – becomes Finance Minister of Germany.  His policies nearly brought about a recovery of the German economy.  First, he eliminated the German mark as a form of money (it was worthless anyway).  Then he created a new money called the Reichmark and got the United States to support it with their banks.  Stresemann persuaded Germany’s enemies to sign the Treaty of Locarno saying they would no longer cross Germany’s borders and take their land.  He negotiates with the Allies to reduce Germany’s war debt, and he convinces France and Britain to allow Germany to enter the League of Nations.  Unemployment stops declining for the first time in 5 years.  Things in Germany begin to turn around.
1926 – Gustav Stresemann wins the Nobel Peace Prize for single-handedly leading the recovery of Germany and for establishing peace amongst the warring powers.
1927 - Unemployment rises but reaches no dramatic levels. Under the steady guidance of Stresemann’s policies it is a quiet year in Weimar (German) politics.
1928 - Government elections in May 1928 seem to confirm the trend toward stability. The Democrats and Moderates gain seats, while the Nationalists, Radicals, Communists, and Nazis all had significant losses.
1929 – October 3rd – Gustav Stresemann dies suddenly at age 51 of a stroke.
October 29th – the United States stock market crashes sending global markets
into economic ruin – Germany’s currency, tied to US banks, loses a lot of value

Homework:  After reading through the timeline compose 2 paragraphs discussing the situation in Germany.  Your 1st paragraph should detail the difficulties they had in the first 4 years of the 1920’s.  Your 2nd paragraph should discuss how things began to turn around in 1925.  You should conclude by predicting the effect Stresemann’s death, and the US stock market crash will have on Germany in the 1930’s.