DEPTH STUDY GERMANY: WEIMAR REPUBLIC - 01. THE EFFECT OF WW1 ON GERMANY

DEPTH STUDY GERMANY: WEIMAR REPUBLIC - 01. THE EFFECT OF WW1 ON GERMANY

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  DEPTH STUDY WEIMAR REPUBLIC THEEFFECT OF WW1 ON GERMANY 01
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY INTRODUCTION • In early 1918 the German people were celebrating. • After years of stalemate the Great War was going their way. • On the Eastern Front, Russia has been defeated. • The Bolsheviks government had been forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty giving Germany 25% of its best land and 75% of its iron ore.
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY A BREAKTHROUGH • German divisions were now transferred from the Eastern Front to the Western Front. • They made a massive breakthrough all along the Western Front in the Ludendorff Offensive. • German divisions were now advancing quickly through Belgium and Northern France. • Their leaders encouraged the German people to believe that victory would soon be theirs.
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY REVERSAL • The Allies were stronger, and Germany was weak. • USA had entered the war in 1917. They manage to build up the Allied forces by sending equipment and soldiers to Europe. • The Germans had lost their best officers in the beginning of the war, and the German soldiers were exhausted and poorly supplied after years of an efficient British blockade. • In June 1918 the Ludendorff Offensive slowed, then stopped.
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY THE LUDENDORFF OFFENSIVE • The German spring offensive began on 21 March 1918, and created the biggest crisis of the war for the Allies. • General Erich Ludendorff was the driving force in the preparation of this offensive, together with Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. • Ludendorff wanted to break through the Allied lines in the Somme area, after which he would determine the next move. • Such an approach was self-defeating because maintaining momentum depended upon logistic support of the advancing forces, which could only be ensured by careful preparations in advance.
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY DISASTER • In August 1918, the Allies counter-attacked. • The German army had little strength left to resist. • Within a few weeks the Allies had recaptured the land lost and started to threaten the German soil. • The luck of war has changed so rapidly that for many Germans was impossible to accept that the war is going in the wrong direction. • By September 1918 it was clear that Germany is forced into peace. • Over 1 million German soldiers were dead and civilians faced starvation. • Germans blamed the Kaiser, and he was forced into abdication.
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY POLITICAL EFFECTS • Germany experienced political problems before the war. • The Reichstag was weak. • Working class and middle class had little to say in the way Germany was run. • There was no effective opposition to the Kaiser. • During the war, this situation got worse. • Opposition leaders were imprisoned. • Germany was ruled as a military dictatorship by the Kaiser and his army leaders Ludendorff and Hindenburg. • This weakened the Reichstag further.
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY ANARCHY • Germany was very unstable. • Armed demobilized soldiers were returning home, joining in violent demonstrations against the war and the Kaiser.
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY PHYSICAL EFFECTS • Farming was disrupted because farm workers were drafted into the armed forces. • By 1918 Germany was producing only 50% of the milk, and 60% of the butter and meat, which had been produced before the war. • It could not make up for this by importing food because in the last two years of the war the British navy blockaded German ports, successfully preventing any food getting in. • Many German people faced starvation. • In the winter of 1916-1917 the supply of potatoes ran out and there were only turnips left. In their weak condition civilians were vulnerable to disease. • Around 750.000 German citizens died from the combined effects of hunger and disease.
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS • Before the war, the Germans had been proud and ambitious for their country. • They were prepared to work hard for its success. • The experiences of war made Germans bitter and angry. • All the hopes of the pre-war Years had been dashed. They looked around for someone to blame for defeat in the war. • A society that had been famous for its unity and the obedience of its people now became famous for its squabbling and conflict.
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY SUMMARY • Germany emerged from the First World War in chaos. • The new Weimar government experienced crisis after crisis, as a consequence of being a government of large coalition. • Out of this confusion, Hitler and the Nazis emerged as the most powerful group in Germany and led the nation into a Dictatorship, ending in an international war and the death of tens of millions of people.
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  CAMBRIDGE IGCSE –DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY Decorated (Iron Cross) Veteran Begging on the Street (1923) Wounded veterans of the Great War – a common sight on the streets of Weimar Germany – were among those hardest hit by the great inflation. Even the money they received from begging became quickly worthless. COMMENT THE IMPACT OF THIS IMAGE OVER THE HEARTS/MIND OF GERMAN PEOPLE