Germany after the War

Kaiser Gone

• Why?

German Revolution

• Began on 29th October 1918 • Sailors at Kiel refused to obey orders and

engage in battle with the British Navy• The sailors in the German Navy mutinied and

set up councils based on the soviets in Russia • Soviet – Russian word meaning Council• By 6th November the revolution had spread to

the Western Front and all major cities and ports in Germany.

Bavaria

• On 7th November, 1918, Kurt Eisner, leader of the Independent Socialist Party, declared Bavaria a Socialist Republic

On 9th November, 1918

I am out of here!Netherlands here I

come!!

• SPD for short

• Better chance of a fair peace

• Democratic Republic

• No more Kaiser or emperor

• The SPD were the largest political party

Treaty of Versailles

• How did this cause problems for the new Government?

BLAME

Territory

Reparations Insult

Hate

Betrayed

Unfair

Treaty of

Versailles

Feelings in Germany

• Humiliated

• Revenge

• ‘stab in the back’ theory meant that the new democratic government was blamed for the humiliation of Versailles

• Germans were horrified when they discovered the terms of the Treaty of Versailles

• “We didn’t start the war!”

• “why should we be blamed?”

• Many Germans were outraged when Germany was not even represented at the discussions to sort out a peace settlement

The disgraceful Treaty is being signed today.  

   

Don’t forget it!  

We will never stop until we win back what we deserve.  

From Deutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper, 28 June 1919.

Questions

1. Who were the ‘November Criminals’?2. What exactly was the ‘Stab in the back’

theory? Do you think the government was used as a scapegoat? Give reasons for your answer

3. Why were the German people so resentful in the 1920s? – (discuss the timing behind the Weimar Republic and its principles).