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IB Contemporary World History Mr. Blackmon

The Weimar Republic: Part I

I. The Social Democrats of GermanyA. Prior to the war, the German Social Democrats were the largest, best organized

Socialist party in Europe. Under the leadership of Friedrich Ebert they had a verywell-organized political machine, a professional party bureaucracy, and were thelarget single party in the German Reichstag.

B. In 1916, the Social Democrats split over support of the war1. The Majority Socialists, with the bulk of the membership, remained loyal to

the war effort.2. The Independent Socialists, including most of the theoreticians, broke ranks

and opposed the war.3. Associated with the Independent Socialists, but considerably farther to the

Left, were the Spartacists, named after the gladiator whose rebellion nearlytoppled the Roman Empire. Their leaders included a. Karl Liebknecht, son of a revered socialist leader and friend of Marx.

Liebknecht is a tireless and fearless agitator. He was drafted into thearmy to silence him, and then court-martialed and imprisoned.

b. Rosa Luxemburg, nicknamed the Red Rose by the police. Luxemburgwas a Polish Jew, a woman of exceptional intelligence whosedetermination belied her grandmotherly appearance. She was thechief Spartacist theoretician, and was at least as well known as Leninprior to 1917. Like Liebknecht, she was imprisoned during the war(unlike Liebknecht, without specific charges)(1) Luxemburg was highly suspicious of Lenin's authoritarianism,

and opposed his advocacy of terror.4. During the war, the two edit and circulate the Spartacus Letters, radical fliers

which advocated and end to the war and an overthrow of all bourgeoisinstitutions.

5. Lenin did not recognize the legitimacy of either the Majority or IndependentSocialists. He regarded the Spartacists as comrades.

II. The government of Prince Max of BadenA. Ludendorff's demand for an immediate armistice led to the formation of a new

government on Oct. 3, 1918 by Prince Max of Baden. European history might havetaken a very different course had he been made chancellor much earlier.

B. Max was a highly intelligent and able man who had long advocated liberalconstitutional reform within Germany. He had served early in the war, but retired dueto poor health. He then devoted himself to the Red Cross, and improved theconditions of Allied prisoners of war. He favored a negotiated peace withoutexpansionist annexations. He also spoke perfect English and was related not only tothe Kaiser but to the English Duke of Cumberland. 1. His weaknesses were his inability to command the masses, and his desire to

save more of the monarchy than most Germans wanted.

IB Contemporary World History Mr. BlackmonThe Weimar Republic

C. Max' primary task is to negotiate with Woodrow Wilson for an armistice. It is adifficult job. Wilson proved to be a very tough negotiator. Wilson's performance atthe Versailles Peace Conference can be faulted, but not these negotiations.

D. Wilson is determined that the armistice should be tantamount to surrender. He hadno intention of allowing the Germans an armistice in order to regroup their forces tocontinue to fight. This was wise: it is clear that Hindenburg and Ludendorff haddeluded themselves into thinking that the Allies would give them such a breathingspace.

E. Max is hampered by the inconsistent attitudes of Ludendorff and by theunwillingness of the Kaiser to face up to reality, especially to abdicate.

F. Max' government included Friedrich Ebert, Philip Scheidemann (of the MajoritySocialists), and Matthias Erzberger of the Catholic Centre, but no one from the rightwing.

G. Public revelation that Germany had asked for an armistice led to a collapse of theGerman economy. The army was collapsing, with fewer and fewer units reliable.Troops at the front were exhausted, hungry, and sullen. No one wished to die in awar that was now lost.

H. On Oct. 24, Wilson virtually demanded the abdication of the Kaiser and theresignation of Hindenburg and Ludendorff as representatives of the militarism thathad led to the war. Shocked, Ludendorff suddenly advocated continued fighting inorder to die in a blaze of glory. Ludendorff sends an inflammatory proclamation tothe army without Max' knowledge. Summoned before the Kaiser, Ludendorffcriticised the government's policies and demanded that negotiations be broken off.The Kaiser pointed out that the negotiations had started only at the urgent demandof Hindenburg and Ludendorff. Ludendorff resigns. Max has won, but is left withan ominous aftermath:1. "For obvious reasons, Max and his government had not been able to

announce publicly that the reason they were exchanging notes with Wilsonwas that the German Army was in desperate straits. They had not madepublic the frantic demands of the Supreme Coummand. They had tried topreserve at least a shred of a bargaining position. Accordingly, the majorityof the Army's officers believed that the civil government alone wasresponsible for the armistice appeal. [emphasis added] It was a mistake forwhich both Max and his government were to pay a heavy price. Most of thenation and the Army were sincerely convinced that Max (whom they called'the pacifist Prince' [Max Pax]) had taken the chancellorship in order to makepeace and had then maneuvered Ludendorff out of office when the Generalprotested against the demands of the vindictive Alliles. By a narrow margin,in the midst of defeat and dismissal, Ludendorff had been successful intransferring the responsibility for the defeat to the civil government.[emphasis added] . . . . Now the truth could not be hidden. . . . Suddenly theGerman people rrealized that the war was lost. It was a shattering realization.


. . . . From this point on the German people could not be convinced that therewas any point in fighting. . . . . The German people had become a mob whoseonly aim was to end the war." (Watt 156-7)

I. Gen. Wilhelm Groener is appointed to Ludendorff's position. Groener is anintelligent and patriotic man with great moral courage. He is prepared to take stepsthat Hindenburg could not. He is an expert in logistics. Early in the war, he was incharge of field-railway transport, a task he performed brilliantly. Later, he wasplaced in charge of the economic mobilization of the country. In this capacity, heobtained an insight into the civilian sector, and especially into the Social Democratsunrivalled within the army. In turn, the Social Democrats came to like and respecthim. Groener understood that the nation could not be mobilized without the tradeunions.

III. The Kiel MutinyA. The High Seas fleet had been bottled up in their ports since Jutland. Morale sagged

severely. The best sailors volunteered for submarines or destroyers, leaving the leastenthusiastic behind. The officers were mortified that they had not played a great rolein the war. They responded by enforcing extremely strict and meaningless disciplineon their sailors. They seem unaware that their men were deeply disaffected. As thewar ended, they concocted a plan to take the fleet out on a "death ride," challenge theRoyal Navy, and go down in glory. They did not bother to inform Prince Max ofthis.

B. The enlisted men were, understandably, unenthusiastic about a "death ride."C. The fleet was ordered to assemble on Oct. 28, 1918. By Oct. 29, the battleships are

in full-fledged mutiny. The sailors refuse to do their duty to take the ships out.D. By November 3, the mutiny has spread to the city of Kiel itself, involving sailors and

dockworkers. The port is shut down. Over several days, the police and shore patrolsdisappear. The admiral of the port receives the sailors' demands.1. The sailor's are not yet revolutionaries. They were frightened men. The

potential for bolshevik-like radicalism was present, but they were not yet atthat stage.

2. The admiral of the port, Souchon, suggests that the government sendsomeone to deal with the sailors, preferably a Socialist (this is a remarkableadmission for a German admiral)

E. The mutiny spreads to every naval base in Germany. Although the sailors continuallyfear that the Army will be used to suppress them, the mutiny is in fact too wide-spread to be suppressed by force, and in any event, the Army was no longer to berelied upon to suppress fellow Germans.

F. Gustav Noske, the Social Democrats' military expert is dispatched to Kiel. Heis welcomed by the sailors as well as by Adm. Souchon. Noske was trusted by theofficers as much as any Socialist was trusted, and had been allowed frequently tovisit the front and see whatever he wanted to see. He quickly realizes that the onlyoption available to him was to take over leadership of the mutiny and steer it on a


course to support the government and away from Bolshevik radicalism. At the sametime, he wished to retain the good-will of the officers, whose loyalty to the newgovernment would be needed. It was a very difficult task, and he succeededbrilliantly.

IV. Proclamation of the RepublicA. On Oct. 29, the same day as the mutiny, the Kaiser left Berlin for military

headquarters at Spa. This led to speculation that he was planning to use the armyagainst his own government. This was the worst move he could have made. Theprestige of the ruling houses had already suffered heavily from the war. The masseswant peace, and although most Germans probably desired a continuation of themonarchy, they did not want a continuation of the monarchy and the war.

B. The Bavarian Revolution1. Kurt Eisner, a Jewish Independent Socialist, deposes the Wittelsbach dynasty

on November 7 and establishes and declares a republic with power held bya Council of Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers. Eisner is not, however, aBolshevik. Rosa Luxemburg despised him. He distrusted Lenin and Trotsky.There is no Red Terror at all.

C. The Spartacists in Berlin were clearly preparing a coup. Liebknecht agitatedtirelessly, hoping to drive the revolution to the left. Liebknecht called for a generalstrike on Nov. 9.

D. There was a proliferation of paramilitary organizations in Berlin: Liebknechtcontrolled one force; the Chief of the Berlin; the Commandant of Berlin; and thePeople's Naval Division (whose commnader described them an an "organized bandof robbers")

E. By Nov. 7, Ebert told Prince Max that if the Kaiser did not abdicate, a socialrevolution would be inevitable. He added that he did not want to see such arevolution occur.

F. Kaiser Wilhelm II attempted to evade the inevitable, dreaming of leading his armyto reconquer his own subjects. Hindenburg could not bring himself to bluntly tell theKaiser the truth. Groener does so--the army could no longer even guarantee hispersonal safety for a night. Finally, Wilhelm II abdicates the throne on November 9,1918.1. His abdication leaves an emotional void for conservative elements in the

country--the officer corps, the Junkers, the petit bourgeois, the civil servants.2. Prince Max did not actually wait for word to reach him before announcing the

Kaiser had abdicated.G. On the same day, Nov. 9, Liebknecht proclaims a socialist republic.

1. On November 10, H. Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the Majority Social Democrats, is faced with the

problem of creating a new government amid the chaos. He had originally intendedto form a coalition of parliamentary parties, possibly joining Prince Max' governmentat a high price. The Independent Socialists would not accept any power-sharing with


a bourgeois party, and had mass support behind them. Therefore on Nov. 10, Ebertproposed that the workers' and soldiers' councils in Berlin accept a 6 man Council ofPeople's Commissars as the new government of Germany with 3 Majority Socialistsand 3 Independents.1. The situation in Berlin was very confused. Phillip Scheidemann was called

away from his soup to proclaim the German republic. When Ebert learnedof this, he was furious, since it technically invalidated his government, whichwas pretending to receive power from the regency of Prince Max.

I. The Ebert-Groener "Deal"1. That night, Nov. 9, as Ebert wrestled with how he could consolidate his

govenrment against so many opposing forces, he receives a call on a secretline from Gen. Groener. This conversation has become the subject of greatcontroversy, chiefly from those who argue that Ebert delivered the revolutioninto the hands of reaction from the very first day. This is unfair.

2. The Armistice terms gave the German Army only 30 days to evacuate France,Belgium, Luxemburg, Alsace-Lorraine, and German Rhineland. In that timeover 2,000,000 and their supplies had to be moved. Hindenburg had beenstunned by the time frame and asked for 60 more days. He was peremptorilyrefused. Obviously, only the General Staff could execute such a complexmaneuver. Those historians who attack Ebert must be willing to accept thecapture and indefinite incarceration of hundreds of thousands of Germansoldiers (assuming that they were not attacked). The Allied time frame forevacuation was deliberately brutal.

3. Ebert also needed some military force that would help him stabilize hisgovernment. This may be unpalatable to some historians, but governmentscannot survive if they do not possess power. Elections would later prove thatEbert represented the wishes of the majority of Germany's citizens, but chaosand revolution could deny him the opportunity to build a democratic andsocialist Germany. I have read at least one historian (I forgot just who at themoment; eventually I'll spot the passage and I can fix this spot up) whodescribed multiple forces for democracy in Europe, and included Liebknechtand the Spartacists (and, by implication, Lenin and the Bolsheviks) amongthe "democrats." I can accept Lenin and Liebknecht as revolutionaries; I canaccept them as reformers (whether those reforms would actually work isirrelevent here; they were out to save mankind even if they had to slaughtermillions to do it). But to call them "democratic" is to use that word in a sensethat I cannot understand and will not accept. Both are profoundly elitist, andhave no interest in obeying the expressed will of the people. The masses areto be led--by force if necessary. Ebert, on the other, submitted his actions tothe people in election.

4. In the conversation, Ebert asked Groener to supervise the withdrawal, towhich Groener agreed. Groener told Ebert he expected the government to


maintain discipline and make provision to support the Army. Ebert asked"What else?" Groener replied, "The Officers' Corps expects that thegovernment will fight against Bolshevism, and places itself at the disposal ofthe government for such a purpose." Ebert, after a slight pause, thankedGroener on behalf of the government.a. Ebert has promised to oppose a Bolshevik revolution, as represented

by the Spartacists. He has not promised to give up the entirerevolution, however. Groener sees Ebert's government as a muchbetter alternative than Liebknecht.

5. In any event, an understanding between the Army and the Socialistgovernment has been reached.

6. Ebert also asks the civil servants to remain in place as well7. Ebert probably had no choice in either case. No one else could have

possibly fulfilled the vital functions. To jettison the General Staff or thecivil service would have led to even more severe chaos than already existed.His error was that he did not attempt to build either an Army unquestionablyloyal to the government or a loyal civil service. In both groups, the majorityof officials remained wary of the Weimar Republic at best, and often openlyhostile (especially in the police and courts, where right wing agitators weretreated very leniently).

8. This whole issue has been such a crux for Marxist and/or Leftist criticismsof the Republic that I would like to quote Helmut Heiber's recent study of theWeimr Republic. In effect, Heiber asks what alternatives were available aswell as what kind of government the bulk of the German population reallywanted. Marxist critics do not ever ask those questions, or they ask them inthe belief that Germany should have taken the Bolshevik road. The latteralternative is one with which I personally have little patience; I have towonder if the critics have tried to visualize a Bolshevik Germany in realisticterms--either for the Germans themselves or for Europe and the world.

9. "Those who bemoan the bourgeois Weimar Republic in general, or its endin particular, usually see the seeds of disaster in this policy. But anyonewho rejects the alternative of a socialist Republic, either on the Russianpattern or in some new German version, is bound to come to theconclusion that any solution other than collaboration with the bourgeois(in part even feudal) supporters of the old regime would have beenunthinkable. There were enormous problems to be overcome . . .: thedemobilization of the troops and their integration into productive processes;the provision of the population with the necessities of life . . . ; thechangeover from a war economy to a peacetime economy . . . . It was alsonecessary to preserve German unity . . . and to overcome the particularistic,even separistic, trends. . . . Faced with all these factors the SocialDemocratic supporters of democracy, having been put into the saddle byevents, were inevitably forced into a pact with yesterday's men. They


believed it to be essential if the new state was not to sink quickly intodisintegration and chaos, from which anything might issue, from a BolshevikSoviet Republic to total military occupation and dismemberment by theenemy--anything, in fact, but that partliamentary democracy which themajority of working people were striving for." (Heiber 12-13) (emphasisadded)

V. Signing the ArmisticeA. Matthias Erzberger of the Catholic Centre Party signed the Armistice agreement.

This action (taken at the insistence of Hindenburg, with whom he was in telegraphiccontact) will cost him his life by assassination.

B. The German army withdraws in good order--a miracle of staff work attributablelargely to Groener, a logistics genius. The Army that returns does not look like adefeated army.

C. The Soldiers' Councils are dealt with (at Gronener's suggestion) by inviting themcourteously to examine the problems of withdrawal and asking them if they feltcompetent to manage the movement. There was only one answer to this. TheSoldiers' Councils were given offices and seconded General Staff orders.

D. The good discipline and order of the Army fools some generals, even Groener briefly,that the Army could be relied upon to put down the Spartacists, put down theworkers' and soldiers' councils, and suppress all military power besides themselves.By Christmas Eve, they have been disabused. The troops maintained good order sothat they could get home quicker. Then, the Imperial Army began melting away.

VI. The Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils in BerlinA. Ebert faces a multitude of very difficult problems that would have taxed anyone to

the limit1. Hunger in the country; the Armistice required Germany to hand over large

amounts of rolling stock, which jeopardized both the return of the soldiers butalso the entire domestic distribution system. In addition, the Allies brutallyrefused to lift the food blockade on Germany, which certainly cost the livesof thousands of Germans, chiefly the very old and very young. It is difficultto understand the motivation for this. The ostensible reason was to insurethat the entire German merchant marine would be turned over to the Alliesin reparation. It is a legitimate grievance, and for those Germans whoseparents or children died of malnutrition and its complications, it is agrievance that causes deep anger and bitterness.

2. Ebert must conclude the peace treaty3. Ebert must fend off a White Counter-revolution4. Ebert must fend off a Red Revolution, which is especially difficult since the

Spartacists have become a pivotal force5. Ebert must fend off Bavarian separatism: Eisner's Bavarian Republic.

B. Growth of Socialism1. Censorship was abolished, freedom of assembly and association restored;


voting was now to be equal, direct, proportional, and secret, and universalsuffrage was introduced; the 8 hour day introduced; sickness insuranceextended and unemployment introduced; provisions for labour protectionrevived; all businesses were required to take back any workers returned fromthe war--which alleviated unemployment.

C. Ebert tries to form a coalition with the Independent Socialists, with a six-man"Council of People's Commissioners" to run the country, with 3 seats going to theMajority Socialists (Ebert, and Scheidemann among them) and 3 to the Independents.Liebknecht refused a seat. Thus a provisional government was formed which restedon the authority of the people.1. A general election is called for Jan. 19, 1919 to elect a constituent assembly.

D. Rifts appear within the ranks of the Socialists. Ebert and Scheidemann pay lipservice to a proletarian revolution, but fear it. "Their view of the German Revolutionwas that it was complete--it had cleared the way for widespread social reforms andthe establishment of a parliamentary and truly democratic political system. Unlikethe Independents, the Majority Socialists saw no need for more revolutionaryactivity. The democratic sytem they proposed to establish , in which the rights of allclasses would be protected, would be dominated by the workers in the natural courseof events, because of the weight of their numbers. . . . . The Majority Socialistscompletely repudiated Lenin's doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat, whichthey considered morally untenable. They regarded the Russian BolshevikRevolution, with its terrorism and its suppression of contending strains of Socialistthought, as a depraved and Asiatic form of Marxism." (Watt 217)

E. The Spartacists, led by Liebknecht and Luxemburg, quite deliberately set out todestroy this government by agitation, strikes, and armed bands. When Germanywas severely torn by civil war, then the Spartacists could take over. For theSpartacists, the more chaos there was the better. No one doubts that they arepreparing a coup d'etat.1. Lenin encourages this development with money and with the despatch of

Karl Radek (a close confidant of Lenin and, like Luxemburg, a Polish Jew--the two disliked each other). Tension exists among the Spartacists sinceLuxemburg rejects Lenin's use of terror and suppression of other socialistparties. Neither Liebknecht nor Luxemburg are prepared to accept Lenin'sprimacy.

2. The Spartacists reorganize as the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) onJan. 1

F. Ebert wants to insure the election is held. The Spartacists want to insure that it is notheld.

VII. Revolt of the Sailors in BerlinA. On Dec. 13, the People's Naval Division [Volksmarine Division], occupying the

Imperial Palace and Stables, were paid 125.000 marks on condition that they reducetheir force and evacuate the Palace. By Dec. 20, they informed the government thatthey wanted a Christmas bonus of an additional 80,000 marks. The government


agreed, but only upon actual evacuation of the palace. On Dec. 23, the sailors marchin and arrested Otto Wels, the military governor of Berlin. They told Ebert that theywould shoot him if their demands were not met. Ebert calls in the Army on his secretline.

B. On Dec. 24, the Imperial Horse Guards, an elite unit nearby, move in to storm theStables. In short order, the sailors flee or surrender. But a huge mob of Berlinersflood the plaza; the soldiers, bewildered, will not fire upon them, and are disarmedby the populace. The sailors' move back nto the stables.

C. This is the nadir of Army power. Clearly, Ebert's government cannot even controlthe streets of Berlin. With a Spartacist coup imminent, Ebert cast about for somesolution. Gustav Noske was proposed to join the government (Watt (238) writes thatGroener proposed him and Ebert accepted the nomination; Waite (13) asserts that thesuggestion was Ebert's). Noske was willing: "Of course! Somebody will have to bethe bloodhound--I won't shirk the responsibililty." (Watt 239, Waite 15)

VIII. The Freikorps: Noske's Bloodhounds--at least for nowA. The real tragedy of the Weimar Republic is that no attempt was made at this time to

create an Army of Social Democrats who could have supported the government.Instead, Noske turns to forces that were reactionary and nihilistic in the extreme.Noske evidently felt that he had no choice. Considering the general chaos in thecountry and the multiplicity of armed bands, I am inclined to think that Noske wascorrect: he took the only course available to him

B. Noske did not create the Freikorps movement. He uses the movement that hadalready started.

C. Background of the Freikorps1. The pre-War Youth Movement (the Wandervogel) is an important shaping

influence. The Movement represented a revolt of discontented bourgeoisyouth against the world of their parents. The Movement emphasized arestless desire for action (of any kind, action for its own sake), a mysticfellowship of the Volk which absorbs the individual, and a willingness tofollow a Führer, a Leader.

2. The second determining experience of the Freikorps was, of course, the War,and especially the creation of Sturmtruppen or Stoßtruppen. These units wereself-contained, with their own organic mortars, machine guns, and flame-throwers. Individuals were issued lighter carbines instead of the heavierMauser rifle, and were permitted to carry pistols (previously the exclusiveprovince of the officers). Stormtroopers were the first to adopt the steelhelmet. Their preferred weapon was the hand grenade. Discipline was strict,but not the traditional discipline unto death (Kadaverdisziplin) of the ImperialArmy. Enlisted men used the Familiar Singular "du" in addressing theirofficers. These units also produced a very large ratio of officers to men (ashigh as 1:4), chiefly lieutenants and captains--all unmarried men under 25years of age, usually from outside the ranks of the traditional officer corps


a. At the start of the war, the Imperial Army had 22,112 active and29,230 reserve officers; by the end of the war, there were over270,000 officers. Of the 22,112 active officers in 1914, 11,357 werekilled; (Waite 45-6, Watt 248) this forced the Germans to reach intosocial classes for new officers previously untapped for fear thatwatering down the Junker nature of the officer corps would weakenthe fabric of the monarchy. Prior to the war, the General Staff hadliterally refused to increase the size of the standing army for preciselythis reason. Militaristic Germany actually called a smaller percentageof able-bodied young men to the colors in the draft than did therepublican French.

3. Ernst Jünger may be taken as the spokesman for the Freikorps. In 1914, thissensitive university student marched to war, writing in his diary: "Surely thisday that God has given/ Was meant for better uses than to kill." (Waite 23)By 1916, at 21 years of age, Jünger has been wounded 20 times, wears thecoveted Pour le Mérite, Imperial Germany's highest decoration, and nowcommands a Stormbattalion. He is a hard and ruthless killer:a. "The turmoil of our feelings was called forth by rage, alcohol and the

thirst for blood. As we advanced heavily but irresistibly toward theenemy lines, I was boiling over with a fury which gripped me -- itgripped us all-- in an inexplicable way. The overpowering desire tokill gave me wings. Rage squeezed bitter tears from my eyes . . . Onlythe spell of primaeval instinct remained. . . . . Combat during theWorld War also had its great moments. Everyone knows that whohas ever seen these princes of the trenches in their own realm, withtheir hard, set faces and blood-shot eyes; brave to the point ofmadness, tough, quick to leap forward or back. Trench warfare is thebloodiest, wildest, most brutal of all warfare and it produced its owntype of men--men who grew into their Hour--unknown, crazy fighters.Of all the stimulating moments of war, none is so great as themeeting of two Schock Troop Leaders in the narrow confines of atrench. There is no retreat and no mercy then. Blood wrings forthfrom their shrill war cries which are wrenched from the heart like anightmare. . . . This is the New Man, the storm soldier, the elite ofMitteleuropa. A completely new race, cunning, strong, and packedwith purpose. What first made its appearance openly here in the Warwill be the axis of the future around which life will whirl faster andever faster . . . The glimmering sunset of a declining period is, at thesame time, the morning light of another day in which men are calledto new and harder battles. Far behind them await the mighty cities,the hosts of machines, the nations whose iner foundations will be tornasunder by the attacks of the New Man--of the audacious. the battle-


proven, the man merciless both to himself and to others. This war isnot the end. It is only the call to power. It is the forge in which theworld will be beaten into new shapes and new associations. Newforms must be molded with blood, and power must be seized with ahard fist. . . . . War, the Father of all things, is also our father. hehammered us, chiselled us, hardened us into that which we now are.And forever, as long as the wheel of life still turns in us, War will bethe axis on which it revolves. He trained us for war, and warriors wewill remain as long as we draw the breath of life." (Waite 23, 26, 28,22)

D. The Freikorps proliferated in late 1918, with the support of the Army SupremeCommand. Each band was raised and equipped by its commander, and was loyal tothat commander. Ominously, a term used often by the soldiers to refer to themselveswas Landsknecht, the mercenary soldiers of the Thirty Years' War. They varied inquality and radicalism. In general, they are truly ferocious, and extremelynationalistic. They are not truly conservative or even reactionary. They despised theWeimar Republic almost as much as they despised the Spartacists. They arerevolutionary in their nihilism. The Freikorps are the raw material out of whichHitler's Sturmabteilung will be formed, the "vanguard of Nazism."

E. The chief sources of recruits were the Stormtroop battalions from the War andidealistic university students. Units brought over from the Stormtroop battalionstheir Imperial insignia: the most common were acorns and oakleaves (Germanicsymbols for courage and loyalty) and the death's head (taken from Blücher's hussarsin 1814 and adopted by Himmler's SS). The colors adopted were the Imperial black-white-red rather than the black-red-gold of the Revolution of 1848 and the WeimarRepublic (note that Hitler very carefully chose black, white, and red for the Nazi flag:the black swastika on a white field to tie the Nazis to the Germanic past, the red fieldto symbolize revolution)1. The "Ehrhardt Song" of one of the largest, most famous, and most ferocious

Freikorps is illustrative:Stolz tragen wir die SterneUnd unsern Totenkopf,Wikingersschiff am Ärmel,Kaiserkron im Knopf.

Hakenkreuz am Stahlhelm,Schwarzweissrot das Band,Die Brigade EhrhardtWerden wir genannt.

Proudly we wear the stars,And our death's head, too,


Viking ship on the sleeves,Emperor's crown on the buttons.

Swastika on our steel helmets,Black, white, red our ribbonThe Brigade of EhrhardtThat is our name. (Carsten 87)

a. When these men joined Hitler's SA, they simply changed the line"Die Brigade Ehrhardt" to "Die Sturmabteilung Hitler."

F. The pay and benefits offered were excellent, especially when contrasted with theeconomic chaos in the country.

G. Ebert and Noske have been bitterly attacked for turning to these anti-liberal, anti-democratic units. In December-January 1918-19, they really did not have any choice.The real problem is that no effort was made afterwards to create an Army that wasgenuinely loyal to the republic.

IX. The Spartacist RevolutionA. The Spartacists attempt their coup d'etat on January 6, 1919 in BerlinB. The beginning was a huge demonstration of workers, which was addressed by Karl

Liebknecht, Georg Lebedour of the Independent Socialists, and Ernst Däumig of theRevolutionary Shop Stewards. They form a coalition and call for a general strike tooverthrow Ebert's government and place Germany "in the vanguard of theinternational proletarian revolution." (Watt 256) The situation in Berlin appeared tobe very similar to Petrograd in October 1917.

C. Workers seize most newspapers, the train stations, place riflemen on theBrandenburger Tor and attack the Reichstag. In Bremen, a soviet republic isproclaimed. There are uprisings in Brunswick, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, andNuremburg.

D. Ebert is convinced that no reconciliation with the far left Socialists is possible. Hebelieves that the first duty of his government was to survive. Noske escapes the cityto Dahlem, where he begins collecting Freikorps. Ebert calls in the ReinhardBrigade.

E. On January 9-10, the Freikorps begin the reconquest of Berlin at the chief Socialistnewspaper.1. The night before, the Freikorps commander disguised himslef and walked

into the building to reconnoiter its defenses.2. Using mortars, howitzers, flame throwers, machine guns and tanks the

Freikorps storm (what as left of) the building. The defenders attempted tosurrender. The Freikorps shot 300 prisoners down. (Watt 262)

F. Noske arrived Jan. 11 with more Freikorps.G. The Spartacists prove to be poorly organized. There was no shortage of armed

workers, but unlike the Bolsheviks, there was no tight-knit, determined committeeto give instant orders. Many of the Independent Socialists had not expected Ebert to


resist and had no stomach for fighting. The general strike was not widespreadenough to shut everything down. These revolutionaries were not yet ready to burnall their boats. Luxemburg was opposed to the rising, since she believed it could besustained only by the use of Leninist terror, which she opposed. Radek, Lenin'srepresentative, agreed to the extent that the German Communist Party was not yetready. He urged Liebknecht and Luxemburg to leave. They refused, since they hadroused the workers, they would not abandon them.

H. By January 14, the Freikorps had stormed the last Spartacist stronghold in Berlin,taking no prisoners. The Revolutionary Shop Stewards called off the general strike.Very aggrssive Freikorps patrols (as in they shot anything they didn't like, and theydidn't like much) prevented cohesive resistence. On January 15, Liebknecht andLuxemburg were captured. That night, they were murdered "while trying toescape."

I. One legacy of the Spartacist Week is that the Majority Socialist government is nowpermanently compromised in the eyes of the Left.

J. Noske systematically uses the Freikorps to stamp out revolution in Bremen,Hamburg, Halle, Leipzig, Thuringia, Brunswick, and the Ruhr. (Holborn 531) Theseaports are particularly important to the country, sicne food shipments could enteronly through them. Savage scenes on both sides occur. However, the Freikorps aremuch more ruthless and proficient. Heavily outnumbered by the revolutionarymilitias, they are nevertheless successful everywhere, and their victory is usuallyaccompanied by a vicious White Terror. The Bolsheviks faced nothing like theFreikorps in Russia.

X. The Bavarian ConterrevolutionA. Kurt Eisner's seizure of power is all the more remarkable in that he was not a

Bavarian himself, and in addition was a Jew in Catholic Bavaria. He was not agenuine radical, but a dreamer. He favored Bavarian independence from Germany,and in this respect he is a serious threat to Ebert's government. He proves to be acompletely ineffective ruler. He is not a Bolshevik, and there is no Red Terror. TheBavarian economy deteriorates swiftly, and he is unable to do much to help. OnJanuary 12, elections are held, and Eisner's Independent Socialists lose. On February21, he left his residence to tender his resignation to the Bavarian Parliament. On theway, he is assassinated by Count Anton Arco auf Valley. Arco auf Valley had justtried to join the Thule Society, an anti-semitic organization (whose charter membersincluded Alfred Rosenberg, translator of the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders ofZion into German, and Rudolf Hess; the Thule Society used the swastika as a symbol,and greeted each other with "Heil!"). He had been turned down because his motherwas partly Jewish and was trying to prove himself. One hour later, a Communistbutcher's apprentice walked into the Landtag, calmly leveled a gun at Erhard Auer,the leader of the Majority Socialists, Eisner's enemy, and shot him out of his chair.He then walked out calmly, killing an officer who tried to stop him. (Holborn 531,Watt 293-4, Waite 81-2)


1. I can't help but insert a note about this interesting man. He survived theshooting, and organized a Socialist paramilitary organization in Munich. InOctober of 1920, he was again the object of an assassination attempt,probalby from Hitler's SA. In March, 1921, there was a very serious attemptby the Bavarian government to deport Hitler (since he had never botheredtoobtain German citizenship despite his military service). Auer opposeddeportation on principle, "'democratic and libertarian principles' demandedthat Hitler be accorded his right of free speech in a constitutional democracy,no matter how odious his religious slurs and abusive attacks upon thegovernment might be." (Flood 254) He was wise enough to realize that Hitlerwas staging a putsch and went into hiding. The SA went looking for him,terrorizing his family. I do not know what became of him later.

B. The arrival of these agents inaugurated "a reign of terror which was mitigated onlyby inefficeincy and confusion." (Waite 84)

C. Munich dissolves in shambles. Three groups jockey for position: the MajoritySocialists, led by Adolf Hoffmann, the Coffeehouse Anarchists, led by the poet ErnstToller, and the Communists, led by the Russian agents Towia Axelrod, Max Levien,and Eugen Leviné, along with the German Rudolf Egelhofer, a psychotic.

D. On March 20, a Soviet Republic is established in Hungary by Bela Kun. The reasonsfor Kun's success have to do with French foreign policy and the rapacious demandsof Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and Serbia (soon to be Yugoslavia) for Hungarianterritory. Hungary is being paid back for its rapaciousness in the Austro-HungarianEmpire. 1. France's policy was to encourage separatist movements in the Rhineland and

Bavaria, and the creation of strong states on Germany's eastern borders thatwould threaten Germany and contain Bolshevism. The (more or less) liberalHungarian government of Karolyi had resigned rather than accept Frenchterritorial demands. That left only Bela Kun.

2. Bela Kun is a Russian trained Communist, and a Russian agent sent back toHungary by Lenin. He received almsot daily advice from Lenin, and sentCommunist agents into neighboring countries, including Bavaria. He is alsoa Jew, as were 8 of 11 Hungarian Commissars. (Watt 324)

3. Bela Kun himself is not a very strong leader, and his government will beoverthrown by proto-Fascists groups.

E. News of Bela Kun's government led to the flight of the Majority Socialist"government" and the establishment of a "government" of the CoffeehouseAnarchists on April 6. The Coffeehouse Anarchists are eccentric, to say the least.Their Commisar for Foreign Affairs was a lunatic. (He complained in a wire toLenin that his predicessor had absconded with the key to his toilet) They last 6 days.

F. The Communists then take over.1. Axelrod, Levien, and Leviné are Russian born and Russian agents. Axelrod

is a Russian diplomat. Levien quite consciously wants to copy Lenin, right


down to the use of the Red Terror.2. Note that Levien and Leviné are Jews. There is a disproportionate number

of Jews involved in Communist movements at this time, and that gives aveneer of plausibility to Hitler's claim that Bolshevism is a Jewishphilosophy. When we get to the lecture on the Holocaust I want to take alook at the causes of the phenomenon of substantial Jewish involvement inMarxism and liberalism--which is not, after all too mysterious. It is a factwhich provided grist for the paranoia of the racialists and racists.

3. A Red Terror ensues. The Red Army organized by Egelhofer plundered thecity. It is one of the best paid armies in history, not to mention free food,liquor, and prostitutes. It numbers about 20,000.a. Among the nationalists whom the Red Army tries to arrest is

Corporal Adolf Hitler. Hitler claims that they backed off before hisleveled carbine. Personally, I believe he may actually be telling thetruth here, for once. On the other hand, it is a good story for the earlyHitler, and he is known to have creatively adjusted aspects of hisbiography for Mein Kampf. After this was over, he certainly becamean informer on his fellow soldiers. A number were executed on histestimony.

G. Hoffmann appeals to Noske for help. He gets it, in the form of some of the toughest,most ruthless of the Freikorps, including the von Epp and Ehrhardt brigades.1. Red resistence quickly collapses before these professionals2. Egelhofer orders the execution of his hostages. Some 20 prominent

Münchner citizens are brutally murdered and mutilated.3. The Freikorps begin "cleansing" the city

a. Egelhofer is shot on the spot.b. Leviné is shotc. The Coffeehouse Anarchist Gustav Landauer is sadistically

murdered--beaten, shot twice, and kicked to death (they quit shootinghim because the bullets were ricocheting up off the cobblestones)

d. 30 members of the St. Joseph's Society, a Catholic religious group,were executed. The Freikorps were not too choosy about theirvictims.

e. Over 1,000 prsons wre executed within 6 days.H. The legacy in Munich is one of hatred and violence. Once the most tolerant of

German cities, it is now riven with violence.XI. The Second Berlin Revolt

A. The Communist party attempts to seize control again on March 5 with a generalstrike. Their strategy was to avoid armed insurrection, believing Ebert would not fireupon peaceful workers. The strike is effective, but the KPD cannot control theworkers. The People's Naval Division and Red Soldiers' League take up arms andseize key points of the city.


B. The Ebert government drops all pretense of being a revolutionary government.Noske is given dictatorial powers over Berlin, and he sends in 30,000 Freikorps.Once again the Red forces collapse, and the Freikorps suppress opposition ruthlessly.The remnants of the People's Naval Division surrender and are shot. The leader ofthe KPD as well as the commander of the Naval Division are "shot while trying toescape."

XII. The General ElectionsA. A constituent assembly is elected on January 19, 1919B. Out of an electorate of 35,000,000 (all citizens over 20 years of age, including

women for the first time), 30,000,000 votedC. There were to be 423 deputies.D. The Majority Socialists won 38% of the vote. This is a big victory for Ebert.E. The Independent Socialists received 8% of the vote.F. The Communists boycotted the election.G. The Catholic Centre Party received about 20% of the vote.

1. Its leader is Mathias Erzberger2. The party was committed to private property, but favored large-scle social

legislation and was critical of liberal capitalism. Their position was rigid onschool and church questions. It is the only party to cross social class lines.

H. The German Democratic Party included the liberals, and won 19%I. The German People's Party represented the right wing of German liberals. They

would tolerate a republic but preferred a constitutional monarchy. They remianedsuspicious of the Social Democrats. They are led by Gustav Stresemann. They winonly 4%

J. The German National People's Party was composed of traditional conservatives.It included the large industrialists and landowners. They wanted a restoration of themonarchy. They poll 10%. Its most important leader is Alfred Hugenberg, anextremely wealthy reactionary who will help bankroll several right wing groups,including the Nazis. (Holborn 533-39, Watt 275-77)

K. The results of the voting meant that no government could be formed without theMajority Socialists, but Ebert would have to form coalitions with the Catholic Centreand German People's Party. A thorough-going Socialist program is out of thequestion.

L. The new government elects Friedrich Ebert President. Philipp Scheidemann becomesChancellor with 7 Social Democrat, 4 Catholic and 4 Democratic ministers. The twokey tasks for the new government are:1. writing a new constitution2. the peace treaty.

XIII. The Weimar ConstitutionA. Most important author was Hugo Preuss, a highly respected professor of law (the fact

that he was a Jew was remembered later by right wing opponents of the WeimarRepublic).


B. A strong President is created, with power to veto laws and submit them toreferendum. The President also appointed and dismissed the Chancellor.1. Article 48 gave the President the power to suspend some civil rights, dissolve

Parliament, and govern by decree in times of national emergency.a. The abuse of Article 48 by Brüning paves the way for Hitler's seizure

of power.C. Serious attempts were made to safeguard civil rights and social rights. A satisfactory

relationship between the states was not, however, achieved. Prussia dwarfed all otherGerman states combined.

D. The German civil service is left intact. While German civil servants had a reputationfor competence and honesty, provision of tenure is a mistake. The civil servants areoverwhelmingly right-wing. They can be trusted to fight Bolshevism, but not tobuild democracy. The courts especially will hand down flagrantly biassed decisionsduring the republic.

E. The flag.1. Bismarck's Imperial flag of black-white-red are rejected in favor of the

liberal-democratic black-red-gold. Large segments of the populationhowever, still give allegiance to black-white-red. The conflict over symbols,and therefore the meaning of the Weimar Republic, is deeply divisive. Thenew state is not officially named the German Republic, but the GermanReich.

XIV. The Treaty of VersaillesA. The Germans believed (with considerable justice) that the armistice had been on the

basis of the Fourteen Points. Furthermore, they believed that they would have anopportunity to negotiate with the victors. To compound matters, on the issue ofcolonies and eastern borders, the Germans deluded themselves. Instead, they werehanded a Diktat, a "Carthaginian Peace." When they saw the final text, bothHerbert Hoover and John Maynard Keynes were horrified at it. Even Wilsonremarked that if he were a German, he would not sign it. (Watt 407) Not only theGerman government but the German people felt a profound sense of outrage at theTreaty. It is my view that the Treaty of Versailles made another war inevitable. Itcan also be argued that forcing the Republic to sign the Treaty, the Allies gravelyweakened the cause of democracy.

B. Territorial Provisions1. Northern Schleswig is granted to Denmark after a plebescite.2. Alsace-Lorraine is given back to France (Point 8). Although 2/3s of the

population was German speaking, the population clearly preferred to beFrench.

3. Belgium is granted the districts of Eupen and Malmedy.4. France is given control over the coal-rich Saar valley for 15 years, at which

time a plebescite would determine if the Saar were to return to Germany, beindependent, or join France. The Saar had a population of 650,000 and 25%


of Germany's coal reserves (more than France). France had at first demandedoutright cession of the Saar, despite the fact that historically it had alwaysbeen German. France's motives were both economic and military. Underthese terms, the bulk of the coal would go to France, French troops wouldpolice the district, and France hoped to manipulate the plebescite to at leastgain Saar independence from Germany (as a French client state, of course)

5. The Rhineland, with 6.5 million Germans and its heavy industry, is likewiseplaced under French administration for 15 years, with withdrawal contingentupon fulfillment of reparations payments, and is to be permanentlydemilitarized. France had originally demanded outright cession (with Alsaceand the Saar, this would give them a continuous border along the RhineRiver). Wilson had flatly refused to go along; French acquisition of theRhineland would be an Alsace in reverse. Clemenceau got all that Wilsonwould accept, but Foch and Poincaré are outraged and plot to seize theRhineland anyway.

6. The Hultschen district is given to Czechoslovakia.7. An independent Poland with access to the sea (Point 13) is created. The

Poles, under the leadership of Josef Pilsudski, had proven to be arrogant andgreedy, eventually alienating their warmest friends. There had beensignificant fighting between Poles and German Freikorps in the area.a. A border drawn along purely ethnological boundaries was

impossible--the populations were too mixed. In some areas, theGermans had systematically colonized Germans. In others, Germaninvestment had created jobs that attracted large numbers of Polishworkers.

b. Poland is granted Upper Silesia (despite a plebescite that wentGerman), the province of Posen, parts of East Prussia, and WestPrussia, which gave it access to the sea, and separated East Prussiafrom the rest of Germany. The city of Danzig, which was 90%German, was made a free city under Polish administration.(1) 2,000,000 Germans were thus incorporated in the Polish state.

c. The Poles also engaged in war with the Czechs, the Ukrainians, theRuthenians, and the Soviet Russians. In addition, they institutedpogroms against Polish Jews. The sad but hard fact is that the Polesbehaved towards others precisely as others had behaved toward them.

d. The French encourage this attitude. They want a very strong Polandhostile to Germany and allied to France.

e. Wilson and Lloyd George are dismayed. They wondered if the Poleshad realized that they must always live next to the Germans.

f. The final borders were viewed by the Poles and the French as a majordefeat. But these borders aroused extreme anger on the part of theGermans.


g. An Anschluß, the unification of Austria with Germany, wasspecifically banned. (Technically, this was part of the Treaty of SaintGermain with Austria) Germans noted (with justice) that the principleof self-determination was used only when it hurt Germany.

8. The net effect of the territorial provisions was to take away 14.6% ofGermany's arable land, 74.5% of its iron ore, 68% of its zinc, and 26% of itscoal (Passant 156) These figures consider the Saar and the Rhineland asGerman.

C. Economic terms1. Germany gave up all colonies, which are acquired by the victors, technically

under League of Nations mandate.2. Almost the entire German merchant marine was confiscated.3. Large amounts of rolling stock are confiscated.

D. Reparations1. British and French claims for reparations were utterly impossible. Both

Clemenceau and Lloyd George had promised that the Germans would pay foreverything, and were under truly enormous public pressure. The U.S.delegation attempted to point out that the fantastic claims weresimultaneously coupled with provisions which stripped Germany ofimportant economic assets.

2. John Maynard Keynes left the conference and wrote The EconomicConsequences of the Peace which all-too accurately predicted that attemptingto make Germany pay the full cost of the war would lead to Germany'seconomic collapse, which in turn would lead to the collapse of the CentralEuropean economy. This in turn would damage the Allies' econmy andpolitically destabilize Germany.

3. At the time of the signing of the treaty, the Allies had not agreed on a figure.Germany was therefore required to sign a blank check.

4. In 1921, the bill was assessed at 216 billion gold marks (at the 1914 exchangerate of 4.2 gold marks / dollar, or $51.42 billion, which was several times aslarge as Germany's total national income. (Fest 138, Flood 178, 184)

E. War Guilt and Other Provisions1. Article 231 stated "the Allied Governments affirm and Germanyu accepts the

responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage[suffered by the Allies] as a consequence of the war imposed upon them bythe aggression of Germany and its allies." (Passant 156)a. This is the single most hated, and most disputed part of the entire

treaty.2. The context made it appear worse, since Articles 227-230 provided for the

trial of the Kaiser and some 900 other Germans for war crimes. (Sontag 54)To Germans, it appeared that the entire nation was branded as criminals.

3. Between propaganda and censorship, the German people were genuinely


convinced that the war had been forced upon them by a conspiracy of theirenemies. They had no knowledge of German atrocities in, for example,Belgium. In addition, the Weimar government had, under the direction of theSocialist Karl Kautsky, begun publishing diplomatic documents on theoutbreak of the war. Combined with documents made public by theBolsheviks, these documents, in the words of the American scholar SidneyFay in 1920, absolved Germany of deliberately plotting the war.

4. In the forum of public opinion, Germany won the argument over "warguilt." Because so many other Europeans agreed that Germany was notsolely guilty or responsible for the war, they were unwilling to strictlyenforce some of the most restrictive provisions. Since the German people--of whatever politics--were agreed on this point, it was accepted by allGermans that the treaty was unjust and unworkable, and that evasion andeventually defiance of the the treaty was legitimate. (Sontag 53) This is anenormously powerful lever in the hands of the Nazis.

F. Military Provisions1. Germany's army was reduced to 100,000 men, less than the police force of

Imperial Germany. An army of that size could not possibly defend thecountry agaisnt anyone. This has two direct consequences:a. Reinforcement of the reliance of mercenary Freikorpsb. Institutionalization of evasion and defiance by the German military.c. Gen. Hans von Seeckt (The "Field Gray Sphinx") carefully

constructed the new Reichswehr in order to form a cadre for futureexpansion. Privates would become NCOs, officers would advance inrank.

2. The German General Staff was outlawed. Seeckt simply changed the jobtitles and carried on.

3. Germany was denied an air force. Germany used civil aviation--Lufthansa--as a basis for a future air force. Well before the Nazis, the Germans wereclandestinely developing new aircraft and theories. The Nazis simplyaccelerated the process.

4. The German navy is confiscated, and further construction virtually banned.5. Germany was denied possession of heavy artillery, tanks, or submarines. The

Germans made arrangements with Russia and Sweden to develop weaponsand technique there. Guderian's enunciation of Blitzkrieg doctrine was priorto Hitler. Again, the Nazis accelerated the process.

G. Scheidemann's first reaction was to refuse to sign. 1. Large sections of the Officer Corps had by now begun convincing themselves

of the "Stab in the Back" theory, first started by Ludendorff. There wasconsiderable sentiment to renew fighting and die a hero's death.a. One version of the origin of this legend is that it arose from a

conversation in 1919 between Ludendorff and British General NeillMalcolm, "In Breucker's account, Ludendorff told Malcolm that the


German army would never have been defeated if it had not beensubverted by politicians on the home front, causing the British generalto ask, 'You mean that you were stabbed in the back?' 'That's itexactly,' Ludendorff replied. 'We were stabbed in the back--stabbedin the back.'" Later in public testimony, Hindenburg endorsed thisview. (Flood 61, Watt 463-5, 528-9) The fact is that this is a fantasy--obviously the attempt by a sick man to rationalize his colossalfailures. Neither Wilhelm Groener nor Hans von Seeckt had anypatience with the legend. However, it was widely believed andproves a deadly poison to the Weimar Republic.

2. Gen. Wilhelm Groener puts an end to this.a. Groener is an intensely patriotic man who was a German first and an

officer second. He was brutally realistic, and utterly selfless in hisdevotion to his country.

b. Groener safeguarded Hindenburg's reputation as a figurehead for theArmy, taking the emotional place of the Kaiser. He accepted uponhis own shoulders the dirty work.

c. Groener accepted the necessity of resigning from the Army after theTreaty was signed (he had prepared von Seeckt to take his place). Healso clearly understood that the officers and much of the countrywould revile him.

d. You will recall that Groener had worked with the Socialists duringthe war, and understood their point of view far better than almost anyof his colleagues. Also unusual was his acceptance of Socialists asGermans. It would be too much to say that he fully trusted theSocialists, but he does not see them as the enemy.

e. Groener's objective is to preserve a nation that can resurrect itself inpower and status. He is also, like the rest of the officer corps, deeplyfearful of the spread of Bolshevism.

f. In order to achieve these goals, he needs to support a government thatwill provide order and stability, and the Socialists were the only partythat could accomplish that. He also needed to preserve the army asan institution capable of providing the power without which Germanywould be helpless among enemies.

g. He flatly tells the officers that resistence is simply impossible. Arenewal of hostilities would mean the end of Germany as a nation.The population would not resist, and the states would secede. Theofficer corps would be destroyed. He wished to preserve the officercorps and the army. He had earlier urged the government to try tonegotiate a large German army on the grounds that no governmentcould actually govern without power, and the army, for all itsreactionary reputation, represented that power. He receives, more or


less, Hindenburg's acquiesence.h. Groener tells the government that it has no choice but to sign the

Diktati. Groener served in several capacities in the Weimar Republic, the last

being Minister of Defense. In 1932, he was maneuvered out of officeby Gen. Kurt von Schleicher, his protegé whom he regarded as a son,over the issue of suppressing the S.S. and the S.A. (Schleicher iseventually rewarded by being assassinated by the S.S. on the Night ofthe Long Knives). Wilhelm Groener served the Weimar governmentas well as his country very well indeed. He died in 1939. Would thatGermany had had more Groeners and fewer Ludendorffs!


Works Cited

Carsten, F.L. The Rise of Fascism. (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1969).

Fest, Joachim. Hitler. Transl. Richard and Clara Winston. NewYork: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1974.

Flood, Charles Bracelin. Hitler: The Path to Power. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

Heiber, Helmut. The Weimar Republic. Transl. W. E. Yuill. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1993.

Holborn, Hajo. A History of Modern Germany: 1840-1945. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1969.

Passant, E.J. A Short History of Germany: 1815-1945. (New York:Cambridge University Press, 1959)

Sontag, Raymond J. A Broken World: 1919-1939. (New York: Harperand Row, 1972).

Waite, Robert G. L. Vanguard of Nazism: The Free Corps Movementin Post War Germany 1918-1923. (Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press, 1952).

Watt, Richard M. The Kings Depart: The Tragedy of Germany: Versailles and the German Revolution. (New York: Simon andSchuster, 1968).


Works Consulted

Bessel, Richard. Germany After the First World War. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1993).

Blum, Jerome, Cameron, Rondo, and Barnes, Thomas G. The European World Since 1815:Triumph and Transition. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1966.

Corum, James S. The Roots of Blitzkrieg: Hans von Seeckt and the German Military Reform.Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1992.

Craig, Gordon A. The Politics of the Prussian Army 1640-1945. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1967.

Goerlitz, Walter. History of the German General Staff 1657-1945. Transl. Brian Battershaw. NewYork: Frederick Praeger, 1967.

Johnson, Paul. Modern Times. Rev. Ed. New York: Harper, 1991.

Jones, Nigel H. Hitler's Heralds: The Story of the Freikorps 1918-1923. New York: Dorset, 1987.


Weimar 01 Quiz #1X to End

Form A

1 Freikorps

2 Kurt Eisner

3 Karl Liebknecht

4 Ebert-Gröner Deal


5 Bavarian Revolution



Form B

1 Spartacist Revolution

2 Kiel Mutiny

3 Freikorps


4 Friedrich Ebert

5 People's Naval Division



Form C

1 Friedrich Ebert

2 Rosa Luxemburg

3 The Ebert-Gröner Deal

4 Sturmabteilung (SA)


5 Karl Radek



Form D

1 Kurt Eisner

2 Ernst Jünger

3 Rosa Luxemburg

4 Ebert-Gröner Deal


5 Kiel Mutiny



Form A

1 Danzig

2 Hans von Seeckt

3 Alfred Rosenberg

4 reparations


5 Catholic Centre Party



Form B

1 Anschluß

2 "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"

3 Bela Kun

4 Article 48


5 war guilt clause



Form C

1 Treaty of Versailles

2 Article 48

3 John Maynard Keynes

4 Alfred Hugenberg


5 Danzig



Form D

1 Alfred Hugenberg

2 war guilt clause

3 Josef Pilsudski

4 "Economic Consequences of the Peace"


5 "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"

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