Weimar Republic (apr 23, 1919 – apr 23, 1933)

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1919

Jan 5 A majority at a recent "Congress of Workers and Soldiers Councils" supported the moderate Social Democratic government of Friedrich Ebert. There were those called Sparticists who favored an armed uprising, a copy-cat revolution with the Bolsheviks in mind. In Berlin they attempt a Communist revolution, and their call to battle spreads to other cities.

Jan 13 After days of fighting, Ebert's government, using a military force of veterans called the Freikorps, defeats the Sparticist armed uprising.

Jan 15 The Sparticist leaders, Rosa Luxemburg (who had opposed the uprising) and Karl Liebknecht are rounded up by Freikorps combatants and murdered.

Feb 11 Friedrich Ebert is elected first President of Germany.

April 6 The revolution in Hungary has excited communists in Munich. A defenseless Social Democrat government is replaced and a Soviet Republic proclaimed. Weapons are to be forbidden to all except those with the revolution.

May 3 In Munich the Soviet regime, fearing overthrow, has made hostages of unfriendly leading citizens. An anti-Bolshevik Freikorps force of around 9,000 drives the Soviet regime from power. Some of the hostages have been massacred. About 700 men and women will be summarily executed by the Freikorps troops.

1920

Apr 12 In Germany's Ruhr, occupied by the French, the German government has French approval to combat a communist rebel army numbering around 6,000 men. After ten days of fighting, German government forces, including Freikorps paramilitary units, defeat the rebel army. The government force loses about 250 men, the rebels lose over a thousand.

1921


Mar 23 A plebiscite in Silesia votes for re-annexation to Germany.

May 2 Poles in Silesia (an industrial area surrounded by Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia) rise again against German rule. They want to be a part of the new Polish republic. Uncertainty has reigns among the Allies, France siding with the Poles and Britain and Italy siding with the German claim that they could not pay war reparations if they were to lose their Silesian industries. The crisis will last to July. Silesia will be divided between Germany and Poland. German-Polish hostility increases.
Aug 26 Matthias Erzberger, an influential centrist Catholic politician, who signed the armistice with the Allies, is hated by German rightists. He is shot while on vacation. His assassins return to Munich and are given false passports by the Bavarian Police.

1922

Jul This month, 563 German marks will buy one US dollar, almost double the 263 needed eight months ago and dwarfing the 12 marks in April 1929. The inflation had begun as a way to pay for the nation's war effort. British and French economic "experts" are claiming that Germany is destroying its economy with the purpose of avoiding reparations. Others find fault with inadequate German government intervention or German bankers and foreign investors finding wealth enhancing opportunities. In August it will take 1000 marks for one US dollar.

Oct This month 3,000 German marks will equal one US dollar.

1923

Jan 11 Germany has been defaulting on its reparation payments in coal to France. Britain favors limits on reparations from Germany for the sake of reconstruction and economic growth for everybody. France has been taking a hard line, and France's President Raymond Poincaré has decided to occupy Germany's Ruhr, the center of Germany's coal and steel production, to force coal deliveries to France. Germany responds with passive resistance, The orator Adolf Hitler will feed off outrage among the Germans. His political party, or movement, will be growing rapidly. A police report to be issued in the summer of will estimate that the party rose from 6,000 to 35,000 in Munich alone, and to approximately 50,000 in all of Bavaria.

Jan 24 The United States withdraws the last of its troops from Germany, from the Rhine, vacating the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, which is promptly occupied by the French.

Mar 31 In the Ruhr, French soldiers fire on workers at the Krupp factory. Thirteen die.

Jul 31 Inflation in Germany has seen the number of marks needed to purchase a single American dollar reach 353,000 – more than 200 times the amount needed at the start of the year. With Germany's industries idle, scarcity has added to the increase in inflation, and Germany is printing money to pay its bills and to give to people out of work.

Aug 13 Gustav Stresemann is named Chancellor of Germany.

Sep 26 Germany's Chancellor Stresemann announces the end of passive resistance against the French occupation of the Ruhr. He argues that there was no other way to get hyperinflation under control. This provokes hostility toward him from the extreme right. The government In Bavaria declares a state of emergency and installs a dictatorship led by Ritter von Kahr. Von Kahr wants to imitate Mussolini's march on Rome. In collaboration with Hitler's followers he plans a march on Berlin to install a dictatorship at the national level.

Nov 8 In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads his followers in an unsuccessful attempt to take charge of the Bavarian dictatorship and planned coup for Berlin. The Munich coup will be known at the Beer Hall Putch. Hitler has as an ally the former general and war leader Erich Ludendorff.

Nov 9 Police and army forces crush the Hilter-Ludendorff coup attempt. Four policemen and fourteen of Hitler's supporters – mostly youths – have died. Hitler has promised to shoot himself if his coup failed, but he reconsiders. In two days Hitler will be arrested. Hitler will stand trial. Ludendorff, considered a millitary hero, will not.

Nov 15 Inflation in Germany peaks. One United States dollar is worth 4,200,000,000,000 marks.

Nov 23 Germany's Social Democrats are upset with Chancellor Gustav Stresemann. Stresemann's coalition government ends. After three months as chancellor, Stresemann resigns. Wilhelm Marx of the Centre Party becomes chancellor, with Stresemann hanging on as Foreign Minister.

1924

Apr 1 Adolf Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in jail for his participation in an attempt with General Ludendorff to take power in Munich, late last year. Hitler had promised to shoot himself if his coup failed – mere bombast. Ludendorff, seen as a military hero, has not been charged or tried. Germany's judiciary is conservative and has great respect for its veteran generals. Hitler was a mere corporal.

Aug 16 A plan by an international commission chaired by a Chicago banker, Charles G. Dawes, has been accepted by the former allies of the last great war. The plan provides for France ending its occupation of Germany's Ruhr region and for a staggered payment plan for Germany making its reparation payments. Many French people believe their government is being too lenient with the Germans. Many Germans think their country paying reparations to France is nonsense.

Dec 20 Hitler is released from prison after 8 1/2 months of comfort and book writing. His failed coup attempt in 1923 has turned out to be a success. He has made a name for himself. The book is Mein Kampf (My Struggle).

1925

Feb 27 In Munich, Adolf Hitler resurrects his political party.

May 12 Germany's President Ebert, a Social Democrat, has died. Germans elect the conservative and mendacious 81 year-old wartime national hero General Paul von Hindenburg. He hates the Social Democrats and will do what he can to keep the government out of their hands despite their size in parliament. In eight years he will appoint Adolf Hitler as Germany's chancellor.

Jul 18 Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle) is published.

Aug 25 Diplomacy has convinced the French to evacuate the Ruhr region of Germany.

1926

Jan 31 Britain and Belgium remove their troops from Cologne, the foremost city in Germany's Rhineland. The people of Cologne are joyous. Their occupation of a defeated Germany has accomplished nothing.

Sep 8 Germany joins the League of Nations.

Sep 14 Reconciliation with Germany appears to have been established. France has promised to remove its troops from the Rhineland and the last of its troops will leave in 1930. Today, participants in the Locarno Treaties of 1925 ratify the seven treaties and the treaties become effective. Germany, France, Belgium, Britain and Italy have agreed to respect each other's borders and to cooperate against any aggressor so far as military capabilities allow. The Soviet Union is feeling ignored and isolated.

1927

Mar 10 In Bavaria, the ban against National Socialists (Nazis) is lifted. Adolf Hitler is now allowed to speak in public. In his first speech, Hitler attacks agreements that Germany made at Locarno.

Mar 19 Bloody street fighting between Nazis and Communists takes place in Berlin.

May 1 Hitler holds his first Nazi meeting in Berlin. The Jazz Age has spread to Germany. Hitler is a provincial who dislikes Berlin and the new hedonism.

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