Germany, 1918-45: The Weimar Republic and Hitler

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The Kaiser abdicated and fled to Holland. Prince Max of Baden resigned, and Friedrich Ebert became head of government. This marked the end of the old imperial system and the start of the Weimar Republ…

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It was the first completely democratic election in German history. The Social Democrats emerged as the largest single party, and Ebert became the first President of the republic.

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The Spartacist Rising was a left-wing communist uprising in January 1919. Led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, it was an attempt to seize power before the republic became stable. It was defeated…

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The Kapp Putsch was a right-wing uprising in March 1920. Freikorps rebels declared Dr Wolfgang Kapp Chancellor and occupied Berlin. It failed because the Reichswehr refused to act against the rebels, …

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It began with serious disadvantages: it was linked to defeat and the unpopular Versailles settlement, democratic rule had little respect, and proportional representation made it hard for any party to …

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It was a voting system in which political groups were fairly represented in the Reichstag according to the votes they won. In practice, it produced many parties and no overall majority, making stable …

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In 1928 the Reichstag had at least eight groups. The largest were the Social Democrats with 153 seats, the DNVP with 73, and Zentrum with 62. The Nazis had only 12 seats. This shows how weak they were…

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Many Germans believed the army had not really been defeated and had been betrayed by democrats who accepted the armistice and Versailles. The myth was politically useful for enemies of the republic, e…