Collapse of the Second Reich
The Weimar Republic was announced following the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in November 1918. The removal of the Emperor left an apparent power vacuum, with no Head of State the political structure of the Second Reich was obsolete, and an alternative form of government would have to be established. In fact the move towards a different form of Government had begun prior to the Kaisers abdication. As it became apparent to the German High Command that the war was lost moves were made to not only sue for peace but to amend the way in which the decision making process was conducted in Germany.
In October of 1918 a significant change in the constitution was instigated. The Chancellor and his ministers were no longer accountable directly to the Kaiser. Removed from the construction was the right of the Kaiser to install and remove his chief minister as he saw fit. From this point onwards the Chancellor was accountable to the Reichstag. Thus the first moves towards a democratic state were made prior to the abdication of Wilhelm II. This is significant in that this illustrates that there was recognition of the need to change. What is open to debate is where the pressure for this change came from (by fuller). Historians are split as to whether the impetus for change came from the High Command and the Kaiser himself, or whether pressure from leading members of the Reichstag led to the change in the construction whichever interpretation is more valid, it meant that upon the Kaiser’s abdication, there was still a form of government in which authority, no matter how much weakened, was held. This meant that to an extent the power vacuum left by the abdication was filled, if left in an extremely precarious position.
Germany 1919 – 1945 Links
The Second Reich
Unification of Germany – Political systems within the Second Reich – German Society during the Second Reich – Collapse of the Second Reich
Weimar Republic
Interim Government – Founding of the Weimar Republic – Impact of the First World War on Germany – The Treaty of Versailles and its impact on Germany – Weimar Constitution1919-1923: Years of Crisis? – Spartacist Uprising – Kapp Putsch – Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold – Reparations – Hyperinflation in Germany, 1923 – 1924-1928: A Golden Era? – 1925 Presidential Election – Gustav Stresemann – German Foreign Relations 1919-1932 – Germany in the Great Depression – Failings of the Weimar Republic – Dada Movement
Rise of the Nazi Party
The Munich Putsch – Did the Economic Crisis of 1923 help the Nazi’s? – Origins of the Nazi Party – Rise of the Nazi Party
Nazi Germany
Totalitarian Regime in Nazi Germany – How did Hitler consolidate power? – Mein Kampf – Nazi methods of control – Opposition to the Nazi Regime – Organisation of the Nazi Party – Fuhrerprinzip – Kristallnacht – Youth and Education – Goering and the 2nd 4 Year Plan – Anti-Jewish Boycott, 1933 – Nazi Anti-Semitism – DAF (The German Labour Front) – Propaganda in Germany 1919-39 – Economic Policy of the Nazi Party – Kreisau Circle – The Confessing Church – Catholic Church – Edelweiss Pirates
Biographies
Ludwig Beck – Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Bishop Clemens von Galen – Carl Goerdeler – Robert Ley – Helmuth von Moltke – Martin Niemoller – Erwin Rommel – Hjalmar Schacht – Sophie Scholl – Albert Speer – Claus von Stauffenberg – Fritz Todt