Motives for Imperialism



Forces Germany had to oppose after WWI

⇨ Germany would not be accepted into League of Nations

⇨ Lost eastern territories

⇨ Future industries had to give their earnings to allies for reparations (see French invasion of Ruhr)

⇨ Stab-in-the-back-myth: In general two parties were later accused of being responsible for losing the war: the Socialists and the Jew

Challenge from the left and from the right

- Series of threats from the left

- Workers angered by economic problems

- In spring of 1919 industrial areas of Germany faced radical unrest

- Aim: shorter hours, socialization of industry & government based on councils

- failed due to inadequate leadership and poor organisation

- only in Bavaria some success => March 1919 Soviet Republic proclaimed which created Red Guards and workers' councils but in May 1919 it was suppressed by the Freikorps

Kapp Putsch

- Right wing challenges were mainly triggered by powerful conservative forces (army, industrialists and landowners) but also paramilitary groups like the Freikorps

- First major crisis from the right was the Kapp Putsch in March 1920

=>12,000 Freikorps marched to Berlin after their exclusion under leadership of General von Lüttwitz and the leader of the Fatherland Party, Wolfgang Kapp, willing to overthrow the government

- Army refused to support the government and new government headed by Kapp was proclaimed

- failed to gain widespread support => were not able to govern=> after four days the Kapp government fled

=> Old government was reinstalled

- Conservative judges treated the involved leniently

- Also many assassinations of politicians by right-wing Germans between 1919-1923 in order to weaken the democratic regime

- One example: Walther Rathenau => Foreign Minister who participated in arranging the armistice (+ Matthias Erzberger)

- Attitude of the people was visible in the outcome of the elections

The French Invasion of the Ruhr

1920 Germany was not able to maintain is reparation payments to France although Germany was willing to

1921 Wiesbaden Accords; France helps Germany to pay its debts through accepting payments in form of goods (especially industrial) and not money

1922 Germany demanded a suspension for 4 years because they were facing economic difficulties

1923 France, which still required a lot of money for reparations got very upset about that and decided to occupy the Ruhr area for economic “exploitation“

⇨ France did not achieve its aims due to the cleverness of the German government that had launched a secret resistance (passive resistance)

⇨ That was extremely effective as coal production dropped down from 90 to 2.5 million tons

At the end tensions were increased through military actions against German demonstrators

AND it helped to trigger / increase inflation as passive resistance was financed by German government!

Treaty of Rapallo

• April, 16 1922

• between Germany (Weimar Republic) and Soviet Russia

• renunciation of all financial and territorial claims from the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (from WWI)

• normalization of the diplomatic relations between both countries plus co-operation to suit each other’s economic needs

• treaty was signed during the Genoa Conference by Georgi Chicherin and Walther Rathenau, foreign ministers of the two countries

• a supplementary agreement signed on the 5th of November in Berlin extended the reach of the Rapallo Treaty to other Soviet republics (Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Far Eastern Russia)

• a secret annex signed on July 29 allowed Germany to train its military in Soviet territory, thus violating the terms of the treaty of Versailles

• end of diplomatic isolation of both countries

• BUT: didn’t leave a good impression of e.g. France

The Inflation

Impact

• Letter from a bank to a German about his savings built up during a life of hard work under the Second Reich. (envelope bore a 5 mil mark postage stamp):

• The bank deeply regrets that it can no longer administer your deposit of 68,000 marks since the costs are out of all proportion to the capital. Since we have no bank-notes of small enough denominations at our disposal, we have rounded out the sum to one million marks. Enclosed: one 1,000,000 mark bill.

Loss through inflation

• people with savings (great majority)

• pensioners who lived off fixed-interest investments

• war bond owners

• people relying on welfare benefits

• landlords receiving fixed rents

• workers, as their secured compensatory wages lagged behind rising prices

Benefits from inflation

• money in debt paid off their loans with the devalued currency

• entrepreneurs got cheap credits -> extended their holdings

• people who rented property with long-term rents

• foreigners in Germany who converted their money into millions of marks

• exporters gained from the mark’s falling exchange rate

Winners of inflation

• Hugo Stinnes (1970-1924)

• under Second Reich:

– owned coal, iron and electrical industries

– granted workers more rights

– DVP member of the Reichstag

• During Weimar Republic:

– Bought up competitors with cheap credits

– Converted foreign currency

– Paid loans in near valueless marks

– In 1924 “King of the Ruhr” owned 1,535 companies (20% of Germany’s industries)

• Hoped for a dictator who would defeat Bolshevism and restore Germany to greatness

• After his death his industrial empire crashed

The party programme of the Nazis:

• Very hostile to foreigners/ non-Germans: “No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the nation...”

• In favour of a strong national state of formed of one race

• Creation of living space for the German race: “We demand land and territory (colonies) for the nourishment of our people and for settling our surplus population”

• Everything for the greater good

• Everyone had to work for the glory and the proceeding of the nation

• National education system paid for by the state; extra support for the brightest

• In favour “of a strong central power of the Reich, unconditional authority of the politically central Parliament over the entire Reich and its organisation in general”(§25)-> this already indicates the instruction of a dictator

Munich Putsch: 8th November 1923

Failure; Hitler punished and sentenced to prison for 5 years, however released after 9 months

Why did the Putsch fail?

• Nothing was properly planned

• Hitler suffered nervous collapse when he saw that he didn’t get the support of the masses

• It seemed that Hitler had already lost all faith in his plans but was persuaded by Ludendorff to go on

No complete failure:

• Cooperation with Ludendorff would have been impossible

• Sudden takeover of power would have led to great difficulties

• Events were a great propaganda for the National Socialism

• Hitler used the trials in order to spread his ideas further

• Afterwards, everyone talked about him and his plans

-> Triumph for him and his party

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