Joejack.

After Germany lost the First World War, the Kaiser fled and a new democratic government of Germany was declared in February 1919 at the small town of Weimar. It was too dangerous to make a declaration in Berlin where there had just been a revolt by a Communist group called the Spartacists. The Weimar Republic was a genuine attempt to create a perfect democratic country.

On February 11th, 1919, the new parliament elected Ebert as president on the new German Republic. Ebert's problems did not end with the crushing of the Spartacists.

In March 1919, what was left of the German Communists attempted another takeover. The Free Corps was called in to crush them and within a few days had killed over 1000 people. Ebert had ordered that anybody seen carrying a weapon was to be shot dead. The Free Corps had once again saved the government and restored order. 

February 1919 and the socialists and communists there fell out on how Bavaria should be governed after Eisner's death. The Communists won out and a Soviet Republic of Bavaria came into being. This was a clear challenge to the authority of Ebert.  The army and the Free Corps was asked to deal with the problem. The main city in Bavaria - Munich -  was put under siege and by April food in the city was in very short supply. 

On May 1st, 1919, soldiers from the army assisted by the Free Corps took over Munich killing at least 600 people - including children.

The Weimar Republic faced many problems.  Perhaps the greatest danger was 'the weakness within' - the constitution gave the President, the states and the army too much power, whilst proportional voting meant that the Reichstag was divided and weak.  In 1919-23, extremists on both the Left (especially the Spartacist revolt) and the Right (especially the Kapp Putsch) tried to overthrow the government.

      The worst crisis occurred in 1923, when the French invaded to try to force Germany to pay reparations.  This led to hyperinflation and a number of rebellions (particularly Hitler's Munich Putsch).

Sherlyn.

World War One had a devastating impact on Germany. Throughout World War One, the people of Germany had been led to believe by their government that they were winning the war. Government propaganda had been used to great effect. When the temporarily blinded Adolf Hitler had gone into hospital in 1918 (the result of a gas attack), he, along with many German soldiers, was convinced that Germany was not only winning the war but was in the process of putting together a major military assault on Allied lines. 

Only the military leaders such as Luderndorff and Hindenburg knew the true state of Germany's military plight which had become even more apparent when America had joined in the war in 1917. The success of the Luderndoff Offensive in 1918 was only paper-thin as Germany had lost many of her most able officers in battle. 

Germany itself was being starved of food and all goods as a result of the British Navy's blockade of her ports in the north. With such a small coastline, the British Navy found it a relatively easy task to blockade her. German troops were poorly equipped and what food there was went to the war effort leaving the people of Germany very short of food.

In the autumn of 1918, the Allies launched a massive attack on the German lines. The German Army could not stand up to such an attack and in just a few weeks the German Army had collapsed. The euphoria of the success of the Luderndorff Offensive was quickly forgotten. Many Germans could not accept that they had lost the war. The blame was put on weak politicians rather than on military exhaustion. In the space of two months, Germany had gone from being a fighting nation to a defeated one; from a nation with a leader - Kaiser William II - to one with politicians leading the country. William II had been forced to abdicate - give up the throne.

The two months of October and November 1918 are crucial in setting the scene of why Germany got off to such a bad start immediately after the war.

In October 1918, Germany's naval command at Kiel decided to take on the might of the British Navy which was blockading Germany's northern ports and starving out the nation. British submarines patrolled off the north German coast and such a mission would have been all but suicidal. The sailors of Kiel mutinied rather than go on such a mission. Officers were killed and naval boats were taken over. This one incident seemed to have been the catalyst that sparked off total anger in Germany. The navy had been the Kaiser's, and therefore, Germany's pride and joy and here were the sailors rebelling against authority.

The army was not sent to crush this mutiny as the Kaiser and his government could not trust that they would not join the sailors. In fact, demonstrations took place all over Germany and those who worked went on strike. Soldiers did join the protests.   

By early November 1918, many cities had been taken over by workers' and soldiers' councils. This was very similar to what had happened in Russia during the communist take over of 1917 and politicians were fearful of another communist takeover in Germany itself.

The leading party in Germany's Reichstag (Parliament), was the Social Democrat Party. It was lead by Friedrich Ebert and the party pleaded with the Kaiser to abdicate to save Germany from mayhem. On November 9th, the Social Democrats announced that the Kaiser had abdicated - at that particular time he had not. But there was a general strike in Berlin at that time and the Social Democrats feared that extremists would take over and anarchy would occur. The Social Democrats announced that Germany was now a republic (lead by a civilian government and not by a monarch), and that the country would be run by the Reichstag. On the following day, the Kaiser fled to Holland and on November 11th, 1918, an armistice was declared.