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| Question | Answer |
| What was the period of rising inflation in Germany? | 1918 to 1923. |
| What were the 4 major crises during this period? | -Social welfare -Debt and reparations -The Ruhr -Hyperinflation |
| --Social welfare-- | --Social welfare-- |
| For social welfare, what did the government do after the war? | -Set up retraining schemes for those who had fought in the war. -Provided loans to help those leaving the army until they could find work. -Set up pension payments for the wounded, widows and orphans. |
| What were set up to oversee care in the Länder? | National committees. |
| By 1920, how many disabled veterans and survivors not classed as disabled were there? | Disabled veterans - 1,537,000 Survivors not classed as disabled - 1,945.000 |
| How, specifically, did the government look after these people? | -Lump sum payments. -Pensions. |
| By 1924, how many disabled veterans, war widows, children and parents of dead soldiers were there? | -Disabled veterans: 768,000 -War widows: 420,000 -Their children: 1,020,000 -Parents of dead soldiers: 190,000 |
| What percentage of the population were receiving federal welfare payments? | 10%. |
| How did the government keep up with this demand? | Both federal and regional level governments went into debt. |
| --Debt and reparations-- | --Debt and reparations-- |
| What happened to the debt of Germany during the war? | -Government had borrowed heavily. -1918, owed 150 billion marks (3 times more than it owed in 1914). |
| What other policy plunged the Weimar Republic into even more debt? | Reparations laid down in the Treaty of Versailles. |
| What did the Government do as a result of this policy? | Tried to meet the payments, and carried on borrowing and printing money. |
| How did Germany pay for these reparations until 1924? | They paid them in raw materials such as coal, wood and railway carriages. |
| --The Ruhr-- | --The Ruhr-- |
| What happened in January 1923? | Germany failed to deliver its reparation payments in full. |
| What happened in 1921, when the Allies could see that Germany was falling behind? | The London Ultimatum of the Allies said that if Germany failed to repay its reparations, the Ruhr would be invaded. |
| Why would the allies invade the Ruhr? | Due to the raw materials that it had, which were vital for the German economy. |
| By who and when was the Ruhr invaded? | January 1923, by French and Belgian troops. |
| What were the 3 responses by the government when the Ruhr was invaded? | -Stopped all reparation payments to France (but not to other Allies). -Told all German officials NOT to accept orders from any non-Germans. -Urged the workers in the Ruhr to partaking in passive resistance (working slowly, strikes and sabotage). |
| What did the French do in response? | -Cut the Ruhr off from the rest of Germany by setting up a border patrolled with armed guards. -Took control of the postal and telegraph services. -Tried to solve problems of passive resistance by using force or bringing in their own workers. |
| Who benefited from this occupation? | Neither France nor Germany. |
| When and by who were the passive resistance strikes called off? | -September 1923. -New coalition government led by Stresemann called off the strikes and started to negotiate with the French. |
| --Hyperinflation-- | --Hyperinflation-- |
| What caused inflation to turn into hyperinflation? | The crisis of the Ruhr. |
| As hyperinflation took its toll, how did the attitude of the public change and what did they do? | -People lost faith in the currency entirely. -People became increasingly reliant on barter and the black market. |
| What happened to the black market during this period? | -More and more people bought from it. -In the end, the prices rose so much that only the rich could afford to buy on it. |
| What did towns, regions and businesses begin to do in response to hyperinflation? | Issue their own Notgeld or 'emergency money'. |
| What happened to government employment during this period? | 750,000 federal and regional government employees lost their jobs. |
| Who suffered due to this crisis? | -Those on fixed payments, including social welfare, suffered as these payments lost their value. -Poor worst hit because they had nothing to fall back on. -Well-off families also suffered. |
| --Change in government-- | --Change in government-- |
| When did the government collapse? | August 1923 |
| Who entered government after this collapse and how did they survive? | -Gustav Stresemann of the DVP. -Emergency Decree of 10 August gave the government powers that included postponing Reichstag meetings and governing by decree if necessary. |
| What was the most significant policy decision of this new coalition? | Using the emergency decree to not allow the Reichstag to do the decision making. |
| What advantages did this decree have for the government? | They could act more rapidly than any other coalition in the past because it didn't have to negotiate with different members of the coalition. |
| --Policies for recovery, 1924-28-- | --Policies for recovery, 1924-28-- |
| Who was responsible for the political stabilisation through this period, and how did he do it? | -Gustav Stresemann, Foreign Minister. -Urged compromise on political ideals to work together to solve Germany's problems. |
| --Making money work-- | --Making money work-- |
| What was Stresemann's first significant policy? | The withdrawal of the almost worthless mark to regain control over money. |
| What was the new currency called and when was it put into place? | -Rentenmark. -October 1923. |
| What happened to people who had savings, and what was banned? | -They objected to the Rentenmark because it had such a low value compared to the original gold mark. -'Emergency money' was banned. |
| Who was made president of the Reichsbank in December 1923? | Hjalmar Schacht. |
| What was the effect of the new currency? | -People regained faith in the currency, at home and abroad. -Germans changed their foreign currency and 'emergency money' for the Rentenmark. -Prices settled. |
| How else did the government stabilise the currency? | By issuing emergency decrees to control rents, wages and prices. |
| What happened in 1924? | Schacht oversaw the change from the Rentenmark, to the official Reichsmark (RM). |
| --Foreign policy and the economy-- | --Foreign policy and the economy-- |
| What six things did Gustav Stresemann do to improve the stability of Germany? | -Introduction of the Rentenmark. -Dawes plan. -Young plan. -Germany's entry into the League of Nations. -Locarno Treaties. -End of Passive Resistance. |
| What was the Dawes Plan? | -Negotiated in 1924. -Reorganized reparations to the USA. -Brought foreign investment to Germany. |
| What was the Young plan? | -Plan introduced in 1929. -Set timescale and reduced reparations. -France agreed to leave Rhineland early. |
| What was the significance of Germany entering into the League of Nations (1926)? | -Germany recognized as a great power again. -Other countries were happier to lend Germany money and make trade agreements. |
| What was the main issue with the policies Stresemann introduced? | The economic recovery, although providing stability, was all based on loans, mainly from the USA. |
| --Recovery of business-- | --Recovery of business-- |
| What happened to small businesses in the early 1920's? | -Many collapsed. -In 1924, there were more bankruptcies than in the previous 5 years combined. |
| What did big businesses do due to the unstable economy and why? | They set up cartels whose fixed prices helped to stabilise the economy. |
| What was good and bad about cartels? | -Provided stability because they stopped prices moving as much. -Cartels could fix higher prices than they would have charged if they had operated as separate, competing businesses. |
| What did the state do in order to try to control disputes from workers against their employers? | Ebert set up state arbitration. |
| What was state arbitration? | -The government was to settle wages and any other matter under dispute. |
| How many cases between 1924 and 1929 were taken to arbitration boards? | 60,648 cases. |
| What action was taken in 1928 by industrialists? | Industrialists in the Ruhr refused to accept a compromise ruling and locked their workers out of the factories. |
| --Trade recovery-- | --Trade recovery-- |
| Why was it difficult for Germany to establish trade links? | Due to bad feelings after the war with Britain and France. |
| What was the new US policy after WW1 and what did this mean? | Isolationism which meant that the US wanted little interaction with other countries, politically and economically. |
| What was introduced in countries worldwide due to a shift in trade and what were they? | Tariffs which were taxes on foreign goods that made them more expensive and so encouraged people to buy goods made in their own country. |
| What did tariffs mean for Germany? | German public faced heavier tariffs initially due to its part in WW1 as part of the reaction from other countries. |
| What were the levels of exports in 1926 and 1929 respectively? | 1926 - 10 billion marks (levels of 1913). 1929 - 34% higher than in 1913. |
| --Agriculture-- | --Agriculture-- |
| What percentage of workers were in the agricultural industry? | Between a third and a quarter so it was a very significant employer. |
| What sort of farms managed better and why? | -Bigger farms. -They could invest in new machinery and farming techniques. |
| What was the major issue with smaller farm owners? | -They were heavily in debt. -Could not afford to pay the interest on their loans or even, in some cases, their taxes. |
| What was the issue with big landowners? | They could have political influence that enabled them to block some farming reforms where they did not work in their interest. |
| What else did the influence of wealthy landowners allow them to do? | Press for higher grain subsidies (government pay-outs) that benefited those with bigger farms. |
| --Government spending-- | --Government spending-- |
| Give 3 ways in which the government spent heavily during the reconstruction of the country. | -Subsidised grain production. -Subsidised industry. -Spent heavily on social welfare (providing housing and benefits for the poorest). |
| How did the government fund this? | Through borrowing and taxation. |
| What was the impact of the public on post-war well-being? | -They weren't as well off as they had been in 1913. -They pad less tax. -Resented the idea of tax rises. |
| What were the percentages for the lowest tax band in 1913, 1926 and 1928 respectively? | 1913 - 47% 1926 - 62% 1928 - 55% |
| What does this mean? | Government had to borrow money it might otherwise have made by raising taxes. |
| How else was the economy kept afloat? | Through government support. |
| What was another problem with the economy? | Industrial expansion and production was damaged by constant disputes between businesses and workers, which affected productivity and drove wages up until 1930. |
| Why did the rise in wages flatline in 1930? | The depression led to such high unemployment that people were willing to work for any wage at all. |
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