Political Impact

Of the Treaty of Versailles

 After a long war, peace is decided…
After the longest war ever seen, the world breathed a sigh of relief. But the losers still had to pay the price. And they
didn’t take it very well…

The Munich Putsch: The Kapp Putsch: Political Assassinations:

Why were the Germans angry?
 The treaty gave some
German territories to
neighbouring countries and
placed other German
territories under international
supervision. This made the
Germans angry because they
saw themselves weaker than
the surrounding countries.

Sara
 The Treaty of Versailles is
one of the most controversial
armistice treaties in history.
The treaty's so-called “war
guilt” clause forced Germany
and other Central Powers to
take all the blame for World
War I. This meant an
embarrassment for the
German people.
Sara
 The situation then:
There was a very tense atmosphere in Germany, and the radicals were taking control, making people angry at
the government and trying to collapse the new republic. These were:

The Spartacists: The Freikorps:

 The Spartacists:

The Spartacists were the people which wanted a communist

regime in Germany, emulating the neighbouring country of
Russia. The group had some ups and downs during the First
World War but They used violent methods to try and create a
socialist country.
 The Freikorps:

The Freikorps were the opposite of the Spartacists. They were a

group of ultra nationalists that wanted a right-wing
government. They called the Weimar a weak country and were
mainly composed of ex-soldiers which wanted revenge on the
Allies. They were the germ of the Nazi party.
 Friedrich Ebert

Friedrich Ebert was the next political leader of the newborn

Weimar Republic. Due to the constant instability of the country,
he had to use the army to reduce uprisings up to 134 times. His
views were slightly left handed.
 The Kapp Putsch
The Kapp Putsch is a Political Group named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp.
The group aimed to undo the German Revolution of 1918-1919 they also wanted to
overthrow the Weimar Government and create an autocratic government to replace
them. There movement was supported by the Reichswehr (The German armed forces)
as well as nationalists and Monarchist Factions. They were right wing.
 Wolfgang Kapp
Wolfgang Kapp was not born a German, not Austrian but one
of their enemies he was a US child, he was born in New York
on July 24 1858, He was a German Civil Servant and a
journalist before becoming the leader of the Kapp Putsch, he
created the Kapp Putsch was the government's resolve to
force the demobilization of the right-wing Freikorps (“Free
Corps”) brigades, Ehrhardt and Baltikum. He died on june
12th 1922 he died of Cancer.
 The Main Event
The Kapp putsch was a March 13 1920 attempt to overthrow the Social Democratic Party (SPD)
government, carried out by army officers, Freikorps members and right-wing nationalists. The
attempted coup was thwarted by public aliscoup was thwarted by public. Twelve innocent
civilians died during the march and many ended up wounded.
POLITICAL
ASSASSINATIONS
Political violence was a permanent trouble in
Germany from the end of the World War I until the
rise of Nazi Party to power (1933) that broke down all
opposition.

Dana
Matthias Erzberger
He was a German writer and politician in the
Catholic Centre Party who became a member of
the Reichstag in 1903 and gradually established
himself as the leader of the party’s left wing.

Dana
 Matthias Erzberger
Like many others in the centrist party, he initially supported Germany's involvement in
World War I and advocated the annexation of Belgium and parts of Lorraine, among other
territories.

By 1917, however, with the armies stalemated on both sides, Erzberger changed his political
stance, becoming one of the leading opponents of war. He protested the harshness of the
terms.
Dana
 Matthias Erzberger
From 1919 to 1920 he was vice chancellor and finance minister. The denunciations of the
conservative and national liberal press went beyond the ordinary limits of party polemics: the
Tägliche Rundschau observed, in allusion to Erzberger’s personal appearance, «he may be as
round as a bullet, but he is not bullet-proof.»

The climax of these attacks was that Erzberger was murdered on 26 August 1921 in Bad
Griesbach, in the Black Forest while he was out for a walk.

Dana
“A nation of seventy million people can suffer,
but it cannot die”

-Matthias Erzberger-
 Walter Rathenau
He was a German industrialist, writer, and
liberal politician. During the World War I,
he was involved in the organization of the
German war economy

Dana
 Walter Rathenau
During World War I, he was involved in the organization of the German war economy.
After the war, Rathenau served as German Foreign Minister in 1922.

He initiated the 1922 Treaty of Rapallo, which removed major obstacles to trading with
Soviet Russia. Although Russia was already aiding Germany's secret rearmament
program from 1921, extreme right-wing nationalist groups branded Rathenau a
revolutionary, also resenting his background as a successful Jewish businessman.

Dana
 Walter Rathenau
On 24 June 1922, two months after the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo, Rathenau was assassinated while he drove from his
house to the Foreign Office by the right-wing paramilitary group Organisation Consul in Berlin. During the trip, he was shot
by three young terrorists, one of them Hans Gerd Techow, future writer Ernst von Salomon. After an anticipated victory,
Ehrhardt hoped to establish an authoritarian regime or a military dictatorship.

Ernst von Salomon

The terrorists' aims were not achieved, however, and civil war did not come. Instead, millions of Germans gathered on the
streets to express their grief and to demonstrate against counter-revolutionary terrorism. When the news of Rathenau's
death became known in the Reichstag, the session turned into turmoil.
Dana