- The new Weimar Government was made unpopular after being forced to sign the Treaty, with consequences being the continuation of the naval blockade and disadvantageous war. Their reputation was undermined greatly from the start of its creation
- Right wing opposition supported attempts to overthrow government (eg. the Munich Putsch of Nov 1923). This went as far as assassinations of high ranking ministers by extremists
- Left wing extremist groups promoted rebellions (eg. Ruhr of March 1920)
- Several members of the army were dissatisfied (especially with disarmament), causing them to join Freikorps, an anti-communist unofficial assembly. They staged a coup in Berlin to demand a new government system. However, despite being very near success, it did not bring the government down due to another strike by workers which disabled public services
Economic
- Germans claimed that due to unknown amount of reparations, they were signing a payment without knowing the exact amount. When it was announced to be £6.6B, Germany exclaimed that they could not make the payments, and it was clear that they also did not want to
- Lost many resources used to grow economy
- Needed to repay war debts in addition to reparations
- Germany suffered from inflation and higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and homelessness
- The occupation of the Ruhr had a lot of impact
- Germany announced it could not make reparation payment in 1922
- France believed that Germany simply just did not want to abide the Treaty. Therefore, in January 1923, the French occupied the Ruhr along with Belgian troops and seized coal and resources equal in value to the intended payments
- Germany could not give armed resistance, and instead got passive resistance from residents of the Ruhr through strikes
- Residents were expelled and casualties were inflicted by the French
- Spendings heightened as the displaced population needed to be relocated and fed
- Because of the lost revenue, the government printed money, leading to inflation. As money rapipdly lost value, the middle class with savings were affected the most and bartering became a way of payment
- A few people took charge with their plans to stabilise the economy
- When Gustav Stresseman became Chancellor in Aug 1923, he…
- Ended the passive resistance in the Ruhr to not worsen the economic situation (quite an unpopular decision)
- Introduced a new provisional currency called Rentenmark in October 1923 with controlled circulation to prevent inflation, to an extent where Germany could continue to pay reparations
- In April 1924, Charles Dawes from US helped Germany get more flexibility with reparation payment through his report and Dawes Plan
- Owen Young from the US did similarly through the Young Plan to reduce the reparations to only £2B in 1929