Upload
jalyn-pickerell
View
215
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Revolution from the Right
Lecture 6
28 February 2012
HIST2133.The Weimar Republic through Documents,1918-1933
Anti-Republicans on the Right
• German National People’s Party (DNVP)• Early German People’s Party (DVP)
• Propagated stab-in-the-back legend• Saw war defeat as Jewish/Leftist/Bolshevist
conspiracy• Wanted back monarchy• Demanded strictly revisionist foreign policy• Opposed to fulfilment of Versailles Treaty
Free Corps: Voluntary military units, 1919-20
Formed by German Supreme Command:
To crush revolutionary unrest To fight vs. foreign claims to German border or
German-controlled territory in Baltic Sea region
• Baltic Free Corps fighting Bolshevist troops disappointed about loss of Baltic states to SU
• Reduced German army Reichswehr (500.000 → 100.000 men) had no jobs
= Readiness of Free Corps to stage putsch against
government after return to Germany
Rightist conspirators, 1919-20
• General Ludendorff, former chief of staff of Supreme Command• Colonel Papst, Reichswehr commander (involved in murdering Spartakus
leaders)• Kapp, senior official in East Prussia• Lieutenant-General Lüttwitz, commander of Reichswehr units east of
River Elbe• Naval captain Ehrhardt, commander of 5000 men Free Corps near Berlin
= Common goals: • Dissolving parties & parliament • Set up temporary dictatorship• Create authoritarian presidential regime in long-term• Press hard for lifting of Versailles treaty
Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch (1)First major right-wing attempt to overthrow
Republic (13-17 Mar 1920):
• Revolt of Free Corps near Berlin led by Lüttwitz + Ehrhardt to forestall planned dissolution by government
• Unsuccessfully presented President Ebert political demands• Occupied Berlin government quarter • Set up new governement under ‘chancellor’ Kapp• Top Reichswehr officer Seeckt rejects Eberts demand to
stop putsch: “Reichswehr does not fire upon Reichswehr”• Fled of government from Berlin• Call of general strike by Leftists
Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch (2)
= End of Ebert Groener accord of 10 Nov 1918
= Seekt interested in keeping out Reichswehr from politics but not in saving Republic
→ Army & bureaucracy mainly passive sympathy
► Kapp regime paralysed by general strike
► End of putsch & fled of Kapp etc. (17 Mar)
► Extreme Leftist troops still fighting in Ruhr area to unsuccessfully achieve socialist republic
Proclamation of Reich Chancellery
Kapp and Lüttwitz stepped back
The adventure is finished!
The high-traitors … will be severelypunished.
Reich President Reich GovernmentEbert Bauer
Militant nationalists, 1921-2
• Former finance minister Erzberger, † Aug 1921• Foreign minister Rathenau, † Jun 1922
= Organisation Consul (successor of Free Corps Ehrhardt) responsible
= Mass protests by Republicans = Bill for the Protection of the Republic
(Republikschutzgesetz) passed, Jul 1922
► Begin of active legal struggle of Republic vs. rightist secret societies, nationalist circles & leagues
Hitler Putschor: Beer-Hall Putsch, 8 Nov 1923
= Unsuccessful attempt of Hitler & Ludendorff to seize power for NS party
• Bavaria as operating ground for extreme Rightists
• Beerhall in Munich surrounded by Storm Troopers (SA) led by Roehm
• Hitler proclaimed new government + called for ‘March to Berlin’ from Munich
→ Hitler arrested + putsch crushed by police
Proclamationto the German people!
The government of theNovember criminals wasdeclared dismissed today.
A temporary German nationalgovernment has been createdwhich consists of
General Ludendorff,Adolf Hitler, General von Lossow,Oberst von Seisser
Results of Hitler Putsch
= Amazing achievement of political nobody Hitler
= Hitler’s lesson learnt: No direct action but winning masses by legal means (e.g. elections)
• Ludendorff acquitted altogether
• Hitler sentenced to 5 yrs imprisonment at Landsberg but released after 8 months only
• Hitler with sufficient time for writing 1st part of book Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
The ‘Bible of National Socialism’ (1925-6)
► Hitler’s autobiography & political testament written in Landsberg prison (1923-4)
► Zweites Buch (Second Book) (1928)
= Struggle against Jews as central point
“National Opposition”
• Strived for different political & economic system in Germany
• Not prepared to abide to rules of Republic• Split over question if change by violence or parliamentary
majorities
= From very different social & ideological backgrounds ↓
Extreme Leftists and Extreme Rightists
= Characteristic most important defect of Weimar Republic