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What are they? What is the significance of each?

What are they? What is the significance of each?. Burgfrieden USPD OHL Fatherland Party Brest-Litovsk Tannenberg. Key Events. Ludendorff and Hindenburg ran a virtual military dictatorship after 1916 Left split, April 1917 July = Reichstag voted 212:126 for peace resolution

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What are they? What is the significance of each?

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  1. What are they? What is the significance of each? • Burgfrieden • USPD • OHL • Fatherland Party • Brest-Litovsk • Tannenberg

  2. Key Events • Ludendorff and Hindenburg ran a virtual military dictatorship after 1916 • Left split, April 1917 • July = Reichstag voted 212:126 for peace resolution • 29th September 1918 – Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff recommend a new civilian govt and armistice • 3rd October – A new civilian government led by Prince Max of Baden, based on Reichstag support which included Liberals and Socialists, is formed

  3. Why did German High Command recommend ‘a new civilian government’ in Germany in late September 1918?

  4. 1914 Burgfrieden (peace in the fortress) declared • Govt acknowledged TUs had a role to play • A quick victory had been expected in 1914 (Schlieffen Plan). Germany was, militarily and economically, unprepared for the long haul. • Naval blockade → shortages → effect on morale, increasing numbers questioning why Germany was still at war → this war weariness led to a fear of a W.C. led revolution

  5. By 1917, the war was clearly not a war of defence, as assumed, against “Russian barbarism” (SPD, July 1914). Instead began to look like a war for territorial gain. • April 1917 – USPD split: political disunity • July 1917, Reichstag voted 212:126 for peace resolution

  6. USA enter war • By Aug 1918, 2 million American troops landed • Failure of Ludendorff Offensive, Spring/Summer 1918 • OHL declared bankruptcy at Spa, 28 – 29th Sept •  Germany’s allies – Bulgaria (collapsed 30th Sept), Turkey and A-H – on the verge of making peace

  7. Cost of War • 2 million killed • 6.3 million wounded • £8.4 billion expenditure • Real earnings fell 20 – 30% • 1917: ‘Turnip winter’ • Deaths from starvation and hypothermia, 1918 alone, stood at 293,000

  8. Kolb suggests two reasons why Ludendorff urged the Kaiser to create a civilian government… • Better peace terms. Why had he feared a harsh treaty? • Shift of blame – “Let them eat the broth they have prepared for us”

  9. Was the October Revolution wholly orchestrated by the OHL? Consider the opinions of • Those in the Reichstag • The masses

  10. An Assessment of the Revolution from Above • Kolb: ‘Revolution from above’ is a simplification. On the 28th September, before the Spa declarations, a majority of Reichstag parties called for amendments to the constitution • A.J.P. Taylor (1961): “Constitutional monarchy, the highest ambition of even the Social Democrats, was achieved without the effort, even without the knowledge, of the German people… In essence the Weimar Republic came into being on Ludendorff’s orders”

  11. The Stab in the Back Myth

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