What Was The Effect of First World War On Germany?

 

The war had a devastating impact on the entire continent both psychologically and financially. The infant Weimar Republic was being made to pay for the sins of the old empire. The republic carried the burden of war guilt and national humiliation and was financially crippled by being forced to pay compensation. Those who supported the Weimar Republic, mainly Socialists, Catholics, and Democrats, became easy targets of attack in the conservative nationalist circles.

 

They were mockingly called the �November criminals�. The First World War left a deep imprint on European society and polity. Politicians and publicists laid great stress on the need for men to be aggressive, strong, and masculine.

 

Aggressive war propaganda and national honor occupied center stage in the public sphere, while popular support grew for conservative dictatorships that had recently come into being.

 

What Was The Effect of First World War On Germany: Political Radicalism and Economic Crises

 

The birth of the Weimar Republic coincided with the revolutionary uprising of the Spartacist League on the pattern of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Soviets of workers and sailors were established in many cities. The political atmosphere in Berlin was charged with demands for Soviet-style governance.

 

Those opposed to this such as the socialists, Democrats, and Catholics -met in Weimar to give shape to the democratic republic. The Weimar Republic crushed the uprising with the help of a war veterans organization called Free Corps.

 

The anguished Spartacists later founded the Communist Party of Germany. Communists and Socialists henceforth became irreconcilable enemies and could not make common cause against Hitler. Both revolutionaries and militant nationalists craved radical solutions. Political radicalization was only heightened by the economic crisis of 1923.

 

Germany had fought the war largely on loans and had to pay war reparations in gold. These depleted gold reserves at a time resources were scarce. In 1923 Germany refused to pay, and the French occupied its leading industrial area, Ruhr, to claim their coal.

 

Germany retaliated with passive resistance and printed paper currency recklessly. With too much-printed money in circulation, the value of the German mark fell. As the value of the mark collapsed, prices of goods soared.

 

The image of Germans carrying cartloads of currency notes to buy a loaf of bread was widely publicized evoking worldwide sympathy. This crisis came to be known as hyperinflation, a situation when prices rise phenomenally high. Eventually, the Americans intervened and bailed Germany out of the crisis by introducing the Dawes Plan, which reworked the terms of reparation to ease the financial burden on Germans.

 

What Was The Effect of First World War On Germany: The Years of Depression

 

The years between 1924 and 1928 saw some stability. Yet this was built on sand. German investments and industrial recovery were totally dependent on short-term loans, largely from the USA.

 

This support was withdrawn when the Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929. Fearing a fall in prices, people made frantic efforts to sell their shares.

 

This was the start of the Great Economic Depression. The German economy was the worst hit by the economic crisis. By 1932, industrial production was reduced to 40 percent of the 1929 level. Workers lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages.

 

The number of unemployed touched an unprecedented 6 million. As jobs disappeared, the youth took to criminal activities and total despair became commonplace. The economic crisis created deep anxieties and fears in people

 

Only organized workers could manage to keep their heads above water, but unemployment weakened their bargaining power. Big business was in crisis. The large mass of peasantry was affected by a sharp fall in agricultural prices and women, unable to fill their children�s stomachs, were filled with a sense of deep despair. Politically too the Weimar Republic was fragile.

 

The Weimar constitution had some inherent defects, which made it unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship. One was proportional representation. This made achieving a majority by any one party a near-impossible task, leading to a rule by coalitions. Another defect was Article 48, which gave the President the powers to impose emergency, suspend civil rights, and rule by decree.

 

Within its short life, the Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets lasting on an average of 239 days, and liberal use of Article 48. Yet the crisis could not be managed. People lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary system, which seemed to offer no solutions.

 

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