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For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Ebert-Groener Pact - please explain! Thread starter rach. On November 9, the Kaiser abdicated and fled the country.
Unfortunately, this was too little, too late. Antiwar demonstrations and massive unrest in Bavaria followed thereafter which unseated the old regime. In this moment of great confusion and turmoil, the army under General Wilhelm Groener offered the Social Democratic Chancellor, Friedrich Ebert, a deal. In exchange for a guarantee not to reform the officer corps or reduce the power of the armed forces, Groener promised the support of the military in maintaining order and defending the government.
Faced with increasing violence from all sides, Ebert agreed in what became known as the Ebert-Groener Pact. While some historians condemn this act as a betrayal of democratic values, Ebert had few options at the time in order to maintain some semblance of law and order.
At first, however, right-wing Freikorps or volunteer paramilitary organizations were deployed against left wing agitators. The violent confrontations between left and right-wing extremists became ever bloodier. At least 1, Germans died in nine days of street fighting in Berlin in March Similar violence took place across Germany, most notably in Munich. With the violence quelled, 25 men including the famous sociologist Max Weber, legal scholar Hugo Preuss, politician Friedrich Naumann, and historian Friedrich Meinecke worked from February to July crafting a new constitution which became law on August The drafters of this new constitution faced the difficult task of creating a government acceptable to both the political left and right without being too radical.
They compromised to satisfy both groups. The basic format of the government was based around a president, a chancellor, and a parliament or Reichstag. The President was elected by a popular vote to a seven year term and held real political power, controlling the military and having the ability to call for new Reichstag elections.
In a nod to conservatives afraid of too much democracy, the framers also added elements such as Article 48 which allowed the President to assume emergency powers, suspend civil rights, and operate without the consent of the Reichstag for a limited period of time.
The chancellor was responsible for appointing a cabinet and running the day-to-day operations of the government. Ideally, the chancellor was to come from the majority party in the Reichstag or if no majority existed, from a coalition.
The Reichstag, in turn, was also elected by a popular vote with its seats distributed proportionally. This system ensured that Germans had a voice in government that they had never had before but it also allowed for a massive proliferation of parties that could make it difficult to gain a majority or form a governing coalition.
For example, the Bavarian Peasants' League, a party representing purely agricultural interests in Bavaria won 0. Proportional representation later allowed more extremist parties such as the Nazi Party to gain influence.
However, the Weimar Republic faced more immediate problems in early when a group of right-wing paramilitaries seized power in what became known as the Kapp Putsch.
A highly effective general strike by the left saved Chancellor Ebert's government. In this strike, the national bank refused to pay out currency, civil servants refused to follow orders, and workers refused to work.
Political violence peaked in with Hitler's attempted coup, the Beer Hall Putsch, which was put down by the military. Nevertheless, the leaders of the Weimar Republic still faced daunting challenges, mainly of the economic variety, particularly the burden placed upon them by the outgoing leadership of the Kaiser and the generals.
This took several forms. The first was the immense cost of the war itself and the damage it had done to Germany's civilian economy. The second was the Versailles Treaty. The Allies charged the Germans with paying staggering reparations for the cost of the war while simultaneously occupying some of the most productive regions of western Germany. The high reparations payments and costs of war had devastating consequences. The cost of living in Germany rose twelve times between and compared to three in the United States.
When the government sought to pay reparations simply by printing more money, the value of German currency rapidly declined, leading to hyper-inflation. In January , the exchange rate was This economic disaster had social consequences as well. Many Germans who considered themselves middle class found themselves destitute. However, one of the overlooked successes of the Weimar government was skillfully renegotiating and restructuring its debts and bringing the economy back under control.
From this agreement the Freikorps , or "free corps", a right wing vigilante army was born. The Freikorps was used to wipe out the "communist threat" by murdering thousands of workers in cold blood. Historically, the government and the supreme command had remained independent of one another. However during World War I, the supreme command had more or less been in control of not only the Army but also civilian life. Groener's predecessor, Erich Ludendorff , had intimidated the Kaiser into essentially giving him and Paul von Hindenburg , the leaders of the Army's supreme command, control.
This military dictatorship collapsed as the Home Front disintegrated into Strikes and upheavals, the generals eventually handed back power in despair, as the Kiel Mutiny and German Revolution brought about the end of the War, the Kaiser abdicated and Ludendorff was forced to flee Germany in disguise.
During the transition of Germany from a monarchy to a republic legislation was enacted to ensure the army would come under civilian control.
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