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懷玉的歷史課作業  9.20

 Impact of World War One On Germany   

Chen Huai-Yu

World War One, 1914-1918, could be a significant war to Germany. During the war, or after, Germany had changed a lot, no matter good or bad. Now, let’s talk about the socio-economic impact, the German Revolution, and the Treaty of Versailles.

  Before, the German Empire under the Kaiser was in a really good condition, strong army, rich natural resources, large population, and good economy. But during the war, simply, it caused casualties. Many people were dead and wounded, the emotional trauma brought to both soldiers and families were not easy to count in numbers. The naval blockade from the Allies led to serious food and fuel shortage, which then caused starvation and hypothermia. To make things worse, due to the decrease of living condition, the Spanish flu easily spread among Germany thus caused more civilian deaths.

  The German Revolution started because Germany was considered to be losing the war. General Ludendorff believed that a new democratic government could earn better peace terms for Germany. He wanted to prevent a communist revolution and also wanted to shift the blame of the war defeat to the new government. Then, October Reform, Prince Max became Chancellor of the new parliamentary democratic government. But it soon failed due to Kiel Mutiny. The navy in Kiel didn’t want to fight anymore and, another reason was, Prince Max was still a monarchy, it was not a real democracy. 

  In November, 1918, Friedrich Ebert took over as Chancellor under a Provisional Government and a Republic was finally declared. The Keiser abdicated to Holland, and on November 11, 1918, the new government signed the armistice. This was considered as “Stab in the Back” because Germany was not even invaded. The news shocked the whole Germany.

  After the Spartacist revolt failed in January, 1919, a new elected assembly met at the town of Weimar to draw up a new constitution, because Berlin was disturbed, and Weimar was a town with great historical and cultural tradition. The Weimar Republic, a real democratic government was formally set up. Germany had no longer owned monarchy. People could finally elect their leader. The former autocratic German Empire ended.

  June 28, 1919, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles reluctantly. It was not the new government’s fault; they were forced to sign the treaty, so they called it “the shameful diktat of Versailles”. Not even consider the features of the Treaty of Versailles, basically, to sign the diktat itself, caused resentment and humiliation. Now, let’s look at the five key features of the Treaty of Versailles.

  The most important of all was the huge reparations. Since Germany had to take full blame of the war, the Allies asked Germany to pay 6600 million of reparations. In order to pay the reparations, the government printed money and also borrowed money from other countries, which absolutely led to inflation. The mark had lost 75 per cent of its value, and only 16 per cent of cost of war met from taxation. The huge reparation really collapsed the economy in Germany.

  Then it was about the armaments. The German Army and Navy had been reduced, and they were not allowed to own air force as well. These made Germany an open country with no defence. Besides, France had taken revenge on Germany to demilitarized Rhineland which would only make German people more uncomfortable and angrier.

  Third, was about the land loss of Germany. From Saar, Alsace-Lorrain, and Rhineland to Poland and all the German colonies, Germany has lost 13 per cent of its territory, 48 per cent of its iron, and 12 per cent of its population (6.5 million). However, some new countries were formed, like Poland. Now, there’re still many German-speaking people in Poland. Germany was no longer the strongest country in Europe. Germany had been weakened so much. The resentment it caused was such huge that it became one of the reasons of the starting of World War Two.

  The Article 231 was a significant one of the Treaty of Versailles. It claimed Germany to take full blame for the war. The German people thought that it was unfair to them because Germany was not the only reason why the World War One broke out. However, Germany was forced to accept it. This weakened the prestige and the popularity of the Weimar Republic.

  The last one was about League of Nations, according to Woodrow Wilson, the president of USA. Germany was not allowed to join League of Nations, because there were communists in the country. This left Germany isolated and could only grow the resentment of German people against other countries.

 To sum up, World War One left German people lived in a very poor and unstable society which gave chance to the rises of communism and Fascism. If Germany didn’t lose the World War One, there wouldn’t be such a big change that led to a whole different type of Germany after the war.