Treaty of Versailles Vs. Hyperinflation (HW Open - Due 18/6)

In this reply I will be discussing and comparing to what extent the treaty of Versailles and hyperinflation damaged the reputation of the Weimar Republic.
The treaty of Versailles may have damaged the Weimar republic more than hyperinflation because it was a Diktat, the November criminals and also the aftermath of the terms. Diktat in German translates roughly to ‘dictated peace’ which was true as the Weimar republic were told to sign this treaty without negotiations or be destroyed. Since Fredericht Ebert signed the treaty without fighting for better terms the German people saw him and hence the Weimar republic as being weak. This had quite a big impact as up until this point Germany had been run by a Kaiser who was always portrayed as being very strong which made a lot of people question the wisdom of having a democracy government. The politicians who signed the treaty of

Versailles were named the November criminals as the German people felt like they had been stabbed in the back. This was because the soldiers believed they were doing well and winning the war. Rumors were also circulating that the rich Jewish business men were putting pressure on the Weimar government to end the war which meant a lot of working class Germans felt resentful towards the Weimar republic and felt that surrender wasn't needed. On the other hand other countries may have respected the Weimar republic for seizing control of the Kaiser and stopping the war. The treaty of Versailles was very harsh and left the Weimar republic in a very weak state which led to uprisings such as the Spartacists in 1919. With the treaty dramatically reducing the army size Ebert turned to the Freikorps to put down left wing rebellions but when the Weimar republic used and abused them their reputation dropped further. So much so the Freikorps had their own uprising called the Kapp putsch.

Hyperinflation may have damaged the reputation of the Weimar republic more than the treaty of Versailles because unemployment rates increased and loss of savings. Since Ebert printed lots of money to pay the striking workers money became valueless. This meant that after a while people couldn't go shopping anymore due to the effort of carrying so much money around. This led to smaller businesses closing down and being taken over by bigger businesses which themselves eventually had to close? This meant a lot of people became unemployed and the ones lucky enough to have a Job often starved too because the rate of inflation meant that wages didn't keep up with prices. On the plus side everyone that owed a debt or mortgage was let of as they could pay it off in a day or so, due to the amount of cash they were being paid even if it was worthless. Unfortunately anyone who had any savings were also wiped which angered many people especially the rich who had a lot of money saved. This made the Weimar republic lose a lot of respect especially with other countries as all trade and reparations had stopped. Although hyperinflation did give Stresemann the chance to step in and sort out Germany and it is his work which boosted the reputations of the Weimar republic and Germany. He did this by bringing in a new currency but unfortunately as the price of food was very low farmers felt hard done by as well as the over 1 million still unemployed people.

In conclusion I think that the treaty of Versailles was more damaging for the reputation of the Weimar Republic because it led to the year of crisis 1923 which includes hyperinflation, due to the reparations and hence the occupation of the Ruhr. Germany had always been a very strong country with a very big military and the treaty of Versailles really smashed their reputation and made them appear very weak. It also made the Weimar Republic look like they stabbed their own country in the back which did not do wonders for their reputation to say the least. 

Without the Weimar Republic signing the Treaty of Versailles, Hyperinflation wouldn't of happened because Germany wouldn't be paying £6.6 billion in reparations and therefore wouldn't have such serious money problems so wouldn't need to keep printing money- leading to hyperinflation.
As part of the treaty Germany had to demilitarise the Ruhr land, leaving them defenceless to invasion. In 1923 the French and Belgian armies invaded the Ruhr after Germany had failed to pay the right amount of reparations which were due. Because they had no military in the Ruhr the Germans couldn't fight and defend the land.
Freidrich Ebert instructed all workers in the Ruhr to go on strike with the theory 'nothing being produced- nothing to be taken.' This was true, but it was this attitude that led to hyperinflation.
Because Ebert was still paying the workers who were on strike he had to keep having more money printed so he was able to do this. Unfortunately, the more money he printed, the less it was worth. Hyperinflation meant that the prices of items were constantly rising as more money was printed. This meant small businesses were shutting down or being taken over by larger businesses. With small businesses shutting it meant the employees at that business would become unemployed. During 1923 and he period of which Hyperinflation was at its worse the rate of unemployment was the highest Germany had ever seen. People would often starve to death because they couldn't afford food for themselves or their families. Even people who were being paid were starving. Hyperinflation damaged the Weimar Republic's reputation because it was the president of the party who was ordering more money to be printed and it was also he who told them to strike, leading to hyperinflation, unemployment and death.
By signing the treaty of Versailles many Germans turned against the Weimar. There were 3 main uprisings against the Weimar Republic. The Spartacist Putch, The Kapp Putsch and The Munich Putsch. The treaty was extremely strict and harsh on Germany and for this reasons the Germans were angry. The treaty restricted the army to 100,000 troops, made them demilitarise the Ruhr Land, stop any communication with Austria as well as making Germany pay £6.6 Billion in reparations and much more. By signing the treaty the Weimar put Germany in a vulnerable position, one of which the population weren't happy with.
In my opinion, The Treaty of Versailles damaged the Weimar Republic's reputation more than Hyperinflation did. I think this because Hyperinflation was something which could be resolved a lot quicker and easier than getting out of the treaty. Stresemann would soon 'rescue' Germany and help them find a way out of Hyperinflation. The treaty led to the year of crisis occurring which included Hyperinflation in 1923. The treaty put Germany and her people in a very vulnerable and uncomfortable position, which certainly wouldn't be easy to escape from, therefore ruining the Republics reputation after the country's people put their trust in the Weimar.

I believe what damaged the Weimar republics reputation the most was the signing of the treaty of Versailles. The treaty of Versailles ordered Germany to take full responsibility for starting the war , pay £6.6 billion in reparations , the army reduced to 100,000 soldiers :no air force or battleships , Alsace Lorraine given back to France and all contact with Austria cut off . Many Germans felt that they were winning the war so as a result of the government signing the treaty, the German people were left feeling betrayed and felt it was a diktat as the treaty was so harsh and was not based on Wilson’s 14 points like they were led to believe. So in response, it led to 3 major uprisings, the Spartacist rising 1919, Kapp putsch 1920 and the Munich putsch 1923. This proved the Germans hate towards to treaty and towards the government. This also showed that the government could not control the people, conveying that Germany was now a weak country and also displaying them as traitors to their for signing such a harsh treaty .
However, I do believe that the hyperinflation also damaged the Weimar republics reputation .In 1923 when the Ruhr was invaded by 60,000 French and Belgian soldiers due to Germany missing a payment of their £6.6 billion reparations, the German people could not defend themselves as a result of the treaty of Versailles ordering there to be only 1000,000 soldiers. Frederick Ebert ordered the workers to go on strike, thinking that is nothing is produced, no money could be taken. However, Ebert was still paying the workers money, and with nothing being produced, no money was being made. So to solve the problem, Ebert started to print more money but the more he printed, the more the value of it dropped .Still, Ebert kept on printing until the point where people were literally picking up their pay check , and carrying it home in a wheel barrow . This did however lead to the price of food going up, so no matter how much you were paid, people could not afford a loaf worth 428,000,000,000 marks. This lead to many people starving, and small businesses’ shutting down, causing a huge rise in unemployment.1923, the year of crisis definitely caused Germany's reputation to go down the drain as to Germany was seen as a joke . Many would see Ebert’s attempt of sorting out the situation, as a stubborn man refusing to see the long term effects of printing so much money.
In conclusion I believe that the treaty of Versailles was the main cause of Germany's damaged reputation because if Ebert didn't sign the treaty, hyperinflation would not happen, so less people would starve and turn against the government for putting them into that situation .There would also be no uprisings as Germany's people would still hold full trust in the government, giving them no reason to rebel against them.

The Treaty of Versailles and Hyperinflation are both very important to the downfall of the Weimar republic.

After the treaty of Versailles nothing the Weimar republic could do would be seen as right in the eyes of the German people. There was literally no one the treaty of Versailles didn't effect, it destroyed ridiculous amounts of jobs for the people in the German military and Germans who were living in Alsace Lorraine would have to move or would no longer be living in Germany. It also made many German people feel ashamed as many didn't think they had lost the war, and now not only had they surrendered but they had to take the blame and responsibility for the war (war guilt clause 231).

However Hyperinflation effected EVERYONE. The rate of decrease in the value of money was just stupid. It caused a lot of poverty and effected people on a fixed pension drastically. People would go into shops with the money to buy what they wanted, but when they went to pay they didn't have half what they needed for what they wanted. it effected peoples pay, because they would work for money, be payed in wheelbarrows and then in an hour it was worthless, this made it even more difficult to pay the reparations, which makes this another important part of the downfall of the Weimar republic.

I believe that the treaty of Versailles is more important than hyperinflation because hyperinflation would never have happened if it was not for the
crippling 6.6 billion mark reparation fee that Germany had to pay (this
obviously wasn't helped by the invasion of the Ruhr by the french and
Belgium troops between 1923 and 1925) Also because the Hyperinflation was solved by the Reichmark soon after, whereas the reparations from the treaty weren't payed off until 2010 (so very long term) 

The treaty of Versailles was very crippling to the Weimar republic because he destroyed their economy as it made them pay 6.6 billion marks which was a lot of money and they just could not afford it and this lead to hyper inflation so there would actually be no hyper inflation if there was no treaty of Versailles. Also the treaty of Versailles was also very bad as it reduced the military to 100,000 men with no tanks, 6 battleships and no submarines and demilitarize the Rhineland which left Germany weak so the German people hated the Weimar republic because they made Germany so week and poor and this allowed the Munich putsch. It also forced Germany to accept guilt for starting the war (war guilt clause 231) which overall made the German people feel bad and angry as they thought they were winning the war then suddenly felt like they were stabbed in the back by the Weimar republic when they just out of the blue surrendered and then said that the whole of Germany was to blame. Last but not least they created a league of nations but then did not let Germany join the league of nations which overall made Germany feel like a group of outlawed people which made them mad.

Hyperinflation was a very big downfall for the Weimar republic because a lot of people in Germany had very big saving but because the Weimar republic decided to print more money the savings in the savings accounts became useless and this angered the people very much as they lost years of saving all because of the Weimar government. Also since all the money is worth nothing and they need more bills for everything it means that stuff is very quickly rising in price so walking into a store and bread costing 5p when you leave it could be 12p which angered the people as it shows the German economy is failing.
Also people were starting to starve because they couldn't afford food because their money was worth less to everyone! Last but not least the people on fixed pay had a big problem as their money didn't adjust to the Deutsch mark dropping in price so they went from a nice fixed veteran pay from the government to close to nothing, and since the veterans are on a fixed pay they feel stabbed in the back as they just fought for their country and are returned with nothing at all, the money they said they would give them if worthless now so they will probably starve and die!

In conclusion the treaty of Versailles was the worse thing in my opinion as over all it lead to the whole thing, because if the Drench wouldn't have asked for so much money and invaded the
Rhineland then the Weimar republic would never have had to print more money, and also if they would have just dulled down the terms of the treaty world war two probably never would have happened so the treaty of Versailles was a lot worse for the reputation of the Weimar republic than hyperinflation was as their reputation was already beyond terrible because of the treaty of Versailles.

-christian

In your opinion, what damaged the reputation of the Weimar Republic the most, the Treaty of Versailles or Hyperinflation? Explain your answer.

Almost immediately after getting into power of Germany, Friedrich Ebert and his Weimar Republic lost the respect of the German people rapidly when, so soon after they had entrusted their country into Weimar hands in the hope that they could at least attempt to prevent Germany from being so forsaken by the Allies, they had “stabbed them in the back” by agreeing to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the “peace” treaty drawn by the Allies to punish Germany and permanently weaken her.

With letting them shoulder all the blame, pay £6.6 billion in reparations and reduce the army and military to practically nought, how could the leaders of Germany let her fall so far? The government’s reputation hadn’t been too good ever since the signing of the Armistice in November of 1918 (earning them the nickname “the November Criminals”), but on the 28th June 1919, by signing that Treaty, the Weimar Republic would be facing hatred from the German people that would lead to far more destruction.

The German people were outraged, knowing the Treaty to be incredibly unjust in its aim to completely devastate Germany. But the Weimar Republic could not refuse the diktat, the dictated peace. Even if, in hindsight, there was literally no choice as Germany could not take any more attacks from the Allies, the reputation of the Weimar Republic amongst its own people was ruined. It brought them shame and, as a previously powerful country, the loss of dignity and pride. The German people had kept faith in and given power to the Weimar government so that they could heal Germany, not break her.

On the other hand, she would have been broken either way – but would she had been broken more and for longer without the Treaty of Versailles? With the French utterly consumed with their hatred and anger (and, perhaps, fear) for Germany, they would have sought to break them anyway. At least, with the Treaty, no more death would have happened to the people of Germany. After all, Germany remained intact after the Treaty was signed; although she had lost some of her territories and practically all of her army, she still had her land, population and resources. If the Allies (the French in particular) had attacked Germany, then she would surely have lost all of that. Even when so much was on her shoulders and with all the devastation she had seen, Germany remained basically intact and not beyond repair (which was shown afterwards – not just with Gustav Stresemann, but also after the Second World War), which reflects the constant strength and resilience of, not just her people, but also her government.

But were Germany, her people, and her government really so resilient? So many problems arose during the rule of the Weimar government, including many rebellions (like the Spartakists in 1919, the Kapp Putsch in 1920 and the Munich Putsch in 1923) and, in particular, the invasion of the Ruhr and hyperinflation. Ebert had single-handedly and utterly demolished the German economy when, after not paying the reparations as dictated by the Treaty (which he had agreed to) and leading the French to invade the industrial area of the Ruhr, he told the German workers to go on strike and proceeded to pay them with non-existent money. Because Ebert was printing more money than the country had, the value of the money plummeted and the prices shot up – so even more money had to be printed and soon enough, people were carrying worthless money in wheelbarrows and papering their walls with money. Ebert and Germany were surely a laughing stock. This not only damaged the reputation of the Weimar government within its people, but also the Weimar Republic of Germany as a country as well as a government amongst the other countries, because the ruining of the economy would have drastically affected the trade Germany had with other countries.

However, hyperinflation was, in turn, actually caused by the Treaty of Versailles. It dictated that Germany had to pay £6.6 billion for reparations to France and Belgium, and it was the paying of these reparations that had caused the German economy to fall into ruins because of hyperinflation. Thus, in a perspective, it had always been the Treaty of Versailles which ruined the Weimar Republic, since it had caused hyperinflation as well as so many other problems.

Therefore, although Ebert and hyperinflation tore Germany’s economy away from her – a wrongdoing that Ebert caused against Germany when he had other choices of action – and damaged what connections she had with other countries, it was the Treaty of Versailles which was the root of it all. Even though the Treaty did not hurt Germany’s reputation with other countries, unlike hyperinflation and the fall of the economy, the effect of it was not as drastic as it had on the people of Germany. After all, the other countries were not nearly as dependent on and hopeful with the Weimar Republic as the people that the Weimar Republic was trying to lead, and so with the people, they had more to lose – and they lost it, along with Germany’s pride and dignity.