Editing Weimar Republic (section)

===Years of crisis (1919–1923)===

====Burden from the First World War====
In the four years following the First World War, the situation of most German civilians remained dire. The post-war economic crisis was a result of lost pre-war industrial exports, the loss of imported raw materials and foodstuffs due to the continental blockade, the loss of Germany's overseas colonies and the worsening debt balances that had been exacerbated by Germany's heavy reliance on bonds to pay for the war. The economic losses can be attributed in part to the extension of the Allied blockade of Germany until the [[Treaty of Versailles]] was signed on 28 June 1919. It is estimated that between 100,000<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bane |first=S.L. |title=The Blockade of Germany after the Armistice 1918–1919 |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1942 |pages=791}}</ref> and 250,000<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Howard |first=N. P. |date=1 April 1993 |title=The Social and Political Consequences of the Allied Food Blockade of Germany, 1918–19 |url=https://academic.oup.com/gh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/gh/11.2.161 |journal=German History |language=en |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=161–188 |doi=10.1093/gh/11.2.161 |issn=0266-3554}}</ref>{{rp|166}} German civilians died of disease or starvation between the end of the war and the signing of the treaty. Many German civilians expected life to return to pre-war normality after it was lifted, but the severe food shortages continued. In 1922, for example, meat consumption had not increased since the war years. At 22 kilograms per person per year, it was less than half of the 52 kilograms consumed in 1913. German citizens felt the food shortages more deeply than during the war because the reality contrasted so starkly with their expectations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heinzelmann |first=Ursula |title=Beyond Bratwurst: A History of Food in Germany |publisher=Reaktion Books |year=2014 |isbn=9781780232720 |location=London}}</ref>

Immediate post-war industrial production fell to the levels of the 1880s, or 57 percent of its value in 1913. The 1919 per capita GDP was only 73 percent of the comparable 1913 figure.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Boldorf |first=Marcel |date=13 December 2021 |editor-last=Daniel |editor-first=Ute |editor2-last=Gatrell |editor2-first=Peter |editor3-last=Janz |editor3-first=Oliver |editor4-last=Jones |editor4-first=Heather |editor5-last=Keene |editor5-first=Jennifer |editor6-last=Kramer |editor6-first=Alan |editor7-last=Nasson |editor7-first=Bill |title=Post-war Economies (Germany) |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/post-war_economies_germany |access-date=16 April 2023 |website=1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War |publisher=Freie Universität Berlin}}</ref> Controlled demobilization kept unemployment initially at around one million. By January 1922, the unemployment rate had sunk to just 0.9%,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Winkler |first=Heinrich August |title=Weimar 1918–1933. Die erste deutsche Demokratie |publisher=C.H. Becl |year=1993 |isbn=3-406-37646-0 |location=Munich |pages=143 |language=de |trans-title=Weimar 1918–1933. The First German Democracy}}</ref> but inflation caused most workers' real wages to be significantly lower than they were in 1913.{{Sfn|Winkler|1993|p=145}} The [[Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic|hyperinflation]] that peaked in late 1923 had its worst effects on government workers, whose wages did not keep pace with private sector workers, and on middle class Germans who had invested in war bonds{{Sfn|Winkler|1993|p=244}} or who relied on savings, investments or pensions for their living. What had once been substantial savings became essentially worthless due to the enormous fall in the [[Papiermark]]'s value.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Llewellyn |first1=Jennifer |last2=Thompson |first2=Steve |date=26 September 2019 |title=The hyperinflation of 1923 |url=https://alphahistory.com/weimarrepublic/1923-hyperinflation/ |access-date=18 April 2023 |website=Alpha History}}</ref>

After four years of war and famine, many German workers were disenchanted with the [[capitalist]] system and hoped for a new era under [[socialism]] or communism. [[Socialist]]s dominated the new revolutionary government in Berlin, and numerous short-lived [[Soviet republic (system of government)|council republics]] were set up in cities across Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McElligott |first=Anthony |date=25 February 2021 |editor-last=Daniel |editor-first=Ute |editor2-last=Gatrell |editor2-first=Peter |editor3-last=Janz |editor3-first=Oliver |editor4-last=Jones |editor4-first=Heather |editor5-last=Keene |editor5-first=Jennifer |editor6-last=Kramer |editor6-first=Alan |editor7-last=Nasson |editor7-first=Bill |title=Workers' or Revolutionary Councils |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/workers_or_revolutionary_councils |access-date=16 April 2023 |website=1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War |publisher=Freie Universität Berlin}}</ref> Even after they were suppressed, ideological conflicts between the Left and supporters of the former empire led to [[political violence]] and [[extremism]]. The young republic found itself in a nearly constant economic and political crisis until 1924.

====Treaty of Versailles====
{{main|Treaty of Versailles}}
The Treaty of Versailles ended the state of war between Germany and most of the [[Allies of World War I|Allied powers]] and set the conditions for peace. It was signed 28 June 1919 and can be divided into four main categories: territorial issues, disarmament, reparations and assignment of guilt.
[[File:German losses after WWI.svg|thumb|German territorial losses from the Treaty of Versailles
----
{{legend|#ddefd0|Administered by the [[League of Nations]]}}
{{legend|#ffffcf|Annexed or transferred to neighbouring countries by the treaty, or later via plebiscite and League of Nation action}}
{{legend|#f6d3a9|Weimar Germany}}]]

Territorially, Germany had to renounce sovereignty over its colonies<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=Treaty of Versailles/Part IV#Article 118}}</ref> and in Europe lost 65,000 km<sup>2</sup> (25,000 sq mi) or about 13% of its former territory – including 48% of its iron and 10% of its coal resources – along with 7 million people, or 12% of its population.<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Neill |first=Aaron |date=21 June 2022 |title=Approximate German territorial losses, and related loss of resources, following the Treaty of Versailles, June 28, 1919 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/1086370/territorial-resource-loss-treaty-of-versailles/ |access-date=20 April 2023 |website=statista}}</ref> The [[Territory of the Saar Basin|Saarland]] was put under the control of the [[League of Nations]] for 15 years, and the output of the area's coal mines went to France.<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=Treaty of Versailles/Part III#Section IV. Saar Basin}}</ref> [[Alsace–Lorraine]], which [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]] had annexed following the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870/71, once again became French.<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=Treaty of Versailles/Part III#Section V. Alsace-Lorraine}}</ref> The northern part of [[Schleswig-Holstein]] went to Denmark following a plebiscite.<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite web |title=The Treaty of Versailles |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/The-Treaty-of-Versailles |access-date=12 April 2023 |website=Britannica}}</ref> In the east, a significant amount of territory was lost to a restored [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]].<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=Treaty of Versailles/Part III#Section VIII. Poland}}</ref> The [[Klaipėda Region|Memel Territory]] was ceded to the Allied powers,<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=Treaty of Versailles/Part III#Section X. Memel}}</ref> and Danzig went to the League of Nations as the [[Free City of Danzig]].<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=Treaty of Versailles/Part III#Section XI. Free City of Danzig}}</ref> The [[Polish Corridor]] left [[East Prussia]] physically separated from the rest of Germany.

[[File:Ruhr1081923.png|thumb|Map showing the areas under the Rhineland occupation and the [[Free State of Bottleneck|bottleneck]] created between [[Koblenz|Coblenz]] and [[Mainz|Mayence]]|left]] Under the terms of both the Armistice of 1918 and of the Treaty of Versailles, French, British, Belgian and American troops [[Occupation of the Rhineland|occupied the Rhineland]], the area of Germany on the west bank of the [[Rhine river]], together with bridgeheads on the east bank near [[Cologne]], [[Mainz]] and [[Koblenz]]. In addition, the Rhineland and an area stretching 50 kilometers east of the Rhine was to be demilitarized.<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=Treaty of Versailles/Part III#Section III. Left Bank of the Rhine}}</ref> France had demanded the occupation both to protect itself from a renewed German attack and as collateral for German reparations. The occupation was to last 5 years in the British zone, 10 in the American and 15 years in the French and Belgian zones, until 1934, but the last foreign troops evacuated the Rhineland on 30 June 1930.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Schröder |first1=Joachim |last2=Watson |first2=Alexander |date=23 June 2016 |editor-last=Daniel |editor-first=Ute |editor2-last=Gatrell |editor2-first=Peter |editor3-last=Janz |editor3-first=Oliver |editor4-last=Jones |editor4-first=Heather |editor5-last=Keene |editor5-first=Jennifer |editor6-last=Kramer |editor6-first=Alan |editor7-last=Nasson |editor7-first=Bill |title=Occupation during and after the War (Germany) |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/occupation_during_and_after_the_war_germany |access-date=1 April 2023 |website=1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War |publisher=Freie Universität Berlin}}</ref>

The treaty's disarmament provisions were intended to make the future German army incapable of offensive action. It was limited to no more than 100,000 men with only 4,000 officers and no general staff; the navy could have at most 15,000 men and 1,500 officers. All fortifications in the Rhineland and 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of the river were to be demolished. Germany was prohibited from having an air force, tanks, poison gas, heavy artillery, submarines or [[dreadnoughts]]. A large number of its ships and all of its air-related armaments were to be surrendered.<ref name="Britannica" /><ref name="Treaty of Versailles-2"/>

Germany had to compensate the Allied Powers for the losses and damages of the war, with the exact amount left to be determined at a later date (Article 233).<ref name="Treaty of Versailles">{{Cite wikisource|title=Treaty of Versailles/Part VIII#Section I. General Provisions}}</ref> In the short term it was required to pay the equivalent of 20 billion gold marks in installments through April 1921 (Article 235).<ref name="Treaty of Versailles" />

The most contentious article of the treaty, the so-called [[War Guilt Clause]], did not use the word "guilt". It stated that Germany and its allies accepted responsibility for all the loss and damage from a war that was imposed on the Allies by the aggression of Germany and its allies ([[Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles|Article 231]]).<ref name="Treaty of Versailles" />

The implications of Article 231 and the territorial losses especially angered the Germans. The treaty was reviled as a dictated rather than a negotiated peace. [[Philipp Scheidemann]], then minister president of Germany, said to the Weimar National Assembly on 12 May 1919, "What hand should not wither that puts this fetter on itself and on us?"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Philipp Scheidemann gegen die Annahme des Versailler Vertrages (12. Mai 1919) |trans-title=Philipp Scheidemann Against Accepting the Versailles Treaty (12 May 1919) |url=https://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/deu/WR_SCHEIDEMANN_GERa.pdf |access-date=28 April 2023 |website=Deutsche Geschichte in Dokumente und Bildern |page=3 |language=de}}</ref> He resigned rather than accept the terms, but after the Allies threatened to resume hostilities, the National Assembly voted to approve the treaty on 23 June.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1919 |title=Vor 100 Jahren: Nationalversammlung konstituiert sich in Weimar |trans-title=100 years ago: The National Assembly Meets in Weimar |url=https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/2019/kw06-kalenderblatt-weimarer-nationalversammlung-590072 |access-date=28 April 2023 |website=Deutscher Bundestag |language=de}}</ref> It was signed in Paris five days later.

Explaining the rise of extreme nationalist movements in Germany shortly after the war, British historian [[Ian Kershaw]] pointed to the "national disgrace" that was "felt throughout Germany at the humiliating terms imposed by the victorious Allies and reflected in the Versailles Treaty...with its confiscation of territory on the eastern border and even more so its 'guilt clause'."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ian |first=Kershaw |url=https://archive.org/details/hitlerhubris00kers |title=Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris |publisher=Allen Lane |year=1998 |isbn=0-393-04671-0 |location=London |pages=136}}</ref> Adolf Hitler repeatedly blamed the Republic and its democracy for accepting the oppressive terms of the treaty.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Resentment towards the Treaty of Versailles |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zsrwjxs/revision/4 |access-date=27 April 2023 |website=BBC}}</ref>

==== War guilt ====
{{further|War guilt question}}

Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty was widely perceived not only as a legal legitimization of reparations but also as a moral condemnation of Germany, and it triggered a storm of indignation among the German public.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krüger |first=Peter |title=Die Außenpolitik der Republik von Weimar |publisher=WBG Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft |year=1993 |isbn=3-534-07250-2 |location=Darmstadt |pages=63 |language=de |trans-title=Foreign Policy of the Weimar Republic}}</ref> The hostility towards it came from across the political spectrum, from the far right to the moderate governing parties to the KPD.

After the treaty came into force, the Foreign Office continued the state's control of the debate over war guilt. The War Guilt Department financed and directed the [[Centre for the Study of the Causes of the War]], which was to provide "scientific" support for the "campaign of innocence" abroad. For war-innocence propaganda at home, a "[[Working Committee of German Associations]]" was founded with representatives of many groups considered "fit for good society".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Geiss |first=Imanuel |title=Der lange Weg in die Katastrophe. Die Vorgeschichte des Ersten Weltkrieges 1815–1914 |publisher=Piper |year=1990 |isbn=3-492-10943-8 |location=Munich |pages=102 f |language=de |trans-title=The Long Road to Catastrophe. The background of the First World War 1815–1914}}</ref> In 1919, the Weimar National Assembly established a [[Reichstag inquiry into guilt for World War I|parliamentary committee]] to inquire into the events that had led to the "outbreak, prolongation and loss of the First World War". Its results were of questionable value due to a lack of cooperation from the civil service and military and to increasing interference from the government, which wanted to prevent a German admission of guilt before the world public.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Parlamentarischer Untersuchungsausschuss für die Schuldfragen des Ersten Weltkriegs |trans-title=Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the Question of Guilt for the First World War |url=https://www.pacelli-edition.de/schlagwort-pdf.html?idno=3032 |access-date=20 May 2023 |website=Kritische Online-Edition der Nuntiaturberichte Eugenio Pacellis (1917–1929) |language=de}}</ref> The committee met until 1932.

During the course of World War I, war reporting was the responsibility of the [[German General Staff]] and after 1918, of the [[War guilt question#Potsdam Reichsarchiv|Potsdam Reich Archives]] founded by General [[Hans von Seeckt]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gründung des Reichsarchivs 1919 |trans-title=Founding of the Reich Archive 1919 |url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/DE/Content/Virtuelle-Ausstellungen/reichsarchiv.html |access-date=20 May 2023 |website=Bundesarchiv |language=de}}</ref> which dedicated itself to the task of "disproving" German war guilt and war crimes. As a result, it was the leadership of the Reichswehr with its largely anti-democratic civil service personnel that, along with the Foreign Office, determined the portrayal of the war in the Weimar Republic.

All in all, there was little objective and critical questioning of the causes of the war or of Germany's responsibility for it in academia, politics or the media during the Weimar period. The official view of history continued to follow the argument issued by the OHL in 1914 that Germany had been threatened by invasion and encirclement. Revising the conditions of the Versailles Treaty became the main goal of German foreign policy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Scriba |first=Arnulf |date=2 September 2014 |title=Weimarer Republik: Außenpolitik |trans-title=Weimar Republic: Foreign Policy |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/aussenpolitik.html |access-date=19 May 2023 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum |language=de}}</ref>

The consensus opposing the "war guilt clause" did much to promote agitation against foreign countries and the Weimar Constitution. Both the DNVP and, in particular, the NSDAP questioned the entire post-war order and propagated a "war guilt lie". In line with national conservative and bourgeois right-wing parties, they accused the governing parties of having contributed to Germany's humiliation by signing the treaty and of denying it the right to self-determination.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kimmel |first=Elke |date=12 January 2022 |title=Die "Kriegsschuldlüge" |trans-title=The 'War Guilt Lie' |url=https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/100-jahre-politischer-mord-in-deutschland-die-kriegsschuldluege-100.html |access-date=19 May 2023 |website=Deutschlandfunk |language=de}}</ref>

==== Political turmoil: Kapp Putsch and Ruhr uprising ====
The young republic was exposed from the beginning to attacks from both the extreme right and extreme left. The Left accused the Social Democrats of betraying the ideals of the labor movement because of their alliance with the old elites; the Right held the supporters of the Republic responsible for Germany's defeat in the First World War, denigrating them as "November criminals" and insinuating that the German army, which was still fighting on enemy soil when the war ended, had been stabbed in the back by them and the revolution (the [[stab-in-the-back myth]]).<ref>{{Cite web |title=World War I: Aftermath – The Undermining of Democracy in Germany |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/world-war-i-aftermath?series=20 |access-date=15 May 2023 |website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum}}</ref>[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 119-1983-0007, Kapp-Putsch, Marinebrigade Erhardt in Berlin.jpg|thumb|273x273px|Crowds in Berlin watching the [[Marinebrigade Ehrhardt]] march in under the [[Reichskriegsflagge|imperial war ensign]] during the Kapp Putsch]]
In the March 1920 [[Kapp Putsch]], Freikorps units under [[Walther von Lüttwitz|General von Lüttwitz]] occupied the government quarter in Berlin. In an attempt to reverse the revolution and install an autocratic government, the former Prussian civil servant [[Wolfgang Kapp]] appointed himself Reich chancellor and Lüttwitz Reichswehr minister and commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr. The legal government fled Berlin and called for a general strike. The putsch quickly failed due in large part to the refusal of the ministerial bureaucracy to obey Kapp's orders.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harders |first=Levke |date=14 September 2014 |title=Wolfgang Kapp 1858–1922 |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/biografie/wolfgang-kapp |access-date=12 October 2023 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum |language=de}}</ref> The Reichswehr, however, proved itself to be unreliable. It adopted a wait-and-see attitude under General von Seeckt, the head of the [[Troop Office]], who said that "Reichswehr do not fire on Reichswehr".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Winkler |first=Heinrich August |title=Weimar 1918–1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie |publisher=C. H. Beck |year=1998 |isbn=3-406-43884-9 |location=Munich |pages=121 |language=de |trans-title=Weimar 1918–1933. The History of the First German Democracy}}</ref>

Some among the working class did not limit themselves to passive resistance to the Kapp Putsch. Especially in the [[Ruhr]], where dissatisfaction with the lack of nationalization of key industries was particularly high, councils were formed that sought to seize local power. In the [[Ruhr uprising]], civil war-like fighting broke out when the [[Ruhr Red Army]], made up of some 50,000 armed workers, mostly adherents of the KPD and USPD, used the disruption caused by the general strike to take control of the industrial district. After bloody battles in which an estimated 1,000 insurgents and 200 soldiers died, Reichswehr and Freikorps units suppressed the revolt in early April.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wulfert |first=Anja |date=22 January 2002 |title=Der Märzaufstand 1920 |trans-title=The March Uprising 1920 |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/innenpolitik/maerzaufstand-1920.html |access-date=14 May 2023 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum |language=de}}</ref>

In Bavaria, the Kapp Putsch led to an anti-republican government reshuffle that made the Free State a so-called "cell of order" ({{Lang|de|Ordnungszelle}}) within the Weimar state and a rallying point for right-wing conservative and reactionary forces.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Thoß |first=Bruno |date=11 September 202 |title=Kapp-Lüttwitz-Putsch, 1920 |url=https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Kapp-L%C3%BCttwitz-Putsch,_1920#Die_Situation_in_Bayern |access-date=13 May 2023 |website=Historisches Lexikon Bayerns}}</ref> The unstable political conditions in the early phase of the Weimar Republic were also evident in the [[1920 German federal election|Reichstag election of 1920]], in which the centre-left [[Weimar Coalition]], which until then had had a three-quarters majority, lost 125 seats to parties on both the left and right.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Das Deutsche Reich: Reichstagswahl 1920/22 |trans-title=The German Reich: Reichstag Elections 1920/22 |url=http://www.gonschior.de/weimar/Deutschland/RT1.html |access-date=18 May 2023 |website=www.gonschior.de |language=de}}</ref>

==== Political assassinations ====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1989-072-16, Matthias Erzberger.jpg|left|thumb|230x230px|Matthias Erzberger, one of the signers of the 1918 armistice, was assassinated in 1921.]]
[[File:Walther Rathenau.jpg|thumb|228x228px|Walther Rathenau, German Foreign Minister, was assassinated in 1922.]]
The sharp political polarization that had occurred was visible in the assassinations of important representatives of the Republic by members of the right-wing extremist [[Organisation Consul]]. Finance Minister [[Matthias Erzberger]] was assassinated in August 1921 and Foreign Minister [[Walther Rathenau]] in June 1922. Both men had been defamed as compliant to Germany's former enemies in the matter of reparations payments. Erzberger was also attacked for signing the armistice agreement in 1918, and Rathenau had sought to break Germany's external isolation after the First World War through the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1922)|Treaty of Rapallo]], which opened diplomatic relations with the new [[Soviet Union]], renounced all war claims and mutually cancelled pre-war debts. Rathenau also attracted right-wing extremist hatred because he was a Jew. The passing of the [[Law for the Protection of the Republic]], which increased the punishments for politically motivated acts of violence, established a special court for the protection of the Republic and prohibited organizations, printed material and rallies that opposed the constitutional republican form of government, was intended to put a stop to the Republic's right-wing enemies. The conservative judiciary from the imperial era that still remained in place and passed lenient sentences against right-wing state criminals contributed to the fact that their activities could not be permanently deterred.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stern |first=Howard |date=March 1963 |title=The Organisation Consul |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1899142 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=27–30 |doi=10.1086/243595 |jstor=1899142 |s2cid=143212336 }}</ref>

==== Reparations and the occupation of the Ruhr ====
After a series of international conferences to determine the reparations for which Germany was liable, an amount of 132 billion Reichsmarks was presented in May 1921, to be paid either in gold or commodities such as iron, steel and coal.<ref name="Llewellyn-2019">{{Cite web |last1=Llewellyn |first1=Jennifer |last2=Thompson |first2=Steve |date=24 September 2019 |title=War reparations and Weimar Germany |url=https://alphahistory.com/weimarrepublic/reparations/ |access-date=17 May 2023 |website=Alpha History}}</ref> Chancellor [[Joseph Wirth]] had no choice other than to accept, but in an attempt to have the amount lowered, he began the German policy of "fulfilment" ({{Lang|de|Erfüllungspolitik}}). By attempting to meet the payments, it intended to show the Allies that the demands were beyond Germany's economic means.<ref name="Scriba-2014">{{Cite web |last=Scriba |first=Arnulf |date=2 September 2014 |title=Weimarer Republik – Außenpolitik – Reparationen |trans-title=Weimar Republic – Foreign Policy – Reparations |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/aussenpolitik/reparationen.html |access-date=7 May 2023 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum |language=de}}</ref> In May 1922, when the Reichsmark was rapidly losing value, Germany was granted a payment moratorium over strong French objections.<ref name="Llewellyn-2019" />

In January 1923, France declared Germany in default. The French minister president [[Raymond Poincaré]] saw Germany's failure to pay reparations as a lever that he could use to achieve the separation of the Rhineland from the German Reich, a French demand that had been refused by the British at Versailles.{{Sfn|Winkler|1998|p=187}} After the [[Reparation Commission]] determined that German coal deliveries were short, French and Belgian troops marched into the Rhineland on 11 January 1923,<ref name="Scriba-2014" /> Germany's most productive industrial region, and took control of most of its mining and manufacturing companies. The German government under Chancellor [[Wilhelm Cuno]] responded with a policy of non-violent passive resistance to the occupation. It underwrote the costs of idled factories and mines and paid the workers who were on strike. Unable to meet the enormous costs by any other means, it resorted to printing money. Along with the debts the state had incurred during the war, it was one of the major causes of the hyperinflation that followed.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Llewellyn |first1=Jennifer |last2=Thompson |first2=Steve |date=25 September 2019 |title=The Ruhr Occupation |url=https://alphahistory.com/weimarrepublic/ruhr-occupation/ |access-date=25 May 2023 |website=Alpha History}}</ref>

Realizing that continuing the course was untenable, the new Reich Chancellor [[Gustav Stresemann]] called off the passive resistance in September 1923.<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 May 2023 |title=Gustav Stresemann |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gustav-Stresemann |access-date=14 May 2023 |website=Britannica}}</ref> The French and Belgian occupation ended in August 1925, following an agreement (the [[Dawes Plan]]) to restructure Germany's payments. The total reparations payout from 1920 to 1931 (when payments were suspended indefinitely) was 20 billion [[German gold mark|marks]]. 12.5 billion was cash that came mostly from loans provided by New York bankers. The rest was goods such as coal and chemicals, or from assets like railway equipment.

==== Hyperinflation ====
{{Main|Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00193, Inflation, Ein-Millionen-Markschein.jpg|left|thumb|249x249px|Million mark notes being used as a scratch pad]]
The hyperinflation fueled by the government's response to the occupation of the Ruhr caused the cost of a loaf of bread to rise from 3 Reichsmarks in 1922 to 80 billion Reichsmarks in November 1923. Prices were rising so rapidly that people rushed to spend their pay at lunch breaks before it lost any more of its value. Foreign trade became all but impossible, as did German ability to pay reparations.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Llewellyn |first1=Jennifer |last2=Thompson |first2=Steve |date=26 September 2019 |title=The hyperinflation of 1923 |url=https://alphahistory.com/weimarrepublic/1923-hyperinflation/ |access-date=14 May 2023 |website=Alpha History}}</ref> While personal savings became virtually worthless, so did fixed debts. Middle class owners of land or houses often came out ahead because their debts lost value along with the currency. Large industrial concerns profited in the same manner, and wealth concentrated in fewer hands.{{Sfn|Winkler|1993|p=244}} The classic example was [[Hugo Stinnes]], who earned the title of Inflation King by taking advantage of its effects on debt to amass controlling interests in 1,535 businesses with 2,890 different plants by 1924.<ref>{{Cite book |last= |url={{Google books|cLEKEAAAQBAJ|page=179|plainurl=yes}} |title=Geschäft mit Wort und Meinung |publisher=DeGruyter |year=2020 |editor-last=Schulz |editor-first=Günther |location=Berlin |pages=179 |language=de |trans-title=Business with Word and Opinion}}</ref> Stinnes' empire collapsed after the government-sponsored inflation was stopped by the introduction of the [[Rentenmark]] on 15 November 1923. One U.S. dollar was equivalent to 4.20 Rentenmarks; the exchange rate was 1 Rentenmark to one trillion paper marks. The new money was backed by the Reich's gold reserves along with a 3.2 billion Rentenmark mortgage on the land holdings of agriculture, industry and trade. The introduction of the Rentenmark was successful at stabilizing German currency and the economy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Scriba |first=Arnulf |date=6 August 2015 |title=Die Währungsreform 1923 |trans-title=The Currency Reform |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/innenpolitik/waehrungsreform-1923.html |access-date=13 May 2023 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum |language=de}}</ref>

==== Additional political violence and the Hitler putsch ====
{{See also|Beer Hall Putsch}}
With the proclamation on 21 October 1923 of the [[Rhenish Republic]] came a short-lived secessionist movement in the wake of which sections of the labor force became increasingly radicalized. In [[Saxony]] and [[Thuringia]], Communists won enough seats to participate in governments under Social Democratic minister presidents. In both states the Communists were expelled by [[Reichsexekution|Reich executions]] ({{Lang|de|Reichsexekutionen}}) using [[Article 48 (Weimar Constitution)|Article 48]] of the Weimar Constitution. In the Reichstag, the Social Democrats withdrew their support from Cuno's government and entered a [[Grand coalition (Germany)|grand coalition]] under DVP Chancellor Gustav Stresemann.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sturm |first=Reinhart |date=23 December 2011 |title=Kampf um die Republik 1919–1923: Kommunistische Umsturzversuche |trans-title=Battle for the Republic 1919–1923: Communist Coup Attempts |url=https://www.bpb.de/themen/nationalsozialismus-zweiter-weltkrieg/dossier-nationalsozialismus/39531/kampf-um-die-republik-1919-1923/?p=all#node-content-title-21 |access-date=8 May 2023 |website=Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung |language=de}}</ref>

The nationalist right, especially in Bavaria, branded the breaking off of the Ruhr resistance as treason. In a breach of the Weimar constitution, Bavaria declared a state of emergency, and executive power was transferred to [[Gustav Ritter von Kahr]] as state commissioner general. The Reichswehr under the Chief of Army Command, General [[Hans von Seeckt]], who had his own governmental ambitions directed against left-wing parties and Weimar parliamentary,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mommsen |first=Hans |title=Aufstieg und Untergang der Republik von Weimar. 1918–1933 |publisher=Ullstein |year=1998 |isbn=3-548-26508-1 |location=Berlin |pages=184 |language=de |trans-title=The Rise and Fall of the Republic of Weimar. 1918–1933}}</ref> behaved loyally towards the Stresemann government only with respect to his own interests. In spite of the moves against the governments in Saxony and Thuringia, no action was taken against Bavaria, where Kahr was preparing a military coup aimed at overthrowing the Reich government in cooperation with the Bavarian military under district commander [[Otto von Lossow]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zittel |first=Bernhard |date=1977 |title=Kahr, Gustav Ritter von |url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd119446901.html#ndbcontent |access-date=19 May 2023 |website=Neue Deutsche Biographie 11 |pages=29–30 |language=de}}</ref>
[[File:Poster of Mein Kampf in Villa Wannsee.jpg|thumb|250x250px|Poster promoting [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' in two paperback volumes for 2.85 Reichsmarks each]]
In 1920, the [[German Workers' Party]] had become the [[National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (NSDAP), or [[Nazi Party]], which would eventually become a driving force in the collapse of the Weimar Republic. [[Adolf Hitler]] named himself chairman of the party in July 1921. On 8 November 1923, in a pact with [[Erich Ludendorff]], a league of nationalist fighting societies called the ''[[Kampfbund]],'' took over a meeting that Kahr and Lossow were holding at a beer hall in Munich. Ludendorff and Hitler declared that the Weimar government was deposed and that they were planning to take control of Munich the following day. Kahr and Lossow organized the resistance to Hitler, with the result that the [[Beer Hall Putsch|coup attempt]] was easily stopped.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Menges |first=Franz |date=1987 |title=Lossow, Otto von |url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd128549769.html#ndbcontent |website=Neue Deutsche Biographie 15 |pages=204–205}}</ref> Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for high treason, the minimum sentence for the charge. He served less than eight months in a comfortable cell, receiving a daily stream of visitors until his release on 20 December 1924. While in jail Hitler dictated ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', which laid out his ideas and future policies. Hitler decided to focus in the future on legal methods of gaining power.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Munich Putsch |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Beer-Hall-Putsch/The-Munich-Putsch |access-date=18 May 2023 |website=[[Britannica]]}}</ref>