The Influence of the End of WWI on Germany

Friedrich Ebert

“The situation continued to deteriorate, and both social and political conflict grew sharper.” (Schluze 195). This statement by Hagen Schluze epitomizes the sentiment and situation in Germany after World War 1. This war had a horrendous impact of Germany, especially due to the fact that the people of the country had been led to believe that they were succeeding in this conflict much more than they thought.  During the war, Germany was blockaded by the British Navy, depriving the people of basic goods. As Schluze explains, “But the reality of life in Germany was far removed from such flights of fancy (enthusiasm for the war). Food shortages occurred everywhere despite ever stricter rationing and attempts to place production of at least basic commodities under government control” (Schluze 193). The lack of food itself was not the only problem, farmers were short of workers due to their participation in the military, drastically decreasing the work force available to deal with these shortages. By understanding the dire conditions and the reorganization surrounding attempts to resolve these problems before World War I came to a close, one can better understand why Germany changed as it did is a result of this conflict and why they were so shattered after the Treaty of Versailles..
In the fall of 1918, the German lines were annihilated by an Allied attack and after a few weeks, the German army was defeated (Schulze 192-193). As the war ended, much of the blame was put on the political realm for the defeat, rather than on the military, that was in fact drained from this war. To better understand this, let us analyze some of the events of November 1918, when many councils began to take over the cities, paralleling actions in Russia during the communist revolution.  The leading party at in Parliament at this time was the Social Democrat party, led by Friedrich Ebert. This party feared anarchy and aimed to push Germany toward the republic model of government. As Schluze explains, this model did work, as a majority of those elected were under the Social Democratic party or the German Democratic Party. He states, “The first democratically elected national government thus had a broad basis of support…the government faced…urgent tasks…it had to consolidate the power of the new republic against opposition from the left…it succeeded in the first aim with the help of the old regular army and the new volunteer units known as the Freikorps” (Schulze 202). Though this was a successful shift based on the first election, the shock of defeat Ebert’s men a difficult political climate in which to function. 

freikorps

Ebert was not able to control Berlin, with various revolts and violence breaking out between political factions, especially between German Communists and the Freikorps. Germany then moved its capital to the city of Weimar, leading to the naming of Germany of 1919-1933, the Weimar Republic. This shift caused many to doubt the strengths of this government, fleeing when there are problems is not an effective method of maintaining control. Along with the problem of remedying these conflicts, there was a definite loss of men in this war. In a struggle to rebuild an economy, this work force loss affected the industrial base, furthering the plight of this country after the war. As the war approached its end, economic faltering, a prolific loss of men, and a government struggling for control each had profound effects on the country.  As the treaty of Versailles would come to shake up the country more, these issues would typically grow in severity, causing Germans to struggle during this time, trying to regain their strength after a difficult war.

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