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Events in the year 1921 in Germany .
Almost all of the most important events in Germany in 1921 were connected with questions arising out of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, disarmament, reparations, trials of war criminals, and the plebiscite in Upper Silesia—questions that, from their harassing nature, kept both government and people in constant suspense and agitation.
The Protocol of Spa had threatened Germany with new sanctions in the form of further occupation of German territory if Germany did not continue on its schedule of war reparations. But the threat was suspended, and the matter of disarmament was referred to a conference of ministers at Paris at the end of January. This conference not only drew up a plan for Germany's reparation obligations, but also fixed eight dates for the fulfilment of all disarmament demands. The most important of these dates were for the delivery of the remaining war material (February 28), the repeal of a new Reichswehr law, with the absolute abolition of conscription for the Reich and the single states (March 15), the surrender of all heavy and of two-thirds of the small firearms belonging to the organizations for self-protection (March 31), the disarmament of all ships in reserve (April 30), the complete disbandment of all organizations of defense and the surrender of the remainder of their arms (June 30), and lastly (July 31), the destruction of warships in the process of construction, with the exception of those transformed with the assent of the Allies into mercantile vessels.
The Paris conference of ministers, which commenced on January 24, formulated a plan by which Germany was to pay 226,000 million Goldmarks in forty-two fixed annuities from May 1, 1921, to May 1, 1963, aing annuities each equal to 12% of German exports. This plan was communicated to the German government, along with the announcement that in case of non-fulfilment sanctions in the terms of the Spa Protocol would be applied.
This communication of the Paris conference caused intense agitation in Germany. Speaking in the Reichstag the foreign minister, Walter Simons, characterized the Paris demands as impossible to fulfill, as an infringement of the Treaty of Versailles, and as involving the economic enslavement captures of the German people. He declared in the name of the government that the proposed plan could not be regarded as a basis for further negotiations. With the exception of the Communist Party, the leaders of the parliamentary groups endorsed the declaration of the government.
Through the chairman of the Paris conference, the German government were invited to send a representative on March 1 to London, to discuss the reparation question. The government accepted the invitation, but smarting from their experiences at Versailles and Spa, the German government wanted to make sure that their views would be well represented.
The German delegates had a difficult time putting effective counterproposals together due to their philosophical differences, so all of the proposals were ultimately rejected. In a later sitting British Prime Minister David Lloyd George informed the German delegates that their proposals would not meet with serious consideration. In addition, he allowed them a fixed time to agree with the substance of the decision of the Paris conference. If they failed to agree, George threatened Germany with Allied reoccupation of Duisburg, Ruhrort, and Düsseldorf, the raising of tribute from the sale price of German goods in the Allied countries, and the erection of a customs frontier on the Rhine, under the supervision of the Allies.
The government protested to the League of Nations, but without effect. The military occupation of the three cities mentioned took place immediately, and was extended to other places as well, while the special customs frontier on the Rhine was drawn on two dates, April 20 and May 10. On each occasion protests were made from the German side, which received no more attention than those that preceded them. On the other hand, the action of the Reparations Commission in fixing further dates for the payment of enormous sums by Germany was scarcely noticed, public attention being almost wholly centred on the approach of May 1, the date assigned for the first payment of reparations.
Simultaneously the President of the German Reich Friedrich Ebert issued a proclamation, countersigned by the chancellor, Constantin Fehrenbach, to the effect that the Allies had occupied areas of Germany in defiance to the Treaty of Versailles and that they would not object to outside help in the matter.
In the occupied territories of the Rhineland, the edicts of the occupation authorities, especially the French, led to many conflicts between them and the German administration. The German commissioner, von Stark, who had several times protested against decrees of the Inter-Allied Rhineland Commission, was threatened with expulsion by the president of the commission, and to avoid this he resigned voluntarily. His successor, the Prince of Hatzfeld-Wildenburg, was only admitted after long negotiations, and on condition that he promised to abstain from all obstruction and to cooperate loyally with the Rhineland Commission. Complaints, however, of arbitrary decisions of the commission have continued to abound, especially in regard to the execution of justice and the administration of schools. Up to March 31, the cost of the occupation to Germany was 4 milliards of Goldmark and 7 milliards of Papiermark (paper mark).
Along with the questions of disarmament and reparation, punishment of German war criminals was a matter that kept Germany in continual anxiety and unrest. The government attempted to fulfill the war crime obligations it had agreed to. Nine of these trials took place before the Supreme Court, from May 23 onwards. Several cases ended in an acquittal of the accused, but most were followed by imprisonment or incarceration in a fortress. A British delegation headed by the solicitor-general, Sir Ernest Pollock, attended the first trials, in which cases brought on the demand of the United Kingdom were heard. The other trials were similarly attended by a French or Belgian delegation. The acquittal of General Karl Stenger, who was accused by the French of having had French prisoners shot, caused the French government to recall its legal mission and the French witnesses.
The clause of the Treaty of Versailles demanding a plebiscite in Upper Silesia was next taken in hand. The German government had already declared during the negotiations in London that the possession of Upper Silesia was indispensable to Germany if she was to fulfill her obligations in regard to reparations. After some negotiation the plebiscite was fixed for March 20, and resulted in 717,122 votes being cast for Germany against 483,514 for Poland, the result very different from the last 1910 census, where Poles had clear 60% majority.
With the results of the Plebiscite making the ultimate fate of Upper Silesia unclear, fighting erupted in the province between insurgent Polish forces and German militias. The Germanophone section of the population made strong complaints, being firmly convinced that the French division of the Upper Silesian army of occupation was favouring the insurrection by refusing to do anything.
Twelve days after the start of the uprising, Wojciech Korfanty offered to take his Upper Silesian forces behind a line of demarcation, on condition that the released territory would not be occupied by German forces, but by Allied troops. It was not, however, until July 1 that the British troops arrived in Upper Silesia and began to advance in company with those of the Allies towards the former frontier. Simultaneously with this advance the Inter-Allied Commission pronounced a general amnesty for the illegal actions committed during the recent violence, with the exception of acts of revenge and cruelty. The German defense force was finally withdrawn and disbanded and quiet was restored.
As the Supreme Council was unable to come to an agreement on the partition of the Upper Silesian territory on the lines of the plebiscite, a solution was found by turning the question over to the Council of the League of Nations. Agreements between the Germans and Poles in Upper Silesia and appeals issued by both sides, as well as the despatch of six battalions of Allied troops and the disbandment of the local guards, contributed markedly to the pacification of the district. On the basis of the reports of a League of Nations commission and those of its experts, the Council awarded the greater part of the Upper Silesian industrial district to Poland. Poland obtained almost exactly half of the 1,950,000 inhabitants, viz., 965,000, but not quite a third of the territory, i.e., only 3,214.26 km2 (1,255 mi2) out of 10,950.89 km2 (4,265 mi2).
German and Polish officials, under a League of Nations recommendation, agreed to come up with protections of minority interests that would last for 15 years. Special measures were threatened in case either of the two states should refuse to participate in the drawing up of such regulations, or to accept them subsequently.
Polish Government had decided to give Upper Silesia considerable Autonomy with Silesian Parliament as a constituency and Silesian Voivodship Council as the executive body.
In the middle of all of these troubles with the Treaty of Versailles the cabinet of Chancellor Constantin Fehrenbach resigned on May 10. In the meantime the Reparations Commission had fixed the sum of Germany's debt at 132 milliard Goldmark, besides having stated that by May 1, when the German debt became due, a further sum of 12 milliard Goldmark for reconstruction of demolished industrial works was to be paid. As a kind of guarantee, the commission demanded that the gold treasure of the Reichsbank and of certain other banking-houses should be transported to the occupied territory. Before these claims could be met, they were replaced by the ultimatum of the Allied governments, which gave the German government until May 12, under threat of occupation of the Ruhr valley, to declare that they had decided unreservedly to fulfil the obligations drawn up by the commission, to accept all of its dictated guarantees, to carry out immediately and without reserve the measures prescribed in regard to disarmament, and, finally, to proceed without delay to try the war criminals.
After many days of trying negotiations, which at times made it seem it would be impossible to form any German government whatsoever, the Minister of Finance of the preceding government, Dr. Joseph Wirth, managed to form a coalition cabinet willing to accept the ultimatum as it stood (May 10). Members of the Centre, Majority Socialist, and Social Democratic parties constituted the greater part of this new cabinet, in which three vacancies were left temporarily, the other appointments being as follows:
The three middle parties of the Reichstag, who desired a genuine democracy, supported the new cabinet. The German People's Party also was willing on certain conditions to join the coalition and to sign the ultimatum. In the end, the majority was composed of the Centre Party, the Social Democrats, Independent Social Democrats, and certain members of the People's Party.
A certain lull in the storm over the reparations question took place during the following months. The first gold milliard had been paid on August 31, and only the 33+1⁄3% fall in the value of the mark, which later depreciated to a still greater degree, indicated approaching peril. Although no further doubt was cast on Germany's will to pay, the Allies failed to repeal the military sanctions of March 9. The trade sanctions came to an end on September 30, but not without a burdensome commission of contract having been instituted in their place.
In order to further Germany's work of reconstruction in the north of France, the two ministers, Walther Rathenau and Louis Loucheur, conferred several times at Wiesbaden in August and September, in regard to the delivery by Germany of the necessary material. Germany agreed to deliveries that were to be credited as payment, but were not to exceed the value of 7 milliard Goldmark by May 1, 1926.
The growing sense that the Reich would never be able to meet their reparation obligations led to bankers using private foreign credit at the disposal of the Reich. The reparation payments discharged in this manner were to be credited to industry for taxes, to amounts to be stated at a later date. This plan was well received at first. But certain tendencies that subsequently manifested themselves among the great industrials led to failure of this push to use foreign credit. To meet its debt, the German government had also tried to negotiate a loan with a foreign banking-house of £25,000,000, and had been rebuffed with a pertinent reference to the reparation burden. Thereupon the government declared to the Reparations Commission in December that the two following instalments, due on January 15 and February 15, of 500,000,000 Goldmark and about 250,000,000 Goldmark respectively, could only be paid in part, and a delay was requested. Thus at the end of the year the problem of reparations had again become acute.
After the official publication of this decision, Chancellor Wirth, considering that his task had been rendered impossible, resigned with the whole of his cabinet. After vain attempts to reorganize the cabinet on a broader basis by including members of the German People's Party, the president of the republic again entrusted Wirth with the formation of the cabinet, a task he soon accomplished (October 26). Wirth's 2nd cabinet included:
A vote of confidence in the new government was passed by 230 votes to 132, the minority consisting of the two parties of the right and the Communists.
Sharp criticism was levelled in Parliament and in the press against the extreme slowness with which long overdue taxes were being collected. The slowness in tax collection was partly attributable to the overworked condition of revenue and taxation officials. The sensational drop in the value of the mark due to inflation in the Weimar Republic made the financial position still more deplorable, and produced at the end of the year an unprecedented rise in prices. It also led to a positive inundation of the large western towns with buyers from the countries with high exchange. This resulted in Germany being drained of goods without receiving a fair equivalent. The stimulus given to trade and industry, though it certainly reduced unemployment to a minimum, was no compensation, because the export of manufactures involved a continual decrease of German assets. Eventually, all of these factors would lead to the mark being devalued to as little as 4.2×1012 mark to the United States dollar.
In March, there was a Communist rising in central Germany, accompanied by violence, murder, and pillage. Max Hoelz, the leader of the insurrection was captured and tried before a special court in Berlin, which sentenced him to imprisonment for life and loss of civic rights. The rest of those involved in the insurrection were also tried by special courts and condemned to imprisonment for varying periods. A large proportion of those who took a subordinate part in the insurrection were amnestied.
On the other hand, the supporters of a royalist and military system, including 40,000 ex-officers of the old army as well as a relatively large number of landowners, higher officials, and the middle classes in the towns, did not openly rise against the republic. However, their insults to the new black, red, and gold German flag and bitter attacks on the representatives of the republic in the press and in public speeches became more frequent. Two political murders that appeared to be a product of this spirit showed that the political temperature had risen. In June, Karl Gareis, the leader of the local Independent Socialist Party, was murdered at Munich, and on August 25 Matthias Erzberger, the former minister of finance, was murdered.
The murderer of Gareis could not be found, but it was widely taken for granted that the murder was a political act. Erzberger's murderers were identified as two young men, apparently nationalist fanatics.
Both murders, especially that of Erzberger, created an extremely bitter feeling among the working classes. Public demonstrations were held in favour of the republic, and both Socialist parties took steps to draw the attention of the chancellor to the dangers of the situation, and to demand energetic measures against those who had organized the agitation and who were to be considered morally responsible for the recent crimes.
On August 29, the president issued a decree, based on Article 48 of the German constitution, authorizing an anti-sedition act that would last for at least 14 days. The decree inspired opposition on all sides, and it was repealed on December 24 by a vote of the Reichstag after being in force barely four months.
Some important agreements and treaties with foreign states were concluded during the year. On May 6 an economic agreement was concluded with the Russian Soviet Republic, and a German delegation under Professor Kurt Wiedenfeld was sent to Moscow. Peace with the United States was signed in Berlin on August 25, and was ratified by the German Reichstag on September 30 and by the American Senate on October 19. A treaty with China, proclaiming a state of peace between the two countries, was made on May 20. A treaty was concluded with Switzerland on December 3, which set up a court of arbitration to deal with disputes between the two countries. A series of economic treaties with Czechoslovakia, Italy, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes must be added, as well as a treaty of preference with Portugal. An agreement with the United Kingdom concerning the partial restoration of German private property was concluded on January 12.
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The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace of Versailles, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the war. The other Central Powers on the German side signed separate treaties. Although the armistice of 11 November 1918 ended the actual fighting, and agreed certain principles and conditions including the payment of reparations, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. Germany was not allowed to participate in the negotiations before signing the treaty.
Gustav Adolf Bauer was a German Social Democratic Party leader and the chancellor of Germany from June 1919 to March 1920. Prior to that, he was minister of labour in the last cabinet of the German Empire and during most of the German Revolution that preceded the formal establishment of the Weimar Republic.
Hermann Müller was a German Social Democratic politician who served as foreign minister (1919–1920) and was twice chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic.
Constantin Fehrenbach, sometimes erroneously Konstantin Fehrenbach,, was a German politician who was one of the major leaders of the Catholic Centre Party. He served as president of the Reichstag in 1918 and then as president of the Weimar National Assembly from 1919 to 1920. In June 1920, Fehrenbach became Chancellor of Germany. During his time in office, the central issue he had to face was German compliance with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. He resigned in May 1921 when his cabinet was unable to reach a consensus on war reparations payments to the Allies. Fehrenbach remained in the Reichstag and headed the Centre Party's contingent there from 1923 until his death in 1926.
The Silesian Uprisings were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic at the time. Ethnic Polish and Polish-Silesian insurrectionists, seeking to have the area transferred to the newly founded Polish Republic, fought German police and paramilitary forces which sought to keep the area part of the new German state founded after World War I. Following the conflict, the area was divided between the two countries. The rebellions have subsequently been commemorated in modern Poland as an example of Polish nationalism. Despite central government involvement in the conflict, Polish historiography renders the events as uprisings reflecting the will of ordinary Upper Silesians rather than a war.
Karl Joseph Wirth was a German politician of the Catholic Centre Party who was chancellor of Germany from May 1921 to November 1922, during the early years of the Weimar Republic. He was also minister of four government departments between 1920 and 1931. Wirth was strongly influenced by Christian social teaching throughout his political career.
Wilhelm Carl Josef Cuno was a German businessman and politician who was the chancellor of Germany from 1922 to 1923 for a total of 264 days. His tenure included the beginning of the occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops and the period in which inflation in Germany accelerated towards hyperinflation.
Wilhelm Marx was a German judge, politician and member of the Catholic Centre Party. During the Weimar Republic he was the chancellor of Germany twice, from 1923 to 1925 and from 1926 to 1928, and served briefly as the minister president of Prussia in 1925. With a total of 3 years and 73 days, he was the longest-serving chancellor during the Weimar Republic.
Events in the year 1920 in Germany.
Events in the year 1922 in Germany.
Matthias Erzberger was a politician of the Catholic Centre Party, member of the Reichstag and minister of finance of Germany from 1919 to 1920.
The Timeline of the Weimar Republic lists in chronological order the major events of the Weimar Republic, beginning with the final month of the German Empire and ending with the Nazi Enabling Act of 1933 that concentrated all power in the hands of Adolf Hitler. A second chronological section lists important cultural, scientific and commercial events during the Weimar era.
Eugen Schiffer was a German lawyer and liberal politician. He served as Minister of Finance and deputy head of government in the Weimar Republic from February to April 1919. From October 1919 to March 1920, he was again deputy head of government and Minister of Justice. In 1921, he once more became Minister of Justice. Schiffer was a founder-member of the liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) in 1918 and 1919 and co-founder in 1946 of its East German successor party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD).
The Spa Conference was a meeting between the Supreme War Council and the government of the Weimar Republic in Spa, Belgium on 5–16 July 1920. The main topics were German disarmament, coal shipments to the Allies and war reparations.
The Black Reichswehr was the unofficial name for the extra-legal paramilitary formation that was secretly a part of the German military (Reichswehr) during the early years of the Weimar Republic. It was formed in 1921 after the government banned the Freikorps that it had relied on until then to supplement the Reichswehr. General Hans von Seeckt thought that the Reichswehr no longer had enough men available to guard the country's borders, but the army could not be expanded because of the manpower restrictions imposed on it by the Treaty of Versailles.
The Scheidemann cabinet, headed by Minister President Philipp Scheidemann of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), was Germany's first democratically elected national government. It took office on 13 February 1919, three months after the collapse of the German Empire following Germany's defeat in World War I. Although the Weimar Constitution was not in force yet, it is generally counted as the first government of the Weimar Republic.
The Bauer cabinet, headed by Gustav Bauer of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), was the second democratically elected government during the Weimar Republic. Bauer's title was minister president until the Weimar Constitution came into force on 14 August 1919, after which he became chancellor of Germany. The cabinet took office on 21 June 1919 when it replaced the Scheidemann cabinet, which had resigned the day before in protest against the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Although the Weimar Constitution was not in force at the time, the Bauer cabinet is generally counted as the second government of the Weimar Republic.
The Fehrenbach cabinet, headed by Chancellor Constantin Fehrenbach of the Centre Party, was the fourth democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic. It took office on 25 June 1920 when it replaced the first cabinet of Hermann Müller, which had resigned due to the poor showing of the coalition parties in the June 1920 elections to the new Reichstag. The 1920 Reichstag replaced the Weimar National Assembly, which had served as Germany's interim parliament and written and approved the Weimar Constitution.
The first Wirth cabinet, headed by Chancellor Joseph Wirth of the Centre Party, was the fifth democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic. On 10 May 1921 it replaced the Fehrenbach cabinet, which had resigned as a result of differing opinions among its members over the payment of war reparations to the Allied powers. It was based on the Weimar Coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Centre Party and the German Democratic Party (DDP).
The second Wirth cabinet, headed by Joseph Wirth of the Centre Party, was the sixth democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic. It assumed office on 26 October 1921 when it replaced the first Wirth cabinet, which resigned in protest after the industrially important eastern part of Upper Silesia was awarded to Poland even though the majority of its inhabitants had voted in a plebiscite to remain part of Germany.
