Weimar Germany

From the journal of "HI" a marvellous teleporting space wizard sent from the future. (This explains my knowledge of future events, and why I never use conventional means of transportation. This also helps explain the apparent typo in the title of the blog.)

I have recently teleported to Weimar Germany 1918.

After visiting Britain, I can conclude with confidence that Germany is suffering much worse, and for good reason: they lost the war. When I had first arrived Britain had a naval blockade set up, and I could hear clearly on the streets that German citizens were not impressed. Though I do not speak German I was able to use one of my futuristic devices to translate everything back to English, the only language I speak. One ragged old man had remarked, "The Kaiser has proved useless. He is barley doing anything, while people like me starve in the streets." Along my way back from a restaurant I met a peculiar Austrian man in an alleyway, petting a stray German Shepard. He expressed his disgust claiming, "We did not lose the war, we were betrayed. Those fools, who signed the armistice, they will pay!" I paid no attention to him, until he approached me from behind, tapping me on the shoulder. He simply expressed his admiration of my unique moustache style. I thanked him, and suggested he give it a try. Looking back weeks later, I should have known what this man would do, but during my time travelling in Germany the odour from the hot, German schnitzel prevented me from accessing information regarding the future Chancellor of Germany. Nevertheless, these citizens were becoming very uneasy and anxious and it was clear a revolt was on the horizon. It would soon dawn, led by the German Navy and socialists. Under tremendous pressure, the Kaiser sent it to a vote as to who would run Germany. The left wing movements formed a coalition, but due to differences in the ideologies they were never able to truly unite.

The Kaiser had abdicated to Holland.

The naval blockade and limited resources was frustrating many in Germany.

Soon revolt occurred in Berlin 1919. It was being labeled the "Sparticus Movement".

The movement was comprised of many left wing movements. To their dismay, they were never able to truly unite due to ideological differences.

The army in conjunction with the Freikorps eliminated the revolt through merciless means often through execution and savage beatings. Germans voted in favour of the new democratic republic. Ebert was declared Chancellor of this new republic.

The new government was being devastated by the high inflation and restrictions placed on it by the Treaty of Versailles. Germany's industrial heartland Ruhr was being occupied by France, severely limiting their production of materials.

However in 1923 things began to turn around, with the appointment of new Chancellor Gustav Stresemann. He was able to introduce a new currency, which in turn strengthened the economy and provided some stability and eased inflation.

This also signalled a period of innovation and ingenuity in science and arts. It was a loose time, with drugs and prostitution rampant on the streets. Bauhaus architecture, German film companies, and leading composers of music surfaced, and became a dominate presence in Weimar Germany.

However, everything spiralled downwards with the crash of the U.S stock market. Germany had loaned a substantial amount of money from the U.S and when the U.S went down, they had no use for German imports and began calling for their loans. Germany had been financing themselves of the loans for over five years, and would soon be in turmoil once again.

In short, Weimar Germany attempted to show the Allies a new, peaceful side of Germany, going so far as to name the republic after the peaceful town where the constitution was made. This was done to perhaps ease the restrictions that were going to be made at the Paris Peace Conference. It was a short-lived period that began and ended in utter disparity for most, and despite great leaps in arts and sciences; Weimar failed to establish security among the German people. This was due to the fact that the democracy was born out of defeat in World War One. Nobody had faith in it, and it could never provide stability (20 different coalition governments).