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Weimar Germany's War Against France - The 1923 Ruhr Uprising — Transcript

by Mark Felton Productions · 1,669 words · 298 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00[music]
0:12[music]
0:15>> When World War I finally ended in
0:17November 1918, Europeans in particular
0:20were in a profound state of shock.
0:23Millions of young men had been killed
0:25with millions more maimed.
0:28The survivors of all nations who
0:30returned home were angry. Angry that
0:32their generation had been sacrificed.
0:35Angry at the business class who seemed
0:37to have profited from the war. And many
0:39were drawn away from democratic politics
0:42which had drawn their nations into war
0:44in the first place towards the new
0:46extremes of communism and socialism on
0:49the left and a militant monarchism and
0:52even fascism on the right.
0:54It is no coincidence that the right-wing
0:56leaders who would dominate the 1930s and
0:5940s were all World War I combat
1:01veterans.
1:03Britain was perhaps the least affected
1:05by the populist uprisings and revolts of
1:08the immediate post-war period. Its
1:10German monarchies surviving the cull of
1:13monarchs that followed the end of the
1:14war as the German, Austrian, and Turkish
1:17emperors were all swept from power along
1:19with some smaller dynasties.
1:22But for the angry class of World War I
1:24veterans who had in many cases faced
1:27economic hardships and often mass
1:29unemployment post-war, there emerged for
1:32example in Britain Sir Oswald Mosley's
1:34British Union of Fascists. Mosley being
1:37a disaffected World War I veteran and a
1:39former Labour GOVERNMENT MINISTER.
1:42>> WE SAY THAT ENGLAND IS NOT DEAD.
1:44WE SAY,
1:46AND I ASK YOU TO SAY WITH US, LIFT UP
1:48YOUR VOICES IN THIS GREAT MEETING IN THE
1:51HEART OF ENGLAND. SEND TO ALL THE WORLD
1:54A MESSAGE. ENGLAND LIVES
1:56AND
1:57MARCHES ON.
1:58>> YES.
2:04>> FASCISM, SOMETHING new that emerged
2:06after World War I, often called the
2:08third way. But fascism never found mass
2:11appeal in Britain.
2:13However, in Italy, former World War I
2:15corporal Benito Mussolini successfully
2:18seized power, creating the first fascist
2:20state in Europe.
2:22In Germany, heavily punished in a
2:24variety of ways for World War I, angry
2:27World War I veterans vented that anger
2:30through violent street brawls, a series
2:33of coups and assassinations, and the
2:35creation of a host of paramilitary
2:37organizations that would eventually
2:39coalesce around another ex-World War I
2:42corporal, Adolf Hitler.
2:45But Hitler's NSDAP and its uniform
2:48political army, the SA, the
2:50Sturmabteilung or brownshirts, was not
2:52the only right-wing force battling the
2:55communists and socialists for control in
2:57Weimar Germany.
2:59There were, of course, a series of
3:01right-wing ultra-nationalist
3:02paramilitary groups known collectively
3:05as the Freikorps, but there was also a
3:07mass organization that existed that was
3:10made up of World War I veterans and
3:12fellow travelers that had very different
3:14goals from the Nazis or the Reichswehr,
3:16but also much in common.
3:18It is an organization that is often
3:20overlooked in discussions about that
3:22period.
3:24Some time ago, a very kind subscriber,
3:27Dr. Bill Trueman, sent me this
3:29fascinating relic of that organization,
3:32this very interesting eagle badge from
3:341933, towards the end of the
3:36organization's life, when it absorbed
3:39itself into the Nazi movement.
3:42The name of the organization was Der
3:44Stahlhelm or the steel helmet, and its
3:46insignia was the World War I German
3:49helmet in profile.
3:51The full name of the organization was
3:53Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten,
3:56or the Steel Helmet League of Front Line
3:58Soldiers. And at the time this badge was
4:01made, it numbered 1.5 million members.
4:06Der Stahlhelm had been founded on
4:07Christmas Day 1918 in the city of
4:10Magdeburg by a wealthy factory owner and
4:13disabled World War I officer Franz
4:15Seldte.
4:17The Treaty of Versailles and the
4:19crippling war reparations demanded by
4:21the former Entente powers seriously
4:23angered a lot of World War I German
4:25veterans. And they also viewed the new
4:28Weimar government with deep suspicion,
4:30disclaiming its socialistic membership
4:33and its seeming willingness to cooperate
4:35with the Entente powers.
4:38To Seldte and his colleagues, the new
4:40government was launching what he called
4:42a swineish revolution in direct
4:45opposition to the right-wing nationalism
4:47of such veterans groups.
4:49Der Stahlhelm has been described as
4:52revanchist, meaning that it wanted to
4:55turn back the clock to the pre-1918
4:58institutions and attitudes radically
5:01changed by defeat and economic collapse
5:03in Germany. Chiefly the restoration of
5:05the Hohenzollern monarchy. This
5:07particular point placing them in direct
5:09opposition to the Nazis, Hitler having
5:12absolutely no time for the former Kaiser
5:14Wilhelm II and his family, which he
5:16blamed for the disaster of World War I.
5:20To Der Stahlhelm, the former monarch was
5:22the soul of the defeated army. And they
5:24paraded in uniforms with the old
5:26imperial flag and regimental colors.
5:30In 1923, Der Stahlhelm was sent into
5:33action not against the communists, but
5:36against the French in an undeclared war
5:38between Weimar Germany and the Republic
5:40of France over the issue of the Ruhr,
5:43Germany's industrial heartland.
5:46The issue was over reparations payments
5:49for damage caused to France and Belgium
5:51by the Germans in World War I. The
5:53Treaty of Versailles stipulating that
5:55the Germans pay to the Entente powers a
5:58sum of 132
6:00billion gold marks, equivalent today to
6:03605 billion dollars. But the post-war
6:06economic situation in Germany meant that
6:09these payments were unrealistic and
6:11generated widespread hostility and anger
6:14towards the Versailles Treaty and the
6:16Entente nations.
6:18Part of the payments was to have been
6:20made in raw materials, particularly coal
6:22and coke from the Ruhr, which according
6:24to the 1919 Versailles Treaty was
6:27demilitarized, sitting between Western
6:30Germany to the east and the occupied
6:32Rhineland to the west.
6:35The reparations demands caused a
6:37campaign of widespread passive
6:39resistance in the Ruhr, supported by the
6:42then German Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno.
6:46The French soon lost patience with this
6:48industrial action, and the final straw
6:51was the 34th coal default by Germany in
6:54early January 1923, the 34th time in the
6:58previous 36 months that Germany had
7:00failed to deliver reparations coal to
7:03France and Belgium.
7:05Between the 11th and the 16th of January
7:071923, a force of 60,000 French troops
7:11occupied the Ruhr, later increased to
7:13100,000 men.
7:15The French took over civil authority
7:18from the Germans.
7:20The 13th of January 1923, the German
7:23Reichstag or Parliament voted 283
7:27to 12 to approve Chancellor Cuno's
7:30passive resistance policy, and German
7:32workers and administrators were told not
7:35to cooperate with the French occupiers.
7:37The French discovered that they could
7:39not resume coal production and shipping
7:42or factory operations, as the workers
7:45simply refused to work.
7:47The campaign of passive resistance was
7:49very successful, though the French
7:51punished up to 150,000 Germans for
7:54defying them. Some sent to prison, with
7:56many others banished from the Ruhr to
7:58other parts of Germany.
8:00The French also closed the border
8:02between the Ruhr and the rest of
8:04Germany, causing disruption to food
8:06supplies that led to malnutrition and
8:08outright starvation in some cases,
8:11particularly among hundreds of thousands
8:13of children.
8:15Soon, right-wing German paramilitary
8:17groups became involved, and they were
8:19not passive. And indeed, real violence
8:22broke out.
8:24The official German army, the
8:26Reichswehr, took no part in the
8:28campaign, but secretly supported groups
8:30like Der Stahlhelm, whose fully trained,
8:33combat-experienced ex-servicemen proved
8:36to be highly effective saboteurs.
8:38Railway infrastructure and bridges were
8:41attacked, many being blown up. And they
8:44also attacked French and Belgian
8:46military posts, killing and wounding a
8:48number of French and Belgian soldiers.
8:51They derailed trains carrying German
8:53coke, coal, and also ex-World War I
8:56military equipment bound for France, and
8:58attempted hit-and-run raids to
9:00destabilize the French command
9:02structure.
9:04In response, French and Belgian troops
9:06killed some 137 Germans and injured 603
9:11by August 1924.
9:14However, the sabotage campaign by groups
9:16like Der Stahlhelm ultimately deepened
9:18the economic paralysis of the Weimar
9:20Republic, accelerating hyperinflation
9:23and bolstering radical anti-democratic
9:26factions across Germany.
9:28Food riots broke out in the Ruhr, and a
9:30wave of nationwide strikes finished
9:33Chancellor Cuno, who resigned in August
9:351923.
9:37A new government led by Gustav
9:39Stresemann called to an end to
9:41resistance in the Ruhr, and he managed
9:44to stabilize the German mark.
9:47But, Der Stahlhelm continued on and grew
9:49in size and power. It became by 1930 the
9:53largest paramilitary army in Germany and
9:56was seen as a reserve for the
9:57100,000-man Weimar Republic Army.
10:02Der Stahlhelm demanded the establishment
10:05of a greater German Reich and a struggle
10:07against Jewish mercantilism and
10:10liberalism, and expansion in the East,
10:12what the Nazis would call Lebensraum, or
10:15living space.
10:18Der Stahlhelm competed with the NSDAP
10:21over several internal issues, and in the
10:231932 German presidential election,
10:26secured 6.8% of the vote, voting against
10:30Paul von Hindenburg and Adolf Hitler.
10:34Once Hitler was in power from January
10:361933, he urged Der Stahlhelm to merge
10:40into the SA.
10:41Der Stahlhelm's leader, Seldte, was
10:44appointed Reich Minister of Labor in the
10:46Hitler cabinet, but Der Stahlhelm still
10:49voted against the Nazis in the German
10:51federal election the 5th of March 1933,
10:54gaining 8% of the national vote.
10:58The SA, in fact, attempted to disarm Der
11:00Stahlhelm members in Braunschweig on the
11:0327th of March 1933,
11:05which led to a full-scale gun battle.
11:08However, Seldte joined the Nazi Party
11:11and the SA, he becoming a general in the
11:13latter organization.
11:16On the 27th of April 1933, Seldte
11:20declared that Der Stahlhelm was now a
11:22subordinate organization under Hitler's
11:25command.
11:26A process then followed where Der
11:28Stahlhelm units were synchronized or
11:31integrated with the SA and the
11:33organization disappeared on the 7th of
11:35November 1935.
11:38It was revived post-war and only
11:40disappeared entirely in 2000.
11:46This badge carries the date 12th of
11:48November 1933, which was the day a
11:51parliamentary election was held in
11:53Germany and a referendum on withdrawing
11:55from the League of Nations.
11:57Evidently, Der Stahlhelm was in favor of
12:01policy.
12:01This badge was made to commemorate that
12:03important policy move by Hitler and the
12:06Nazis.
12:08Many thanks for watching. Please
12:09subscribe and share. Also, visit my
12:11audiobook channel War Stories with Mark
12:13Felton. You can also help to support
12:16both of my channels at PayPal and
12:17Patreon. Details in the description box
12:20below.
12:23>> [music]

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