Impact of WWI on Germany

Make a list of the challenges facing Friedrich Ebert when he became the leader of Germany following the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on Nov. 9, 1918.

Organize the challenges as follows:

Political Challenges

• Many ex-soldiers and civilians despised the new democratic leaders and came to believe that the heroic leader Field Marshal Hindenburg had been betrayed by weak politicians.

Social Challenges

• War left 600,000 widows and 2 million children without fathers -- by 1925 the state was spending about ⅓ of its budget in war pension
• The war had deepened divisions in German Society
• There were huge gaps between the living standards of the rich and the poor
• During the war women were called up to work in factories. Many people saw this as damaging to traditional family values and society as a whole
• Many German workers were bitter at the restrictions placed on their earnings during the war while the factory owners made vast fortunes from the war

Economic Challenges

• National income was about ⅓ of what it had been in 1913
• Germany was virtually bankrupt