Glossary of the Weimar Republic

This article is a lists short descriptions of terms, concepts and ideas useful to understanding the political situation in the Weimar German Republic.

Social class terms

  • Junker – Member of the landed nobility, often associated with aristocracy, and reactionary or monarchist politics.
  • Bürger – German term meaning bourgeois or citizen (see also: Grand Burgher)
  • Old Middle Class – self-employed farmers, shopkeepers, merchants and artisans.
  • New Middle Class – white collar workers; consisted of the service and clerical (bookkeeping) occupations for management, industry and government.

Political groupings

Political movements

Government

Military

  • Black Reichswehr – Extra-legal paramilitary part of the Reichswehr.
  • Dolchstoßlegende – "Stab in the back" myth; the idea that the German Army was betrayed by subversive elements at home; i.e. socialists, pacifists, liberals, and Jews.
  • Ebert–Groener pact – Deal between Friedrich Ebert and Wilhelm Groener, agreeing to the army being loyal to the republic, and that the government would take prompt action against leftist uprisings and that military command would remain with the professional officer corps.
  • Kriegserlebnis – (Myth of the) war experience
  • Putsch – German term equatable to coup d'état,
  • Reichswehr – Armed forces of Germany from 1919 to 1935.
  • Reichsheer – Army of the Reichswehr.
  • Reichsmarine – Naval branch of the Reichswehr.
  • Freikorps – Loose network of paramilitaries, made up of reactionary and anti-republican ex-soldiers.

Symbols

  • Haukenkreuz – Hooked cross, a swastika variation used specifically by far-right groups
  • Iron cross – Military symbol
  • Schwarz-Weiß-Rot – The black-white-red tricolour imperial flag.
  • Schwarz-Rot-Gold – The black-red-gold tricolour republican flag.
  • Totenkopf – A skull symbolising death, associated with the military
  • Red flag – Symbol associated with socialist and communist movements.

Slogans

  • Freiheit, Gleichheit, Brüderlichkeit – Republican slogan, translated from the French Liberté, égalité, fraternité
  • Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit – Republican slogan, "unity, justice, and freedom
  • Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer – Far-right slogan, "one race, one Reich, one leader"
  • der eiserne Hindenburg – the Iron Hindenburg; Hindenburg was the epitome for solidness
  • der Krieg nach dem Krieg – "the war after the war"; the civil war that erupted in Germany after World War I; the turmoil of the Weimar Republic.

List of abbreviations and acronyms

See also

Further reading

  • Halperin, S. William. Germany Tried Democracy: A Political History of the Reich from 1918 to 1933 (1946) online.
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