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Soellner’s Dispatch #2

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SOELLNER’S DISPATCH #2

(For your eyes only!)

The Chaos of the Times: 1919-1924

Chaos reigned in Germany. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, the warring powers signed an armistice ending the fighting in World War 1. Before the Treaty of Versailles formally ended the war, Germany’s ruling family fled to Holland. In their absence, monarchists, communists, socialists, anarchists, democrats and fascists struggled for power. Democratic forces proclaimed the Weimar Republic hours before the socialists planned to announce their socialist state. The other factions immediately rose up in opposition to the declared government. Mutual antagonism prevented the others from working together to overcome the Weimar Republic.

During this unstable period communist forces seized control of Bavaria and set up a Bolshevik government. Weimar military forces eventually reclaimed Bavaria for the Republic, even as strong communist partisans fought for control of Berlin. Adding to the chaos, French forces occupied the industrial Rhineland to enforce the ruinous reparations the Treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany. Throughout this, ordinary German citizens went about their lives as best they could.

Eventually the economy improved and with it the Weimar government achieved relative stability. However, nationalistic forces were rising in Bavaria, including the brown shirts under a little known World War 1 corporal named Adolf Hitler.

Dispatch # 1 Quiz:

Question: What two countries tried to buy Baja California from the Mexican government around the turn of the 19th/20th century?

Answer: Imperial Germany and Imperial Japan.  (And the U.S. also tried!)

Incorrect guesses included Spain, France, Dominican Republic, China, Portugal, Britain.

This would be where I would name those of you who correctly answered the quiz. Would you believe, the list of names is longer than this entire email! Even so, I hope you’ll continue to send your answers my way.

Here is the second dispatch quiz question. From book 1:

Why was the term “Boxer” used to describe the “Boxer Rebellion”?

Read the answer in Dispatch #3!

Until my next Dispatch,

Walter Soellner

My books:

  1. Kalvarianhof, The Perilous Journey
  2. The Storm That Shook the World
  3. Book three, coming in 2017.

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