treets were filled with crowds marching to demonstrate at the center of Berlin. Similarly, even before the contingency of these incidents, the center party, a liberal group who were the coalition government of the acting SPD formed by Phillip Scheidemann, resigned rather than sign the Treaty of Versailles. Besides, German patriotism was strong, in particular because the German people believed they had fought a defensive war and were told their soldiers were unconquered in the field. Therefore, the humiliating Treaty came as a rude shock to the German people who, correspondingly, blamed the politicians for betraying the soldiers in signing the armistice and saw them as compounding their treason by accepting the peace settlement. They spoke of the November criminals and protested A nation of seventy million suffers, but does not die. These factors propagated in the promotion of anti republican feeling, the conclusions of which were clearly reflected in the results of the election of June 1920. To illustrate, the SPD lost nearly half its seats (many to the USDP) and the right wing parties (DVP and DNVP) increased their share at the expense of the democrats. Defeated on the battlefield, defeated at the conference table, defeated at the polls, the republic embarked on its uncertain career. Furthermore, compliance with the Treaty of Versailles meant that Germany would have to make reparation payments it could scarcely afford. This fact placed a heavy strain on the already suffering economy of Germany which was bankrupted by four years of war thus ensuing in the ascend of inflation and the occasioning of the cessation of payments by Germany in 1922. In January the already traumatic climate in Germany was exacerbated by its evasiveness and reluctance to pay overdue reparations. The French reacted by occupying the Saar, a major industrial area of Germany, in January 1923. This was felt a grave humiliation by the German people and eventuated i...
