ABSTRACT
Totalitarian movements had gained control of both the Soviet Union and Italy by the middle of the 1920s; it was Germany, however, that experienced the most concerted crisis in the aftermath of World War I. Many Germans felt that the Versailles Treaty was unfair; these groups also claimed that Germany had been betrayed by its internal enemies. The new Germany was unable to pay its debts, especially reparations owed to the Allies, and soon was faced with a French occupation of the Saar and abortive revolts by radicals on both the left (the Spartacists) and the right (the Kapp putsch).
