Although the peace treaty had come as a shock to the German public, the German government had an idea of what the treaty was likely to be. They had interpreted the Allies grim mood at the Armistice signing, and they knew that they hadn't been invited to the peace discussions in Paris, but even with this knowledge they did nothing to prepare the German public of the shock that the Versailles treaty would impose.

During this time the Allies began to implement the Treaty of Versailles and French, British and American troops moved into the now de-militarized zone of the Rhineland.

The Spartacists first tried to gain power on the 5th of January 1919. They occupied many public buildings and organized strikes. They then formed a revolutionary committee. Groups walked around the streets firing guns and placing red flags (the communist symbol) everywhere. But the Spartacists had no chance against Ebert. Knowing that there may be a chance of a communist uprising, he organised a massive volunteer force of 4000 men called the "Free Corps". The Free Corps hated Communists and loved to fight so they were the perfect force to go up against the Spartacists. They knew how to fight well and they were very well equipped.

On the 10th of January the Free Corps attacked the Spartacists. They attacked a newsbuilding held by the Spartacists, shot and killed several of them and injured the rest of them. They then did this to all of the occupied buildings in Berlin. Two days after they captured and murdered the Spartacist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.

On the 19th of January 30 million German people went to vote. The social Democratic Party gained majority of the votes. The new parliament met for the first time on the 6th of January in the town of Weimar because of fighting in Berlin between the Free Corps and the Spartacists. The first thing they did was elect Ebert President of Germany and the second was to write the constitution.

After all the countries meeting for six months finally the treaty was agreed and presented to the Germans at the Palace of Versailles outside of Paris. The Germans were not happy at all with the Treaty but they had no choice but to sign it on the 28th of June 1919.

The most important part of the treaty is Article 231, which said that Germany was totally responsible for the war and for causing all damage. The victors of the war obviously wanted to regain compensation and ensure that the war could never happen again, and the Treaty of Versailles was the Allies attempting this. The Allies demanded reparations from Germany to be repayed until 1987.

The Germans called the Treaty of Versailles a "Diktat" which is where the peace is dictated to the losing side of the war, and the Treaty was not the type of peace that the Germans envisioned when they signed the Armistice in November 1918. Disillusioned by this many Germans believed that the German soldiers could have still fought on and won the war. They labeled the Politicians who signed the Armistice the "November Criminals".