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The main features of the weimar constitution
The main features of the weimar constitution
Effect of Versailles treaty on Germany
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On the 28th June 1919, Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles by the Allied Forces and take the blame for World War 1. It was to a large extent that this Treaty of Versailles (ToV) had a significant impact on the Weimar Republic in the period of 1918 - 1933. The ToV was drawn up by the allies to ‘disable’ Germany. German people called the ToV a ‘Diktat’ - a dictated peace - as Germany had not been consulted on the treaty before it was forced to sign.The ToV brought about issues such as extreme debt, hyperinflation, flawed constitution and a dislike of the german population towards the Weimar Government which in turn prompted many attempted ‘revolutions’.The political, social and economic strain resulting from the ToV resulted …show more content…
Prior to WW1 the German people had only known of a monarchy in power. After the war the monarchy abdicated and the allies forced democracy onto Germany as a condition of Armistice. It was this new democratic Government that was to sign the treaty of versailles and take the blame for Germany’s loss in the war, and the issues that would be caused by the ToV in the future. This sudden shift in political structure at a time of despair and embarrassment created the idea of the “November Criminals,” a prejudice against the new Government that it would never be able to recover from. Since Germany had only ever been a traditional monarchy, it was unrealistic for Germany to produce a successful and able Government in the time span given. It is for this reason Germany would struggle with a flawed constitution throughout 1918-1933. Although Germany created a new democratic government their failure to reform the previous judiciary (military, government officials, police) who were still loyal to the previous monarchy created a conservative elite who continuously undermined the Government.It was due to the preconditions of the ToV forcing Germany to become a democratic government that the Weimar Republic had little chance of …show more content…
With the loss of land 16% of coal production, 15% of farming production and 48% of iron production as well as the loss of overseas colonies meant Germany lost an immense amount of valuable sources of raw material and trade - further reducing Germany’s inability to repay the reparations. This meant that even with the loan of money Germany was unable to pay the second instalment of the reparations in 1922. France and Belgium thus invaded the Ruhr Valley, one of German’s richest industrial area’s.This in turn was met by civil protest and workers refused to co- operate with the invading forces. The passive resistance in the Ruhr combined with the extreme debt resulted in the hyperinflation crisis of 1923. The extreme economic crisis in Germany was a direct cause of the ToV and had a large effect on the Weimar
The Weimar constitution was forced into creation by the German desire to sign an armistace with the Allied forces after significant defeats on the Western front. Not only were the Allies demanding a democratic governing style in Germany, but there was also a strong desire to move away from the autocratic state that had existed under the Kaiser. Although the new constitution outwardly appeared to be democratic, there were several internal factors that severely undermined the democratic integrity of the new constitution, and made it almost indistinguishable from its autocratic predecessor.
The period after World War One was very politically unstable. Many different kinds of governments, such as fascism and communism, were coming up all over Europe. One country that especially faced this political fluctuation was Germany. After the war, Germany was forced into a democracy known as the Weimar Republic, but this government soon collapsed and Hitler’s fascism took over. There were various factors that contributed to the fall of the Weimar Republic, but three major ones were the lack of popular support for the government, the lack of efficiency and internal organization, and the competition of other, more conservative parties such as the Nazis.
In order for Germany to pay the debt that they owed they kept changing the value of their currency. This action caused inflation. The Bourgeoisie was suffering greatly from inflation as well. Infla...
At the end of World War One, Germany was required to pay a large sum of money to the Allies consequently resulting in the German Depression. The sum Germany had to pay was set after the Treaty of Versailles was enacted at approximately six billion, six hundred million – twenty-two billion pounds, (World War Two – Causes, Alan Hall, 2010). The large amount of reparations that Germany had to pay resulted in a depression and angered the Germans because they thought it was an excessive amount of money to pay, (World War Two – Causes) The Germans hatred of the Treaty of Versailles was of significant importance in propelling the Nazis to power. Germany could not pay their reparations and was forced into a depression, (World War II – Causes). The Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of its economic production and its available employments, (World War II – Causes). The German Depr...
Ordinary German people felt that they had not actually lost the First World War and that the Weimar government had signed the treaty unnecessarily. This meant that Germany lost land, had to pay reparations and had their army restricted severely. The German people blamed the government for all of this and this is why they were known as "the November criminals". This made the government very unpopular and the people were more likely to follow extremists like the Nazis and vote for them in the elections.
Richard Bessel’s article stresses the political structure of Weimar Germany as the cause of its failure. Its structure was flawed in numerous ways, all of which contributed to its inevitable failure. First of all, the problems within Germany due to the First World War were massive. This caused economic, political and social problems which first had to be dealt with by the new Weimar government. The loss of the war had left Germany with huge reparations to pay, and massive destruction to repair. In order to gain the capital needed to finance efforts to rebuild, and repay the Allies, the economy had to be brought back to its prewar levels. This was not an easy task.
The main reason was that people were discomposed that Germany had lost a war and most of the people blame for the defeat. On the other hand, during 1929-1933, the worldwide Great Depression, which impacted Germany, and there was no leader of Weimar could solve the economic problem.
The German Weimar Republic was an attempt to make Germany a more democratic state. While this was a very good idea in theory, the Weimar Republic was ineffective due to the instability that came with it. Several factors contributed to the instability of Germany’s Weimar Republic, such as the new political ideals brought forward and the government’s hunger for war. To begin, one of the factors that contributed to the instability of the Weimar republic was the presence of new political ideals. Marie Juchacz unintentionally highlighted that reason in her speech to the National Assembly.
...After we consider all these points mentioned we begin to see how everything worked and connected to form one huge disaster for Germany. We start to see how all these things played a part, the reparations led to unemployment that led to no money that led to overprinting of money. How the huge consequence of the reparations led to the unsuccessful paying of it leading to the French invasion of the Ruhr which led to strikes and therefore no products to trade with. How the unstable Weimar government led to extremist parties that damaged the economy further and brought inflation to its highest. The effects were probably the worst, the starvation coupled with the disease epidemic that killed people off and the worthless tonnes of paper notes roaming around the nation. It all in all was a very bad time in Germany one that they always found it hard to recover from.
Hyperinflation soon occurred, which put the economy in a weak position and further contributed to the downfall of the Weimar Republic. Many resented the government because of its agreement to the Treaty of Versailles and lack of resistance.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The causes of the failure of the Weimar government are multi-faceted. However, I assert that the Weimar government's inability to keep the people's confidence in their capabilities, which eventually rendered them obsolete, was fundamentally due to the threats from within rather than the external hazards. Through exploring the flaws in the constitution and the threats to the WG's authority from the outside, it will be proven that what brought the WR down were its intrinsic vulnerabilities , and that the external threats were only catalysts of their downfall; without the presence of the internal weaknesses in the first place, the external perils would not have been able to threaten the rule of the government.
German people were unused to a democracy and blamed the government “November criminals”, for signing the Treaty of Versailles. From the very beginning, the new Weimar government faced opposition from both sides of the political spectrum. The Left wing Spartacist group, lead by Liebknecht and Luxemburg, looked up to the new Soviet councils in Russia, wanted to place Germany into a similar system.
All of this effected people to a great degree and led to German people becoming furious about the Government not being able to find a way out of the hardship, that the German people faced.
This week in our readings I had the ability to learn about how the Weimar Republic was created and what eventually caused it to collapse. I also had the ability to gain better understanding of what it took for the Nazi party to become popular in Germany and how Hitler got the power he had during his reign. Throughout these sections it seemed that there was almost always a struggle for power and that with every fall of a government that there was another person or political party that was more than happy to fill in the vacancy. This idea brings us to the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Republic was created in August 1919 and occurred in Germany.
But was it doomed from it's beginning? One of the main fields where problems arose was the legacy of World War 1. Germany's unexpected defeat was blamed on the "November Criminals" and made people suspicious of the new government. The Treaty of Versailles associated the government with Germany's acceptance of this national humiliation. The soldiers returning back from the front line were bitter at the republic and many joined right wing paramilitary groups, such as the Freikorps.