How far do you agree that the new Weimar Republic was seriously threatened by political extremists in the years 1919-24?
Ever since the formation of Germany in 1870 the mainstay of German politics has been held with the elites and the middle classes. The radical parties in Germany, especially the right-wing Freikorps, are often blamed for the collapse of the Weimar Republic and as a result are seen as the most serious threat. However, it was the established conservatives who had the most influence over the Weimar republic as they had been such an integral part of politics for so long that their morals ran deep through society and they were so well situated that no threat, large or small, would affect their power from either end of the political
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The Weimar Republic was not seriously threatened by left-wing extremists as the parties lacked the organisation to take advantage of the general unrest within the public. It was obvious, since the First World War that the nationalist soldiers of Germany would pose a threat to the Weimar Republic as it was they who suffered both militarily and economically; only to eventually be led by a left-wing government. The Freikorps were a group of ex-soldiers who created their own organisation of Para-military units and worked for the Weimar constitution to eradicate any threats from the extreme left. Despite this, the Freikorps was anti-republican and had no respect for the Weimar republic as they wanted to reinstate an authoritarian rule. The Kapp Putsch of 1920 exhibited the weakness of the Weimar government as a body that had no control over the current events. The Freikorps took control of Berlin and were not opposed by the Army despite Ebert insisting retaliation. After six days the Kapp Putsch collapsed and although the Weimar had effectively withstood a major threat from the extreme right it was far from a sign of strength for the government as the actions of the army during the Putsch clearly reflected the typical right-wing attitudes and lack of loyalty towards the Weimar Constitution. To summarise, the radical political groups generally lacked organisation to take advantage of the political and social unrest that followed …show more content…
The instability of the Republic is revealed when a new foreign minister and chancellor are implemented as this shows that the Weimar Republic had to use reform as a means of escaping a public uprising. In addition to the social threat, the arrival of France in the Ruhr created a sense of hostility and although France did not proceed they had effectively confiscated the industrial heart of Germany. It is this instability and potential of revolt that puts the Weimar Republic under threat. To conclude, the government that was given the task of restoring Germany while paying vast reparations was always going to be overshadowed by the threat of change. The idea that political extremists posed a threat to the Weimar government is wholly true because the disjointed nature of the Reichstag allowed radical parties to emerge without threat from a unified force attempting to halt them. However, Ebert and his government relied on the weakness of these extreme groups to act as the obstacle to revolution. The weak constitution supported the rising threat as the conditions in Germany setup a mood of potential change. The established conservatives had always existed in unified Germany and their influence had become part of the embedded tradition of the country; making it
The Weimer Republic, is the democratic government established in Germany in 1918 that ruled for fifteen years after the collapse of the German empire after the First World War.The republic consisted of moderates from the Social Democratic Party as well as their liberal allies, which included the German Democratic Party, and the Catholic Center Party. The Weimer Republic sought political democracy, which they believed was attainable by the elimination of war, revolutionary terror, and capitalism. Despite their clear goal, the Weimer Republic faced backlash by the radicals of society, which included communists, National Socialists, and the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler. THESIS: The Weimer Republic’s instability in the period of 1918-1933 is
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.
...racy from its arsenal. We shall become members of the Reichstag in order that the Weimar ideology should itself help us destroy it.”(Doc 7) This shows another Nazi member talking about conservative ideas and military forces which made this party tough competition for the republic to beat. Even the Communist Party encouraged militarization, and they were on the opposite end of the spectrum. This can be seen in the political cartoon by George Grosz, depicting a large communist military force.(Doc 5) This proves that overall, the conservative values were quite popular and gave the Weimar republic a lot to keep up with.
Nazism possess the core features of totalitarianism, however has a few differences which distinguishes it. Totalitarianism, by the Friedrich-Brzezinski definition, is when the government establishes complete control over all aspects of the state,maintaining the complete control of laws and over what people can say, think and do. Nazi Germany satisfies most of this criteria, as they had a one party system without political opposition. Moreover, they had a single unchallenged leader, in Hitler, to whom the entire nation conformed to. Furthermore, the party had nearly complete control over the country, controlling what people thought through propaganda and censorship, as well as what people could do through fear and terror. However, there are
...of Carsten and similar historians writing at the time is that the far-left were not as politically strong as first thought so consequently there was a lack of any serious opposition to the established order and in turn they were allowed had more independence and self-determination in implementing Germany’s first republic. So the social basis for a constitutional government in Germany was a lot more widespread than formerly thought. Furthermore, the apprehensiveness of the social democrats can be interpreted in terms of distrusting the unstructured mass movements that existed in the pressing post-war years, and placing their trust in the old elites. However, works such as Feldman’s, ‘The great disorder. The German inflation 1914 – 1924’ argue that the perspective representative potential of soldiers and workers unions and councils were in fact decisively contentious
The general public of Germany had never had any say in political matters; they allowed the Kaiser to make all the decisions regarding themselves and their once-prosperous country. The groups controlling Germany began to change during October and November 1918. More power began to fall into the hands of the people as they realised the blame for their involvement in the war was the Kaiser’s. People such as the armed soldiers, sailors and workers started protesting and going on strike. This was a far cry from before the war, when Germany was wealthy, proud and ambitious. So for a brief period, it seemed that a revolution would take place, with the people of Germany wanting a social and political revolution.
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 rise of National Socialism in post-WWI Germany is an understandable reaction to the problems of the Versailles Peace Treaty, considering the German attitudes and beliefs at the time. These attitudes and beliefs were the result of generations of Prussian militarism, extreme racist nationalism, and, most importantly, the failure of the Treaty of Versailles signed in June of 1919. The rise of the Nazi party, and their extremist National Socialist doctrine appealed directly to these attitudes and beliefs that permeated Germany society after the first World War.
Weimar Republic's Overcoming of Problems by 1923 Between 1919 and 1923, the Weimar Republic of Germany was besot with more than its fair share of problems. In particular, the Weimar Republic had six main problems: Treaty of Versailles, Left wing opposition -Sparticists, Right wing opposition - Kapp Putsch, Munich Putsch, Freikorps and Political murders, Ruhr by French and Hyperinflation. This was known as the crisis of 1919 - 1923. The three main causes of the crisis were: The treatment of Germany by the allies, Economic difficulties, and Political difficulties. The Weimar Republic were able to solve some of these problems, however, a significant number of problems remained unsolved.
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.
Exploring the Reasons Behind Public's Discontent with the Weimar Government There were a number of reasons why the German people were unhappy with the Weimar government. One of the main reasons for this was the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The result of this was that Germany has to take the war guilt, Germany had to pay reparations of 6,600 million marks to the allies in particular France, Germany lost its colonies, it lost its air force & tanks, and its soldiers were restricted to 100,000. The Ruhr was demilitarised. Also they lost their colonies and its land was cut up such as the Polish Corridor and Alsace Lorraine.
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.
...ulturkampf’s main aims were to restrict political opposition; this is evident by Bismarck’s policies attempting to reduce the power of the Catholic Church and policies monitoring the freedom of the press. King Wilhelm I did not challenge Bismarck’s decisions and instead portrayed approval as Bismarck had threatened to resign and the King could see that he was a key vehicle in the unification of Germany. However, the Kulturkampf failed as a result of a third of the German population being Catholic and holding a strong belief in the Papal Infallibility Doctrine. The Kulturkampf’s policies led to these Catholic’s creating the Centre Party to oppose political oppression but this can be argued to have caused disunity in Germany. The Social Democratic Party threatened Bismarck’s ideologies of German society and for this reason, anti-socialist laws were introduced.
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.
What is “The German Question”? This is a question that has been posed by many analysts over the years, each having their own views on what fulfills this question. However, each agrees that it is a question of high complexity. According to Constantin Frantz, “The German Question is the most obscure, most involved and most comprehensive problem in the whole of modern history”. What makes Germanys’ question so difficult to pinpoint is the fact that for all of its existence, until 1871 and again in 1990, it has struggled to unify a nation into a single state. As history shows, the German nation has struggled to create its own nation-state. Unlike France and Britain, Germany was a nation before it was a state. That is, its people had a strong sense of nationalism and common identity as a social entity but they were lacking a strong state, or a form of political organization that claims the exclusive right to govern a specific piece of territory. As Dahrendorf states; “We want to find out what it is in German society that may account for Germany’s persistent failure to give a home to democracy in its liberal sense”. But can we really analyze the problem in this way? It has not always been the same “persistent failure” hindering Germany from giving a home for democracy, but rather the problems faced by Germany throughout history.