From 1919 through 1924, Germany was a deeply troubled country due to massive social, political, and economic problems. The Weimar Republic that came to power in Germany after The Great War was widely unpopular, due to the leadership accepting the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles and introducing a new form of government after the Kaiser’s abdication. Unfortunately, the government also had to face attacks from both extreme Left and Right wing parties. The result of the country’s disunity was hyperinflation, strikes, and an ever worsening economy due to the Treaty of Versailles. It was not until 1923 that Gustav Stresemann, the newly appointed Chancellor, brought Germany into a new Golden era. Overall the Treaty of Versailles created
The first major revolt against the Republic was led by a communist group, the Spartacists. In 1919, the Spartacists and their founders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht led a group of workers in an armed uprising in Berlin. Friedrich Ebert, Weimar 's leader at the time, withdrew from Berlin to Weimar, letting the army handle things. The uprising was bloodily put down by the extreme Right known as the Freikorps. The Freikorps, despising the Left more than the Weimar Republic, took up arms against the Spartacists, resulting in the deaths of many radicals including Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. The uprising not only showed Weimar 's inability to handle violent revolts, but revealed a greater threat at hand, the
On January 11, 1923 the Ruhr Valley was occupied and in response to this, the Weimar government ordered passive resistance. The occupation meant all work in the Ruhr was to be stopped, and since the Ruhr was Germany’s major industrial region, it further ruined the economy. By the end of November 1923, the mark was completely worthless, with 4.2 trillion marks equivalent to 1 dollar. Overall, the economy and the occupation of the Ruhr caused chaos and discontent. What further worsened in Germany was social resentment between classes, since some lived quite well compared to others. On August 1923, Gustav Stresemann was appointed the new Chancellor and would eventually revive the Germany economy. He did this by introducing a new currency and working with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which would lead to plans that would reduce the reparations burden. Though many have maintained that the Weimar Republic was a failure, did not take into account of the miracle that the Weimar government stayed in power for fourteen years. Nevertheless, Weimar Germany during the period from 1919 through 1924 faced extreme unpopularity, attacks from both political parties, and a disastrous economy. If the Weimar Republic had been more successful, Hitler might have not been able to use these troubling factors against the Republic, to come into
Additionally, the Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh penalties on Germany, which further weakened the government's legitimacy and fueled nationalist sentiments. Overall, the Weimar Republic's instability was a result of a complex interplay of factors, including political, economic, and social issues, as well as external pressures from the international community.
The first major reason that the Weimar republic failed was that it was extremely inefficient and did not have clear goals set within the government. All the different ideas coming from the parties in the republic, created a situation where the people of Germany were getting very unclear, vague messages. This problem can be seen in the struggle between the German Democratic Party and the Communist Party. Troeltsch, a theologian and leader of the German Democratic Party said, “The development will not stop at democracy, and a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ will assume the form of terrorist domination by a minority” (Doc 1). This statement is only somewhat reliable because Troeltsch was a politician, and he would benefit from over exaggerating what would happen if the opposing party were to gain control. The exact opposite of this idea is the view of Communist Party member Clara Zetkin. When she talks about how the only way that Germany can really get rid of monarchy is by having a proletariat uprising it can be seen that she obviously embraces communist policy. (Doc 3)....
The Posing of Threats by the Political Right to the Weimar Republic in the Years 1919-25
...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 Social Democrats were the leading party during and after the fight to remove the Kaiser from his powerful position. They were greatly influenced by the Elite, the rich Germans they thought essential to the prosperity of Germany. They recruited armed forces, the Freikorps, to aid them in controlling those opposing their ideas and policies. The Social Democrats often associated themselves with the Bolsheviks, one half of the Social Democrats that leaded the Russian Revolution the year before. But when it came down to it, the Social Democrats weren’t in favour of a change in government, and they believed “getting rid of the Kaiser was the end of the revolution” (Lacey and Shephard, 2002, p.13). The fact that there was a revolution wasn’t true, because no groups had actually wielded great power over the rest of Germany, and they hadn’t established any kind of government system. The Kaiser’s abdication, initiated by the Social Democrats, should have started a change, but instead it just made way for their party to gain control.
The German government ordered passive resistance but workers needed to be paid. The government printed money and hyperinflation set in. During this crisis in Germany, caused indirectly by the Treaty, when Hitler tried to seize power he was unsupported. Therefore the Treaty of Versailles, on its own, was not a reason why Hitler rose to power. After 1929, the Great Depression acted as a catalyst, igniting the German people's anger for the Treaty of Versailles and it then became a factor in Hitler's rise to power.
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.
Hyperinflation is an economic condition characterized by “a rapid increase in the overall price level that continues over a significant period” and in this period the concept of inflation is essentially rendered meaningless (Kroon 90). The post-World War I German economy experienced a crippling period of hyperinflation which lasted nearly two years and had an enormous impact on the economy. The hyperinflation began inconspicuously as the inflation rate crept just a percent or two per year during the war years. In the post-war period inflation began to rise and in early- to mid-1922, inflation raged. During this period, businesses reached full operational capacity and unemployment nearly disappeared. While nominal wages increased, real wages dropped precipitously. Workers were paid two or three times a day, and they rushed home to pass the money to family members who could go and exchange the rapidly depreciating currency for real goods (clothing, food, etc.) before it became completely worthless. Prices rose so rapidly pe...
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 Weakness of the Weimar Republic and Hitler's Rise to Power The question directly relates to the idea that the political power of a country can be taken over by ambitious people in different ways. From our knowledge we know there is three ways this can be done…by take over by force, also known as a 'coup d'etat', in a more democratic and just way or by a political deal. In the 1920's and the 1930's Hitler led a right wing political party and was seen by many as a dictator. He wanted to overthrow and control the German government and he tried all three of these ways in an attempt to do so, some methods were more successful than others.
Faced with harsh peace terms at the end of World War I, Germany was put in the perfect position for extreme political turmoil to rise, along with the need to place the blame for the German defeat. The Treaty of Versailles, which was the Allies’ peace treaty with Germany following World War I, “... took territories from Germany in the east and west, destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Empire, humiliated Germans by including a “war guilt” clause, imposed disarmament, and demanded heavy reparation payments for war damage” (Weisser). This “peace” treaty, littered with bitter terms for Germany, did great harm to the nation. Germany was not only stripped of its once powerful nation by depriving it of its territories and armaments; but also by the destruction of its economy through hyperinflation, a result of printing more money in order to pay reparations. This treaty therefore ruined Germany, putting it in an atrocious state, which would eventually allow for dramatic political change and the placing of blame for the...
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.
...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.
Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles reads: "The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies."(1) These words fueled the Nazi Party's rise to power and ignition of a Second World War. After World War I, the Allies dissected, punished, and disarmed Germany to prevent the outbreak of another brutal war. Consequently, German lands, acquired by Nazi force, were given back to their original countries, and Germany's army was reduced to 100,000 men. In addition, Germany was responsible for paying immense retribution to all of the Allied Forces, causing German money to lose its value. The result of the Treaty of Versailles was a weakened Germany, both martially and economically. The Weimar Republic, a liberal government set up after Germany's defeat, was inefficient in handling Germany's massive problems. Germany's ill state was the curtain call for a change in the Weimar administration, and Adolf Hitler led the push for a transformation. Once in power, Hitler designed laws that redefined the responsibilities of the citizen. The citizens' duties would allow the Germany to regain her autonomy in the eyes of the world. Although the citizens worked to increase Germany's overrall welfare, the State did not attempt to improve individual well-being. The State held one responsibility. It must protect the lives of its people, so that the people can, in turn, carry out their duties for the S...
And in1923 French and Belgian forces occupied Germany's main industrial region, the Ruhr, claiming that Germany had defaulted on reparation deliveries. When Stresemann took over, he called off the campaign of passive resistance in the Ruhr. He called an end to hyperinflation by abolishing the marks and replacing it with a new currency called the Retenmark. Under Stresemann the Dawes Plan was established to help Germany to pay reparations, Germany signed the Locarno Treaties to gain trust of the allies who then withdrew their occupation force, and the in following year Germany was elected to the League of Nations.