The end of the Great War was a joyous occasion for people around the world. However, that jubilation did not last long as lasting consequences such as debt and economic instability were realized around the world. The hardest hit out of all of these countries was, arguably, the Weimar Republic. Already weakened by the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), the end of the war left the country with few assets and growing economic and political problems. The astronomical amount of debt they were in from reparations and loans can be attributed to the start of growing unhappiness among the people of the Weimar Republic. Their anger only grew when hyperinflation left many penniless and without compensation from the government. Unemployment,
It increased sharply in the years following the war; in 1930, three million people were employed, and by 1932, the number had risen to six million (Thackeray, 106). These tremendous numbers were caused by a number of problems in the Weimar Republic. Veterans who were unable to work, for example, needed the help of social welfare programs in order to provide for themselves and their families (Schroeder 109). While these programs were morally necessary to honour those who had fought in the war, they also put enormous strain on state budgets as the government tried to fix the persistent problem of hyperinflation (Schroeder 109-110). The start of the Great Depression in 1929 only worsened the problem. The Weimar Republic had become dependent on the loans from the United States, and when the United States asked for the money back, much of Germany’s assets went back with it (Thackeray 106). The Great Depression also saw many countries increasing duties on imports to protect the producers of their own goods, and that contributed to a steady increase of unemployment as the Weimar Republic was a primary producer of exports (Thackeray 106). Many people who worked for factories became unemployed as demand for Germany’s products went down, and by 1932 as many as six million people if not more were unemployed (Thackeray
In late 1923 and early 1924 the German economy seemed to experience a mild period of economic stabilisation and "prosperity". In November, the government issued a new currency and ensured that tight restrictions were imposed. The economy was further stimulated by loans principally from the USA. However despite all this there simultaneously, was increasing numbers of unemployed persons. A well cited example of this is the coal mining industry where the introduction of more efficient machinery meant that one in four miners lost their jobs. No doubt that increased unemployment meant that the German population grew increasingly discontent with the Weimar government and this is the beginnings of the swing towards more radical political voting. Hitler knew that he had to have attractive political policies in order to attract a greater pool of voters, looking for alternative parties, and he recognized a possible solution to this was to attract the attention of the farming and rural community. The Nazi Party took this opportunity quickly and campaigned hard to win over the votes of the farmers and rural workers by promising tax reductions, cheaper electricity and a promise to rebuild the farming industry. "The peasants, the Nazis said, were of true German blood and their life was the true German life. They had shamefully been neglected by the Weimar Republic." Hitler told the people of the land that under a Nazi Government, rural people would be the most important people in Germany. The rural Germans were on the brink of bankruptcy, constituting approximately 11 Billion marks by 1932. The Nazi's promise of a return to rural prosperity was too good for them to resist. Yet this adoption of the rural Germans also proved useful in another sense because it allowed the Nazi party to use the Jewish people as a scapegoat towards the problems faced by the rural Germans.
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.
After World War I, there was a spiritual void left within the people of Germany. The outcome of the war had ripped the German society along the class lines causing great stress and tension among the people. The people of Germany had believed all along that they were winning the war, and therefore the news of surrender came as a great shock to them. To make things worse, the peace treaty established placed the entire fault of the war on Germany and left them responsible for paying for the costs of the war for all who were involved. This sparked a conflict between the middle and working classes in society. Then, the depression followed, creating even more unhappiness among the people. With all of this unhappiness because of the class divisions and the depression, the Nazi...
Imagine that after a lifelong of hard work and saving, you find that your lifesavings will not buy more than one cup of coffee. For a majority of the middle class living in Germany during the early 1920’s this was precisely their experience. Of course, not all suffered during this period of hyperinflation. Those who owed money encouraged their government’s expansionary monetary policies, knowing the resulting inflation would effectively cancel their debt. In fact, it was the Reich itself who had the most to gain from inflation, for it was the biggest debtor of them all.
After the First World War Germany recognised her first ever democratic government, the Weimar republic lasted from 1918 – 1933 an astonishingly long time given its turbulent start. The November revolution saw the election of soldier and worker councils similar to that of the Russian revolution in 1917, it spread across Germany like wildfire and in turn split the country before a democracy could even be instated nevertheless on November 9th 1918 the German republic was established. From then on The Weimar Republic was set on unstable and insecure path and this is why it is one of Germanys most important historical periods; it was Germanys earliest form of non-imperial government and rule and its collapse in 1933 paved the way for the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. For these reasons there have been endless works published on the Weimar republic and the outpouring of literature post world war two focuses on the collapse of the Weimar republic and how the Nazi party came to power. However, to understand why the debate surrounding the Golden Era in the Weimar Republic is an interesting one and lacking in historical works, it is key to examine the historiography of the Weimar republic as a whole. Furthermore, to understand why historians focus on other periods in the Weimar’s history in particular the consequences of the treaty of Versailles and the consequences of the Wall Street crash in 1928 which led to its collapse.
Weimar's Survival of the 1923 Crisis Introduction: Weimar faced many problems such as economic instability, invasion of the Ruhr and lack of support from the public and also from the military, in the years of 1923 and 1924 but overcame them all for a variety of reasons. Hyperinflation and other debts: Hyperinflation hit Germanyin early 1923 but was not resolved until Stresemann was voted into power in August 1923 and recruited the economist Schacht to help formulate a solution. The Deutschemark was abolished and replaced with a new currency - the Rentenmark in Nov 1923. The supply of the new monetary system was strictly limited to 3200 million Rentenmarks. Domestic debts were reduced from 150million deutschemarks to 15pfennigs (pence) by hyperinflation.
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.
In 1929, Germany was in a very poor state economically. The stock market crash and depression in the United States had spread world wide, and Germany felt a large portion of the blow. The debts from World War I had begun the economic crisis, but the depression only added to the problem. At that point in time, Germany was plagued with high inflation, and the value of the German mar was on the decline. Bread lines formed because of the food shortage leaving many people to go hungry.
Great innovations in productive techniques during and after the war raised the output of industry beyond the purchasing capacity of U.S. farmers and working force. As a result of this, unemployment skyrocketed during the years of the Depression, reaching levels as high as one third of the population. Almost half of the commercial banks of the United States failed during the Depression. Crop prices fell by over fifty percent. People went hungry because so much food was produced that production became unprofitable. Others were unemployed because they had produced more than could be sold. Hundreds of thousands roamed the country in search of food, work, and shelter.
As war continued in other countries, America's stock market had crashed on Wall Street in 1929. It cleaned out millions of investors plus the failing of bank operations and caused nearly 13 to 15 million people to be unemployed. At the same time of this era, Franklin D. Roosevelt had created many relief programs to weaken the worried effects of the Great Depression revolving around them. It continued until 1939 when World War II began and American Men had been drafted into the War allied with Great Britain, Soviet Union, France and the United Kingdom. Industrial Factories all around the United States were in dire need of workers to produce, manufacture and sell what items a factory produced. Women were also in need of money to provide for their
Severe economic problems arose in Germany essentially due to the punitive provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. “The German government began to print money to pay its bills.” (McKay, 872). In order to make up for the massive debt and reparations connected to the Treaty of Versailles, the government started to print loads of money. The influx of money across Germany due to newly printed bills caused prices to rise. Money became rather worthless with an abundance of it, which hurt many people’s incomes. Hyperinflation soon occurred, which put the economy in a weak position and further contributed to the downfall of the Weimar Republic.
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.
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 Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic was created in Germany in 1918 as a result of widespread socialist unrest. A liberal constitution was drawn up in 1919. There was extensive instability in Germany around this time. The Weimar government had trouble pleasing right and left wing parties because, at this time, Germany was very polarised politically. Hitler dissolved the republic in 1933.
...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.