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Political and economic factors of the weimar republic
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The Extent to Which the Weimar Republic Recovered after 1923
In the period after 1923, under Gustav Stresemann, Germany was able to
stand back on its feet and overcome many of its difficulties.
Weimar Republic was created in 1919 to govern a defeated Germany after
World War One. Germany was facing many social, political and
economical problems while the new constitution laid open for the
seizure of power. There were many rebellions and attempted revolutions
making the country very unstable. Situations were made worse by the
harsh terms of Treaty of Versailles, causing hyperinflation and a huge
amount of national debt. 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.
Under the democratic government, censorships were lifted and German
people were free to express themselves. Cultural improvements were
occurring throughout the country. There was greater production and use
of literature, music, and theatre. Germany was beginning to get back
on its feet after a harsh war; its relationships between the
government and the people, and also with the allies were improving.
Although Germany appeared to be recovering and getting prosperous
again, there were many underlining problems which threatened its
stability.
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.
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 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.
In conclusion, the Weimar Republic of Germany ended up collapsing and giving way to Nazi rule because of the lack of popular support, the lack of organization within the party, and the fact that it had to compete with other, stronger forms of government.
Germany's Change From a Semi-Absolutist Monarchy in 1918 to a Parliamentary Republic in 1919 In the period of 1918 to 1919, Germany overcame a dramatic change. There were a number of reasons for this change. Initially the defeat of Germany in World War One brought Germany close to an economic and potential collapse. This led to the revolutions from below and above, and ultimately to a new constitution. As a result of the defeat, the Kaiser abdicated on 9th November 1918, and no longer ruled over Germany.
loans in 1920 would easily be able to pay these off now - leaving them
...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.
Following the German surrender in November 1918, the Empire experienced a brief, but significant civil revolution. The German Revolution lasted from the end of the war until August 1919. During that time, a national assembly was held in the city of Weimar where a new constitution was drafted. A new federal republic (known as the Weimar Republic) was born and a semi-presidential representative democracy overthrew the monarchy of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The new government faced immediately faced a multitude of issues including political instability, reestablishing and maintaining international post-war relations, and severe economic turmoil – most notably the period of hyperinflation which occurred in the early 1920s.
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.
The Treaty of Versailles was also responsible for the destabilization of the German economy. “The burdensome reparations, coupled with a general inflationary period in Europe in the 1920s, caused spiraling hyperinflation of the German Reichsmark by 1923”. Combined with the effects of the Great Depression, this period of hyperinflation undermined the stability of the German economy and caused massive unemployment. So, when political parties made promises to restore German territory and power after such a
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.
...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.
The Treaty of Versailles, which put an end to World War I, caused a number of positive and negative outcomes in Germany. Germany was in need of a democratic government in order to meet the harsh provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. Established by members from the Social Democrat Party in 1919, the Weimar Republic became the central power in Germany for the following years. The republic was found in the city of Weimar and was a replacement, so to say, for the imperial government that had previously stood as the central authority. Even though the Weimar Republic managed to lead Germany for 15 years, it experienced devastating drawbacks such as hyperinflation, lack of support from the public, and the constant efforts from different groups to overthrow the government; because of these factors, different political groups sought a resolution, such as overthrowing the government and pushing for a strong leader.