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. Reparations were re-scheduled by the Dawes plan in April 1924 as Germanyclaimed it could not afford to pay them at the current rate and Germanywas given an 800million Rentenmark loan by the USAto help stabilise the economy. Invasion of the Ruhr: Germanyjustified the Non-payment of reparations in January 1923 using the invasion of the Ruhrby 60 000 French troops and hyperinflation as evidence they could not afford reparation payments. The Dawes plan (1924) helped to solve the issue of reparations and the invasion of the Ruhrwas eventually solved when Stresemann came to chancellorship and abolished the passive resistance policy in favoured by the Cuno government as part of his foreign policy. Stresemann's foreign policy: The grand coalition was formed and this was more popular than the Cuno government as the SPD was the most popular political party in Germanyat... ... middle of paper ... ...is was shown when they were used by Weimarto suppress uprisings from the left. They did this by force however refused to engage in violent conduct towards the right wing uprisings but refused to support them also. This shows they were in favour of a right wing, more authoritarian government and were totally against communism. Other extremist attempts: Inadequate leadership, poor organisation and internal divisions meant that mass protests by the KPD in mid 1923 failed and were repressed without difficulty by the constitution who used the army to prevent the left wing uprisings having any real consequences. Conclusion: Several important factors that Weimar survived these crisis, the most important of these was a combination of strong leadership within the constitution and lack of any viable alternatives.
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.
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)....
Germany experienced a lot of economic changes after Germany was split into East Germany and West Germany. Initially, West Germany was established as a federal republic but was established as it’s own independent nation in 1955. Many events happened in West Germany from the 1950s to the 1980s before Germany became one nation again. There were events such as “oils price shocks, generous social programs, rising deficits and loss of control.” East Germany’s economy was strong due to the Soviet Union’s reliance on Eastern Germany’s production of machine tools, chemicals and electronics. It became appealing to reunite with West Germany when the value of East Germany’s currency became “worthless” outside of it’s country because Eastern Germany was relying on the Soviet Union’s demand (Marketline).
In this essay I will consider to what extent the German economy has been central to change regarding the development of Germany over the whole period, 1890-1991. I will consider the German economy under the Kaiser in accordance with World War 1, during Hyperinflation under the Weimar Republic in 1923, in Nazi Germany under Hitler and in East and West Germany leading to the building of the Berlin Wall. It appears that the German economy to a large degree has been exceedingly central to change in the country over this entire period. It is evident though that the economy itself has not solely been the derivation of precise events over the course of the period. There have been other ideas and proceedings that must be taken into consideration and I aim to assess the prominence of these notions in opposition to the German economy. These include the radical ideas of the Kaiser and Hitler leading to the occurrence of World War 1 and 2, the ‘Stab in the back’ theory strengthening support for radical parties and anti-fascist ideals prompting the construction of the Berlin Wall.
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.
Under the Dawes Plan, the German economy boomed in the 1920s, paying reparations and increasing production. Germany's economy decreased in 1929, though, when Congress revoked the Dawes Plan loans.
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.
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.
They were the ones who carried out the war, they were cut down to size
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.