Modern Case

Modern Essay

Emergence of the Weimar Republic 1918-1919 notes

The Weimar Republic was a failure from start to finish to some extent.

The Weimar Republic failed to achieve political stability after World War I when it came into its formation:

-Many ex-soldiers and civilians despised the new government, which had shown the Germans that they were to blame for the war by signing the armstice that ended the fighting.

-Proportional voting made the Reichstag divided and weak. It lead to 28 parties, made it impossible to establish a majority and this lead to frequent changes in the government which undermined the faith in the democratic system.

-The Weimar Republic failed to prevent political extremism from the left-wing and the right-wing opponents.

-In January 1919, the 50 000 Spartacists, the communist party led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, launched their bid for power in Berlin. This communist revolution however, failed, because they were crushed by the Freikorps.

-In March 1920, Dr Wolfgang Kapp led 5000 Freikorps into Berlin in a rebellion, the Kapp Putsch. The right-wing army refused the fire on the Freikorps who wanted to bring back Kaiser. The industrial workers of Berlin declared a general strike, bringing the city to a halt with no transport, power, or water. The Kapp Putsch failed. This showed how the government didn't have authority, even in its own capital, and that only the mass power of a general strike could re-establish Ebert's authority.

-Small extreme nationalist group, the Nazi Party, attempted the Munich Putsch on 8 November. Hitler marched on a meeting in a beer hall in a Munich where the head of government was addressing a meeting. He demanded the overthrow of the government. On the morning of 9 November, 3000 armed SAs and Hitler marched into the centre of Munich. However, they failed because they were confronted by the police.

-The Constitution gave the president, the states and the army too much power. The army failed to support the government during the Kapp Putsch.

The government was unable to prevent the hyperinflation of 1923, however, the hyperinflation also gave a new confidence to the Weimar Republic:

-By January 1923, Germany wasn't able to make its reparation payments as required by the Treaty of Versailles, so the French troops invaded the rich industrial of Ruhr, intended to take coal instead of money payments. The government didn't have enough money to pay for the costs of passive resistance-money to pay the workers and to pay off the reparations-so it simply printed more money, which soon became worthless, and prices went up alarmingly.

-The Weimar was now facing a crisis.