Review of Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy

Luke Martin

February 14, 2015

History 322

        Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy, details the prelude to the rise of the Nazi Party following World War I, right up to World War II. Primary means of establishment for the Nazi’s was through economic, cultural, and political upheaval.

The German nation as a whole was extremely volatile following World War I and was marked by hyperinflation from 1919-1924. Weimar goes into awful detail about the poverty found throughout Germany. However in 1924 Gustav Stresemann established the Rentenmark currency. This marked the beginning of a new outlook on Germany from collectors of the reparations (especially the United States). The economy was becoming stabilized and confidence was growing that Germany was going to be able to make payments on its bills especially through refinancing under the Dawes and Young Plans. In chapter two Weitz brings the reader on a vivid and delightful walk through Berlin and displays how beautiful society could be under the right guidance. However once the Great Depression struck all confidence in ANY financial market (not to mention Germany) was lost. The party to take power changed history.

Polarized forces battling against each other, constantly attempting to over throw the opposite side, marked politics during the Weimar Republic. Many radical conservatives blamed Germany’s loss in World War I on Jewish citizens and called for a restoration of an authoritarian figure similar to Kaiser Wilhelm. The radical left opposed the social democrats in office and believed that as result of their rule, many workers benefits were abandoned. These leftist extremists called for a communist revolution, similar to the Russian Bolshevik Revolution.

Cultural Weimar Germany was similar to the political climate. Leftist communist supporters held everyone equal when working tirelessly in the workplace. Conservative extremists did not believe everyone was equal however. They believed that blood that was drawn during battling in World War I was shared among fully blooded German citizens. According to these people the Jews were to blame for Germany’s loss in WWI. Hundreds of paramilitary groups (many of which veterans) looked to defend the “Vaterland”. They looked to assassinate prominent leftist sympathizers including Matthias Erzberger (finance minister) and to the shock across the world, Walter Rathenau who was a well respected diplomat. Adolf Hitler was among these radical groups calling the shots on who to kill. The book details their ominous rise to power, “Ultimately, Weimar’s opponents, the established conservatives and the radical Right, would come together in a grand coalition under the rubric of the Nazi Party. They would destroy the republic and all the opportunities it had offered for cultural effloresce, social progress, and personal emancipation” (Weitz, 332).