Failure of Parliamentary Democracy in Germany and Hitler’s Rise to Power German history is seen as a ‘painful issue for thousands of Germans and other Europeans’ . However it has interested many historians over the years into inquiring how and why Hitler came to power and how much of this was to do with the failure of parliamentary democracy in Germany. To fully ascertain to what extent these events have in common and what reasons led to the fall of democracy and rise of the Nazis, each have to be looked at individually. Also it seems beneficial, to be able to evaluate these in the relevant context, to look at the situation in Germany was in prior to 1920. In 1919, the treaty of Versailles was signed marking the end of World War One. Soon after, the Weimar republic was established. It was hoped that this democratic constitution would mark a turning point for Germany. Turning the people of Germany away from the authoritarian style of government they were used to, towards a more stable democracy. Since the German nation was used to being ruled, rather than ruling itself, it was a hard transition to accomplish. Democracy was a new concept within Germany and many people were willing to look to the left and right wings for political leadership. Also World War One had created an unsettling influence on the people of Germany and the establishment of Weimar, with its wish for freedom and democracy hoped to settle this. In essence Weimar faced many problems from the outset; it had to cope with not only political challenges, but economic problems, structural weaknesses and the legacy of World War One. Weimar had also inherited the ruins of a conquered autocracy, a ruined economy and two ruthlessly anti-democratic political extremes The Weimar Republic did not start on a good footing, since the first president was not democratically elected; instead Friedrich Ebert took the first oath of constitution on Prince Max’s command. Some believe that the structure of Weimar was the main reason for its failure. There were many flaws in the constitution, which prohibited it from becoming a western style of democracy. The first thing to look at is how the constitution was established. After World War One, the German people were divided, those to the left believed that they had been lied to and deceived into fighting a war for the upper class. The Right believed th... ... middle of paper ... ...2. Between the July and November elections the Nazi party lost 34 seats. However the implementation of Schleicher, to attract trade unionists and members of the NSDAP, only succeeded in making Hitler’s position in the Nazi party stronger. This was because Schleicher’s ‘policy of diagonal’ only attracted Strasser, for which he was ousted from the Nazi party. This was Hitler’s main opponent in the quest for leadership of the nazi party. The Weimar Republic's demise and Hitler’s rise to power are very inter-linked. This can be shown by the static enrolment for the Nazi party when Stresseman brought Germany into the era of the ‘golden years’. It could be said that opposition to democracy rose and fell in harmony with movements in prosperity.’ Hitler exploited this with his political astuteness of knowing what and when to promise things in the ‘new’ Germany. Many reasons for the fall of democracy also link to Hitler’s rise of power. It could be argued that if Weimar had been a stronger constitution then Hitler would not have come to power. However Hitler was an opportunist and I believe that if Weimar had survived Hitler would have found another way to rise to Germany’s dictator.
As Ian Kershaw explains, the Weimar Republic was failing: "the survival chances of Weimar democracy might be regarded as fairly poor by the end of 1929, very low by the end of 1930, remote by the middle of 1931 and as good as zero by Spring 1932." In a period of Depression and when unity and firm government was essential, Müller's Grand Coalition broke up in March 1930. Logically, there were several political alternatives other than Hitler and the Nazis.
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.
The Weimar Republic eventual demise was a product of circumstance, the Republic was not doomed to failure based on it won merits. It was inside forces like the Nazis as well as other coalitions who worked to destroy it from the interior. Hitler was appointed chancellor by men who underestimated his abilities. Hitler a master manipulator used circumstance and planning to his advantage, and took virtually absolute power over Germany. Hitler was by no means a mythical character, he was just in the right place at the right time, and he was smart enough to recognize that.
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.
One reason that the Weimar Republic failed in Germany was the fact that the people that lived in the Republic were always frightened and scared. They were frightened and scared because this was one tactic used to try to control them. Like stated in Document 2, Article 48 “ ….with the aid of armed forces….Reich President may take the measures necessary for their restoration….”. This shows that
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.
...Republic was marked by failure. The inflation in 1923, caused in part by the Versailles settlement, drove people away from democracy and towards Nazism. Socially, the Nazi movement had taken root with many conservatives as a way to unify and oppose the treaty. Books and literature written by Nazi leaders such as Hitler himself were propaganda to the movement and allowed for the party to solidify its goals. Politically, the republic was fractured and messy allowing for many parties to rise and fall out of favor. The early Nazi movement was based off the popular notion of oppression created by the Treaty of Versailles. Thus, the Treaty of Versailles fostered a political and social environment for the Nazi Party to grow and eventually seize power. It is ironic that this treaty ended the “war to end all wars,” while also inadvertently started yet another world conflict.
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.
Schorske, Carl E. German Social Democracy, 1905-1917: The Development of the Great Schism. Vol. 65. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955.
For starters, the Weimar Republic’s Rise and fall was bound to happen. “As World War I (WWI) drew to a close, Germany tottered on the brink of chaos. Under the threat of a socialist revolution, the Kaiser abdicated. Moderate leaders signed the armistice and later, under protest, the Versailles treaty” (Ester, 2010). In 1919, German leaders created the democratic government known as the Weimar Republic, this created by the constitution drafted in the city of Weimar. There were political struggles. Politically, the republic was weak because Germany had many small parties. “They longed for another strong leader like Bismarck” (Ester, 2010). “With help from Western power, the government did bring inflation under control. In 1924, the United States gained British and French approval for a plan to reduce German reparations payments” (Ester, 2010).
Germany's defeat in World War One created political, economic and social instability in the Weimar Republic and led to the rise of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) or Nazi party.
“ Germany was embarressed after the World War I an lost plenty of land that they had before the war even started, which reduced Germanys armed forces, demanded the recognition of its guilt for the war, and managed to somehow pay their dues to the allied powers. With the German Empire destroyed, a new parliamentary government known as the Weimar Republic was created. The republic then suffered an unstable economy, which became worse an worse as the worldwide depression after the New York stock market crashed in 1929. A huge inflation as well as high
“Among these dictators was Adolf Hitler, who called on the German masses to restore the national glory that had been damaged by defeat in 1918. He urged German scorn democratic rights and roo...
What is “The German Question”? This is a question that has been posed by many analysts over the years, each having their own views on what fulfills this question. However, each agrees that it is a question of high complexity. According to Constantin Frantz, “The German Question is the most obscure, most involved and most comprehensive problem in the whole of modern history”. What makes Germanys’ question so difficult to pinpoint is the fact that for all of its existence, until 1871 and again in 1990, it has struggled to unify a nation into a single state. As history shows, the German nation has struggled to create its own nation-state. Unlike France and Britain, Germany was a nation before it was a state. That is, its people had a strong sense of nationalism and common identity as a social entity but they were lacking a strong state, or a form of political organization that claims the exclusive right to govern a specific piece of territory. As Dahrendorf states; “We want to find out what it is in German society that may account for Germany’s persistent failure to give a home to democracy in its liberal sense”. But can we really analyze the problem in this way? It has not always been the same “persistent failure” hindering Germany from giving a home for democracy, but rather the problems faced by Germany throughout history.