Collapse of the Weimar Republic

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Collapse of the Weimar Republic

“On 2 August 1934, President Hindenburg died. Within an hour of his death Hitler announced that the offices of chancellor and president were to be combined and that he was the new head of state. Hitler’s adolescent dream of becoming Fuhrer of the German people had been realized” President Hindenburg’s death marked the official end of the Weimar Republic, a democratic ‘experiment’ that had lasted since 1918. The causes of the dissolution of the Republic are wide ranging and numerous, as was explained in the articles of both Richard Bessel, and John McKenzie. The two author’s agree on the sequence of events which led to the dissolution of the Republic, however, they disagree on what exactly caused the transition from Weimar to the Third Reich. The author’s disagreement stem from a differing view of the fundamental cause, political structure versus political leadership.

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.

Roughly 2.7 million German soldiers returned from the First World

War with some sort of permanent disability, and in 1923 the Reich

Lab...

... middle of paper ...

...overy, and return to the prewar economic atmosphere they had been used to. All of these factors together were far too much to expect a very strong, well-organized party with popular support to deal with. Unfortunately, the fact that there was no strong, organized and well-liked party to take control made matters even worse. After years of stagnant policy making, and very little change, it is no wonder the people turned to something new, and something that promised to make things change. It is truly unfortunate for human kind, that this party happened to be the Nazi Party.

Bibliography:

1. Bessel, Richard. “Why Did the Weimar Republic Collapse?” Why Did German

Democracy fail, Ed. Ian Kershaw. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1990.

2. McKenzie, John. “The End of the Republic” Weimar Germany 1918-1933. London:

Blandford Press, 1971.

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