The end of World War One marked the end of Imperial Germany and its change into a democratic nation. A democratic government was elected in January 1919 in the face of the unrest in the months after the end of the war. Despite the fact that the German people were not used to a democratic state, a majority of 83% turned out to vote in the first election where Ebert’s SPD won; it meant that the people had faith in democracy despite ideas such as the stab in the back myth. Throughout the Weimar republics time of power it has faced many difficulties, even before its birth.
When the Treaty of Versailles was finalised and given to the German government to sign there was no other option other than to sign the document and accept its terms because militarily Germany was no longer strong enough to resist. From the beginning of its life the Weimar republic had to battle a reputation as the November criminals because one of the first actions the government took when they were elected into power was to sign the Treaty of Versailles. This was partially due to the War Guilt clause, it contained which stated that Germany were wholly responsible for the outbreak of the war which went against the public’s opinion that this was a defensive war. The main reason that the signing of the treaty was debilitating from the start was because it made the government responsible for the German defeat rather than an actual military defeat. Throughout the war in Germany propaganda had been optimistic in its defeat of the enemy and it came as a shock to the public when the announcement came about that they had lost the war. It was a firmly held belief that the military had not been defeated; instead they had been stabbed in the back by the new government. This...
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...ded was because of a lack of unity between the different factions wanting the same things. The left side of the spectrum was still suffering from its division in previous years where the socialist had divided into three groups; the SPD, the USPD and the KPD. The right wing also weren’t unified and had no clear plan. This meant that there was no obvious alternative to Weimar and is the reason why the public supported the legitimate government; that isn’t to say that the reputation of the republic wasn't damaged by the different attempts at seizure of power but for the time being Weimar was stable enough to stay in power.
Works Cited
Geoff Layton, Democracy and Dictatorship in Germany 1919-63 (London, 2009), p.17, Figure 1.1.
Mary Fulbrook, A concise History of Germany, (Cambridge, 1995), p 164
See Gordon A. Craig, Germany 1866-1945, (Oxford, 1978) pp. 432 – 433
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
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.
The Weimar constitution was forced into creation by the German desire to sign an armistace with the Allied forces after significant defeats on the Western front. Not only were the Allies demanding a democratic governing style in Germany, but there was also a strong desire to move away from the autocratic state that had existed under the Kaiser. Although the new constitution outwardly appeared to be democratic, there were several internal factors that severely undermined the democratic integrity of the new constitution, and made it almost indistinguishable from its autocratic predecessor.
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 harshness of the Treaty and the way in which it blamed Germany for World War I crippled Germany. Much of its territory was taken away from it, including West Prussia that went to form a new Polish Corridor to the sea. Plus the Treaty forced Germany to reduce its army, demilitarise the Rhineland and get rid of its navy. The Treaty also forced harsh reparations for the War resulting in a great deal of the German people resenting the Allies. And it was later that Hitler used the bitter memories of Versailles to gain public support for his actions.
loans in 1920 would easily be able to pay these off now - leaving them
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.
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.
Why the Weimar Republic was Able to Survive the Difficulties of the Years 1919 to 1924
The Treaty ha been very hard on Germany and the Weimar Government had been forced to accept it. Many Germans hated and resented the loss of territory, the reparations and the war guilt clause. It wasn't actually their fault but the Weimar government tended to get the blame. By the end of 1923 the treaty was still partly a problem. Germany still had to pay reparations and were still blamed for starting the war and had a bad reputation in Germany for signing it.
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.
Germany was in need of a democratic government in order to meet the harsh provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. Established by members from the Social Democrat Party in 1919, the Weimar Republic became the central power in Germany for the following years. The republic was found in the city of Weimar and was a replacement, so to say, for the imperial government that had previously stood as the central authority. Even though the Weimar Republic managed to lead Germany for 15 years, it experienced devastating drawbacks such as hyperinflation, lack of support from the public, and the constant efforts from different groups to overthrow the government; because of these factors, different political groups sought a resolution, such as overthrowing the government and pushing for a strong leader. Severe economic problems arose in Germany essentially due to the punitive provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
...policy made the people despair over the inefficiency of the government, and article 48 caused the people to lose their faith in a democratic system wholly. These two deciding factors propelled the people to submit themselves to more radical ideologies, all of which finally brought an end to the floundering democratic constitution in the 1930s. Even though external threats such as anti-Weimar sentiments spread by opposing parties also played a prominent role in the eventual distrust of the WG, they were not the root cause of the failure of the WG, their prosperity was only made possible by building on the already-existing profound internal failures of the government.
German people were unused to a democracy and blamed the government “November criminals”, for signing the Treaty of Versailles. From the very beginning, the new Weimar government faced opposition from both sides of the political spectrum. The Left wing Spartacist group, lead by Liebknecht and Luxemburg, looked up to the new Soviet councils in Russia, wanted to place Germany into a similar system.