Problems of The Weimar Republic In The Years Of 1919-1923

Problems of The Weimar Republic In The Years Of 1919-1923

The Weimar Republic was created in 1919 with the abdication of Kaiser

Wilhelm II. The new government was the body that signed the Treaty of

Versailles, and to many it was a betrayal and most Germans referred to

it as the "stab in the back theory". The consequences of Versailles,

such as reparations and land loss, were severe to Germany, and many

were looking for someone to blame, the government was the ideal

scapegoat. Communists and the "right wing" saw an opportunity to

create a state that they wanted and were prepared to challenge the new

republic. Many richer Germans had lived well under the Kaiser and

distrusted the new government. Considering all of these points, it

would seem that the collapse of the republic was inevitable, but was

that the case?

The Treaty Of Versailles, a peace treaty with the allies, meant

ruthless terms for Weimar; compulsory military service was to be

abolished, the army was to be reduced from 600 000 to 100 000, naval

personnel not to exceed 15 000, a limit of twenty-four naval ships

with no submarines, all military and naval aviation to be abandoned

and all importation, exportation and production or war materials was

to be stopped - thus resulting in Weimar having insufficient resources

to keep order and defence and left many soldiers unemployed. Weimar

was ordered to provide all countries that sustained damages from the

allies during the war with compensation, both financially and in the

form of trade goods - this compensation was known as 'reparations'.

There was also a loss of many German colonies; this meant the loss of

many economic re...

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...et Crash, the republic may have prospered for many years. It is

clear to see that many factors lead to the Weimar Republic having so

many problems to deal with, however two factor are just slightly more

devastating than the others, one factor is that they were the ideal

target to blame the countries' problems on, for example the treaty of

Versailles. The other main factor was the opposition of the extremists

from the start, which helped portray the government as violent, and it

made people ask questions about the Government's lack of leadership,

control and if they really were in safe hands. Nevertheless all the

factors led to huge problems for Weimar. Hiden states that, "No one

factor was responsible for the collapse of the Weimar republic, but

the combination of factors and circumstances that lead to it's down

fall."