The time of World War One saw great variation in European politics. This ran from the rightist control in Italy under Mussolini to the Stalinist administration of the Soviet Union. Maybe no other country saw such an emotional legislative vacillation as did Germany. Germany started this time period as the staunch majority rule government of the Weimar Republic, was later swung to the rightist fascism of Hitler. The worst general purpose behind this extreme change in government was the Weimar Republic's insecurity. The uncertainy of the Weimar Republic can be credited to the way that legislature did not have clear objectives or prominent backing, and the staying request of military drive and firm control among the German citizenry.
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legislature of the Weimar Republic worked without a solitary, clear objective, which essentially hurt its steadiness. There were numerous political gatherings whose objectives specifically conflicted with one another. This made a circumstance where government was negatively left without an obvious message to the individuals. This political clash can absolutely be seen in the fighting between the German Democratic Party, which was and the Communist Party. Ernst Troeltsch, a part of the German Democratic Party, wrote that, “The development will not stop at democracy, and a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ will assume the form of terrorist domination by a minority” Document 1. The words of Troeltsch are only moderately reliable, however, because as a politician, he is likely to over exaggerate the consequences of opposition’s control. This description of German politics stands in almost shocking to the views of the Communist Party and member Clara Zetkin opinion, eventhough both groups were on the same side of the long walkway between seats. “The only reliable guarantee of victory over monarchist militarism is the absolutely necessary development of the proletarian revolution…” Document 3. These two powerful parties different opinions on the goals of Weimar government would have left the government fighting with itself instead of forming a united goal for their new government. The German citizen association never appeared to be behind the Weimar Republic, making it as a citizen run democracy; not quailfyed . Part of this short support stemmed from the newness of the government, acording to doc. 6 “Our republic is not yet an object of mass consciousness. It is merely a constitutional document and a governmental administration” Document 6. Ossietzky saw that in time, the German people would give stronger support to the Weimar government, but as it stood, they were apathetic towards it. “The German revolution was drearily philistine, lacking in all fire and inspiration” Document 9. As Chancellor of Germany, he can be seen as very credible because he was right in the thick of all the governmental change. He saw the apathy of the German citizens to the Weimar government, and certainly, a democracy cannot be stedy without the support of its citizens. At the point when the individuals restricted Weimar's radicalism, they gave bolster rather to progressive gatherings, making intense adversaries to the Weimar government.
One particular such moderate gathering was the Nazi Party, drove by Adolf Hitler. Hitler bragged about the individuals' backing for his conservatism, saying, “In our movement today, hundreds of thousands of young men are prepared at the risk of their lives to withstand our opponents” Document 11. It is pass that Hitler is problematic, however, in light of the fact that he would need to pick up backing for his gathering through whatever methods fundamental, regardless of the fact that it implied hyperbolizing about his backing. On the other hand, he is still exact in that the progressive Nazis were altogether effective, as seen by the Nazi endeavor to pick up control of Germany in 1923, with the Beer Hall Putsch. Additionally, a progressive military center was famous too. This was valid on a more extensive scale, with Communist backing included, as seen in Document 5, with Communists as defenders of military power. Overall, this famous preservationist set of qualities and needs gave genuine rivalry to the liberal Weimar Republic, accordingly making it substantially less stable in German
culture. In all the Weimar Republic of Germany eventually turned into a rightist government due to insecurity originating from an absence of an unmistakable arrangement. Absence of well known backing, and also the opposition of moderate sort values. All of these key shortcomings of Weimar government permitted the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler to take full control of Germany in 1933, in the end bringing all of Europe into the amazingly grisly World War Two of 1939 through 1945.
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.
In 19th century Italian states united to make Italy while the Germanic states united and made Germany. For Italy there were three people who had a major role in unifying Italy. They were Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour. For Germany it was more like one person who united the German states to make Germany and that was Bismarck. On the other hand there was a strong Austrian empire that would not tolerate any nationalist feelings to rise anywhere in Europe.
There could have been a return to parliamentary Party politics. There were some signs to show that democracy may have been revived. During the continuous utilisation of Article 48 to govern, the Reichstag gave their vote of no confidence in challenging the executive use of it. Also, a section of the public appeared to still support the Republic; the Centre Party and SPD continued to have steady support until 1932. However, it seems that any chances of democracy were ruled out. The political Parties were still inclined to pursue their own political interests when a united, broad and moderate front was needed. Two moderate Parties even defected to Hitler after the offensive from the right and Hindenburg made little effort to restore the influence of the Reichstag.
...racy from its arsenal. We shall become members of the Reichstag in order that the Weimar ideology should itself help us destroy it.”(Doc 7) This shows another Nazi member talking about conservative ideas and military forces which made this party tough competition for the republic to beat. Even the Communist Party encouraged militarization, and they were on the opposite end of the spectrum. This can be seen in the political cartoon by George Grosz, depicting a large communist military force.(Doc 5) This proves that overall, the conservative values were quite popular and gave the Weimar republic a lot to keep up with.
Hitler had a lot of support from the conservative right who had dominated Germany politically since 1929.
The Posing of Threats by the Political Right to the Weimar Republic in the Years 1919-25
The Left and Right at the Birth of Weimar Germany From the general chaos and unrest that followed the Kiel Mutiny in late 1918, the centre-left emerged to lead Germany into a new era of democracy. Philipp Scheidemann, a key figure in the moderate SDP, declared a Democratic Socialist Republic from a balcony in Berlin on 9th November 1918. However, the whole of Germany was not behind him, since simultaneously, and from a different Berlin balcony, Karl Liebknecht, leader of the communist Spartacists (KPD), declared a Soviet Republic.
Evaluation of Weimar Germany The Weimar Republic was an extremely complex and diverse place throughout the entirety of the interwar years. The society and the culture that the Weimar created had several different facets and frontiers according to how one chooses to approach it. The fundamental themes of the period evolve around Political conflict, economic instability, social unrest and diverse ideologies. In relation to this essay I shall be focusing my attention on the latter themes, as I believe that the determinants of social unrest and conflicting ideologies are paramount when investigating the social and cultural development of the Weimar Republic. There is little doubt that pre-war and post-war German societies were very different.
...of Carsten and similar historians writing at the time is that the far-left were not as politically strong as first thought so consequently there was a lack of any serious opposition to the established order and in turn they were allowed had more independence and self-determination in implementing Germany’s first republic. So the social basis for a constitutional government in Germany was a lot more widespread than formerly thought. Furthermore, the apprehensiveness of the social democrats can be interpreted in terms of distrusting the unstructured mass movements that existed in the pressing post-war years, and placing their trust in the old elites. However, works such as Feldman’s, ‘The great disorder. The German inflation 1914 – 1924’ argue that the perspective representative potential of soldiers and workers unions and councils were in fact decisively contentious
...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.
The Weakness of the Weimar Republic and Hitler's Rise to Power The question directly relates to the idea that the political power of a country can be taken over by ambitious people in different ways. From our knowledge we know there is three ways this can be done…by take over by force, also known as a 'coup d'etat', in a more democratic and just way or by a political deal. In the 1920's and the 1930's Hitler led a right wing political party and was seen by many as a dictator. He wanted to overthrow and control the German government and he tried all three of these ways in an attempt to do so, some methods were more successful than others.
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. To begin, one of the factors that contributed to the instability of the Weimar republic was the presence of new political ideals. Marie Juchacz unintentionally highlighted that reason in her speech to the National Assembly.
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.
But was it doomed from it's beginning? One of the main fields where problems arose was the legacy of World War 1. Germany's unexpected defeat was blamed on the "November Criminals" and made people suspicious of the new government. The Treaty of Versailles associated the government with Germany's acceptance of this national humiliation. The soldiers returning back from the front line were bitter at the republic and many joined right wing paramilitary groups, such as the Freikorps.