Weimar Republic: Tensions Between Left and Right Wings

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When the Weimar Republic was set up 1918 it faced opposition from people who believed in Left Wing politics and people who believed in Right Wing Politics. Both groups made the early years of the Weimar Republic very uncomfortable and difficult, as we will see... The Left Wing Those who believed in left wing politics were mainly communist. They believed that money, land and power should be shared out equally amongst everybody, and that there shouldn’t really be anyone in charge – people should all work together to run the country. There had been a communist revolution in Russia in 1917, and many wanted this to happen in Germany. They were angry that the new Weimar Republic had stopped this from happening. In January 1919, 500 000 communists rebelled against the government in Berlin. This was known as the Spartacist Rebellion. They were led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, and hoped they could get rid of the Weimar Republic. They controlled Berlin for a week, before President Ebert ordered in …show more content…

These people were furious with the Weimar Republic for having surrendered in the First World War, and wanted to return to the days of a German Empire being run by a Kaiser. They felt they had been stabbed in the back by weak ‘left’ supporters and communists. In March 1920, the government attempted to disband some of the Freikorps units. One of them refused the order and marched on Berlin. Some 5000 fighting men took the capital, and proclaimed Wolfgang Kapp as the new chancellor of Germany, hoping to return to the old style of government. The Kapp Putsch failed because none of the German workers were willing to work for the new Government. Unlike the left wing rebellions, no one ended this one in an orgy of bloodshed – the army refused the order to go and fight the

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