Discussing the Stability of the Weimar Republic Essay examples

The Weimar Constitution itself could also been seen as a threat to the stability of the Weimar Republic. In the Bundesrat, Prussian seats were elected by those who paid more tax, resulting in it therefore been dominated by conservatives. 17/58 seats in the Bundesrat were from Prussia and had power to veto bills. This in itself mean that any decisions in the Bundesrat were most likely to be that of traditionalist and conservative decisions as oppose to socialist or liberal. Furthermore, the Republic was trying to introduce democracy through this constitution. However, the Kaiser still had enough power to over-rule any decisions, making the system dependent on the abilities and personality of the Kaiser. Such a system would be seem as fundamentally flawed and therefore unable to provide stability and a working democracy. Additionally, the proportional representation voting system meant that a party had to have over 51% of the vote in order to form a government which normally resulted in many coalitions. This also resulted in six different governments coming into power between 1919 and 1923. This meant stability within the Weimar Republic was highly unlikely with so many governments coming in and out of power.

The Weimar Republic would have continued to be a functional government far longer than achieved if not for the defeat of WWI, the economic burdens imposed by the Versailles Treaty, and the flawed Article 48 which all contributed to the down fall of Germany’s first attempt at a legitimate Democracy. This paper will argue that the societal, economical, and constitutional aspects all played a role in the hopeless Democracy Germany attempted which ultimately lead Germany into a totalitarian state that would further shake the world with the rise of the NSDAP and Adolf Hitler.

No party ever gained majority government during the history of the Republic, and this weakened the government. Proportional representation was responsible for a series of coalition governments, which ruled Germany through the years of 1919 and 1933. However, the only time that a pro-Weimar party held majority was in the first elections of 1919, and every time after Weimar was the minority.

Coalitions showed how weak Weimar was, he couldn't work single handedly with his party alone because he knew they had no support , I believe that coalitions were ineffective aas his longest serving coalition only lasted 2 years. proptitional representation also highlights the weakness of the constitution , it may seem fair but in reality it is not as a majority may of voted against Weimar. I believe that the biggest weakness in the Weimar government/constitution was the enabling act and article 48, this would later allow Hitler to became a dictator there was also no given time or amount of uses a person was allowed to have when using this, what counts as an emergency or a national crisis, this showed the weakness of the Weimar constitution as it allows one person to have too much

The defeat of Germany in World War I and the followed signing of the Treaty of Versailles reshaped the German society and economy and also created upheaval within them. The loss of the war and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles led to the collapse of the imperial government and economy (Aleskerov 25). As a result, in 1918, a new government called the Weimar Republic was established. During its history, the Weimar Republic was unstable and suffered budgets and high rates of unemployment essentially caused by the Treaty of Versailles (“Treaty of Versailles, 1919” 1). The Treaty of Versailles required that Germany pay outrageous war reparations which had notable effects on Germany’s economy (Aleskerov 26).

1) Germany before the Fuhrer. Germany’s defeat at the end of World War I left the nation socially, politically, and economically shattered. The reparation agreements inflicted upon Germany without its’ consent at the end of the war meant that the nation was in complete financial ruin. In the wake of Germany’s defeat, public decent climaxed on the 9th November 1918 during the revolution that took place on Berlin’s Postdamer Platz. This revolution transpired as a result of the public’s culminating discontent towards the imperial monarchy, and lasted up until August 1919, which saw the establishment of the Weimar Republic. In attempts to guide Germany out of economic

The collapsement of the Weimar Republic was due to many social, political and economical issues within. From its birth it faced numerous political problems, for which the causes were many and varied. These problems included political instability, deep divisions within society and economic crisis; problems were constantly appearing for the new government. The Weimar Republic never really had a stable political party, having a whole six different parties between 1924-1928 does not create stability. Many of these parties were also narrowly sectioned, with messed up

This caused a huge issue in the Weimar republic as it meant that no party could get a majority vote leading to many disagreements and arguments between everyone, meaning nothing would get done. If the government had just one party and not coalition parties, then Germany’s recovery could speed up. Many people wanted a strong lead figure instead so difficult decisions were made quickly and progress would be made. Unfortunately, Stresemann’s government did not do this and took a long time to make decisions because the whole of the Weimar Republic had to vote. Germany was not ready to run a democratic government after the Treaty of Versailles stated it in the terms. Stresemann’s government did not help or speed up the recovery of

1925-1929 as the Time of Economic and Political Stability in the Weimar Republic The years 1925-1929 were described as the Golden Years for Germany. There were no attempts to over throw the government like the Sparticist uprising or the Kapp Putsch, therefore undoubtedly it was the best years compared to the problems before and after the Golden Years. The way the golden years were perceived would indicate to what extent were the years 1925 to1929 a time of economic and political stability for the Weimar Republic. There were developments in Germanyduring the Golden Years in the following essay we will learn where the developments took place and whether they disadvantaged Germany or helped her

During the course of the following year the Treaty of Versailles was drafted and presented to the German people on May 7, 1919. The Germans thought the treaty was too harsh and called for too many concessions on both the geographic and economic front. A war-torn Germany already had a disadvantaged post-war economy, and the Treaty of Versailles made things worse. By 1922, the German Mark was only worth 1/100th of its value in 1914 (K. Joseph & G. Owen).

Since the Weimar Republic was established in the aftermath of World War One, it was almost inevitable that it would be blamed for Germanys surrender and the Treaty of Versailles. The supposed surrender was even harder to accept since in 1918 Germany had signed an armistice with Russia. Weimar was in essence ‘brought about by defeat’ . The ‘November Criminals’ who signed the armistice were always associated with Weimar, thus making it difficult for Weimar to be associated with anything but defeat and humiliation. The war guilt clause was also difficult to accept because it lay all the blame on Germany for starting the First World War. This along with reparations were crippling not only the economy but German society itself

The establishment of the new constitution drawn up on the 11th of August 1919 caused many internal issues within the democratic system as a result of continual economic disaster. Germany was to be a Federal State, with a parliament to be elected every four years following a system of proportional representation. This system faltered due to the amount of political parties (during the rule of the Weimar Republic, there were 21 separate coalitions) and a lack of political census. Economic conditions lead to a polarisation of extremists left and right support. In times of instability it was noted that poor standards of living meant the lower class leaned towards the left wing, while the higher class leaned towards the right due to lack of national pride. The extent of economic issues in Germany caused the middle class and aristocrats to consider political extremities. Consequently this caused huge political divisions in German society, which denied the republic of any political census, resulting in a large amounts of political parties and changes to government. This made it very difficult to establish stability in the republic, or even get laws passed, weakening the effect of the democratic system. The political chaos economic conditions brought about caused many Germans to lose faith in the new democratic system during its initial period of rule.

There were various factors that contributed to the failure of the Weimar Republic of Germany and the ascent of Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers Party into power on January 30, 1933. Various conflicting problems were concurrent with the eventuation of the Republic that, from the outset, its first governing body the socialist party (SPD) was forced to contend with.

The instability of the newly formed Weimar Republic resulted in a weak government prone to problems, Hitler took advantage of this weakness and introduced a secure alternative. During the hardship of the 1920s and1930s, political incompetence was highlighted, the Weimar Government proved its incompetence time and time again. .The instability of the Weimar Republic was so great that the average life-span of Reich cabinets was from 6-7 months. Their incapability of providing justice to outbreaks of violence, such as political assassinations is one example of the incompetence of the Weimar Republic. When Germany found its self in undesirable economical situations due to the Treaty of Versalles, they printed money to pay off reparations, which resulted in super-inflation. During the period of super-inflation people's life savings became worthless which contributed to the downward circle of a reduction in standard of living. As unemployment rose and people began to afford less and less with their money, people commenced searching for a better alternative to the Weimar Government. Hitler's ability to build upon these feelings whilst offering security, prosperity and full

The Weimar republic from 1919 to 1929 had many successes and failures, starting in chaos and ending in relative stability. However, due to individual perspective these successes and failures were often viewed as both successes and failures- not either. Class, political leanings and other moralistic beliefs, primarily influenced the individual's perspectives. Overall, due to the relative stability, (the aim of any government) primarily achieved by Streseman's influence, the successes outweighed the failures by 1929.