November Criminals: The Weimar Republic

On April 20, 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau Am Inn, Austria to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl. In the early days of Hitler’s life, he was an unrestrained and carefree child who lived a happy life. His mother was very caring and affectionate towards him while his father spent most of his time either at work or following his hobby of keeping bees. Hitler had an older brother named Alois Hitler Jr. and an older sister named Angela, and a few years after he was born his mom gave birth to another son named Edmund and another sister named Paula. After his father retired and Hitler started to go to school his life began to change. He was no longer able to live his previous carefree lifestyle and now his strict father was going to be watching

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.

The Collapse of Weimar and the Rise of Hitler In 1919, a defeated Germany was forced to abandon government under the Kaiser, who had fled to Belgium and adopt the Weimar, a democratic but flawed system. Soon after Hitler and the Nazi Party appeared, and years later the Weimar Republic fell. What accounted for the fall of the Weimar? My essay will prove that there was not a single reason, but in fact a series of events that lead to the collapse of the Weimar. President Ebert used the Freikorp, who were a rightwing mercenary unit, to put down the Spartacus uprising, a communist inspired revolution.

The Treaty of Versailles formed after World War I forced Germany to pay great amounts in reparation payments, which was severely damaging to their economy and to their collective national ego. In addition, they were forced to greatly weaken their army by demobilizing, abolishing universal compulsory military service, and by having their army be comprised by no more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry. Furthermore, the country was also forced to return lands which they had viewed as 'Germanic' and had laid claim to, as well as overseas colonies, back to various other countries.

The Treaty of Versailles could be described as a great step for peace by some, but in Germany the people were enraged. The Treaty of Versailles was seen by the German people as a way to take away Germany’s land and make Germany have to pay for the war. Extreme Nationalists like Adolf Hitler had a strong idea on who should be the blame for Germany’s loss of land and the failure at the Treaty of Versailles. Adolf Hitler and the Nazism party blamed the Weimar Republic. “Hitler and the Nazi Party gained power in Germany by exploiting the economic problems and constitutional weaknesses of the Weimar Republic.”

During World War I (WWI) the soldiers utilized new tactics such as the use of machine guns and chemical warfare. As a result, the number of fatalities reached the millions. Seven months after World War I came to an end, the Allied nations, Great Britain, France, and the United States, came up with an idea to establish a treaty with hopes of preventing another calamitous war from breaking out in Europe. This treaty is called the Versailles Treaty and it was signed on June 28, 1919. Unfortunately, Germany had no say in the matter and was one of the nations listed in the Treaty of Versailles. This incident caused Germany to display signs of bitterness and conflict eventually erupted. (Background Essay) One could argue that the Versailles Treaty was the spark that fueled World War II (WWII) for numerous reasons such as territorial losses, mandatory reparation payments, and the

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

After World War I germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. Them signing this really was the first sign of the next world war. Many germans were very

The Weimar police during the years of inflation faced obstacles almost impossible to overcome. Once the new government was established, German police forces looked to “reorganize and professionalize” their authority. Wolffram claims this was done to distinguish themselves from the former imperial forces, and please countries who took part in the Versailles Treaty. One of the actions they took was to recruit men from civilian population rather than the military. In my opinion, the timing was unfortunate, as new recruits had no experience in the chaos that was about to take over in the early 20s. Many of the former imperial forces, however, became police officers under the new democracy. Too some, this was a mistake as-well, as “Policemen were

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

Germany was well-established as a major and prominent world power by the outbreak of WWI in August 1914. The industrial and economic strength, overseas colonies, extensive trading interests and its vast army was seen as an achievement to the country. Prior to the war of 1914, the people of Germany had a strong sense of pride, largely owing to their autocratic government and militaristic background. However, within five years, Germany was devastated, it’s armies on the Western front were in retreat, it’s citizens were in poverty and the monarchy lead by Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated in favour of a republic before the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The Nationalists hated the treaty and all those that signed it and this was one of the reasons leading to the failure of democracy in Germany. More people hated democracy than those who supported it. “The republic was born with a hole in its heart” (Delmar). The treaty of Versailles was one of the many documents written to ensure that Germany would never come to full power again. The terms of the Versailles treaty included the loss of the provinces of Alsace-Lorraine, Eupen-Malmedy, Memel, the Hultschin district, Poznania, parts of East Prussia and Upper Silesia. The treaty also caused Germany’s army to be

The signing of the Treaty of Versailles on the twenty second of June in 1919, would forever psychologically be associated with the long term bitterness and humiliation of the German public towards the German democracy. The civilian government who agreed to the terms of the treaty, which saw German suffer a deduction in their army, forced to pay high reparations, deduction of land and population were after known as the “November Criminals. However factors such as nationalism, the democratic Constitution, lack of democratic tradition within Germany society, pushes from the extreme left, the army and pushes from the extreme right saw the German

The mandate of Article(s) 231 and 232 , (respectively titled “The War Guilt Clause” and “Reparations”) of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28th, 1919 served as unintentional catalysts for the arise of revisionism in post-war Germany, and its fall out of the international order following the Paris Peace Conference. These two articles politically, socially, and economically ravaged Germany, and created societal circumstances in which a totalitarian dictatorship (the National Socialist German Workers Party or “Nazi” party) gained popularity and was viewed as necessary in order for Germany to be restored to its former status as an economic and political world power. The national humiliation and economic burden that Articles 231 and 232 created injured German pride, strained its economy and triggered a resentful and hostile outlook to the “new peace” that the Allied leaders believed they had formulated. The German people viewed this as a “dictated peace” (Diktat) that had been enforced on them. It was seen by Germany as an unfair, un-justified and un-realistic punishment for losing the war, and instead of creating a long-term and prosperous peace on the European continent, the guilt and reparations of Articles 231 and 232 ignited a flame of vengeance in Germany that would evolve into an ultra-nationalist inferno and consume the world into a second and even more devastating and savage war.

Therefore, the humiliating Treaty came as a rude shock to the German people who, correspondingly, blamed the politicians for betraying the soldiers in signing the armistice and saw them as compounding their treason by accepting the peace settlement. They spoke of the ‘November criminals’ and protested “A nation of seventy million suffers, but does not die.” These factors propagated in the promotion of anti republican feeling, the conclusions of which were clearly reflected in the results of the election of June 1920.

November 1918 saw the result of WW1 though Germany's eyes. A crumbled economy, revolution and counter-revolution, the flailing of a government, and an angered mass population- searching for scapegoat in which to blame their