The Biggest Threat to the Weimar Republic Was the Weimar Constitution Itself. Discuss

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.

Even though Hindenburg was re-elected with a ballot of 53%, Hitler was only marginally behind with a ballot of 36.8%. By the 1932 election, the Nazi’s accounted for 37.3% or 230 seats in the Reichstag. These figures meant that the Nazi party were the largest party in the Reichstag, although they did not have an outright majority and therefore could not assume automatic power. By January 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor by President Hindenburg.

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.

With incompetent leadership and an unhappy nation, the German people began to realize that their country was in a vulnerable situation and began to look for stable alternatives to democracy. Hitler’s

In the lead up to the depression the Nazis had 12 seats and just two years later in the peak of the economic crisis the Nazis had 107 seats. This reflects the dissatisfaction that was shown in the present government and the fact that Hitler was the only person who promised the solutions that they people wanted. Many historians have stated that if Stressman had not died in 1929 then Germany may have recovered to its former strength and Hitler may never had the chance at gaining power. From 1930 onwards the country is being ruled by presidential decree through the use of Article 48, so therefore no party could gain a majority for the German economy to get back on its feet. Hitler took advantage of these times of hardship and promised these desperate people what they wanted, employment and a way out of these poverty times. Hitler was the only option left, and is desperate time people look for desperate politics to solve these problems. Weimar

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

According to the Second Reich constitution, it is clear that during the years of the Second Reich there was no democracy. The German Electorates could only elect the Reichstag, which

The system of proportional representation was intended by the Weimar Republic to avoid the wasting of votes and to reduce political conflicts, causing many parties to gaining seats in the Reichstag. The quantity of political parties was multiplied and coalitions were made necessary. This resulted in unstable government and, consequently, frequent changes of government as each party had different aims. This was reflected in 376 political assassinations up to 1923. Similarly, despite being from the democratic left, during the early 1920s Friedrich Ebert relied heavily on the traditionally right-wing army and Freikorps in order to keep control of the country. Conservative attitudes tended to overemphasise the threat from the left, whilst the threat from the right was severely under estimated. The rise of a multitude of small trivial parties, many of which represented the extreme ends of the political

The Failure of Democracy in Germany in the Period 1928 to 1934 Those in power in Weimar Germany so consistently mishandled the political and economic situation leading up to the period 1928-1934, that a well-structured challenge from the Nazi Party brought about the fall of democracy. This Nazi Party was stronger ideologically, structurally within the party and politically, with Hitler as Fuhrer a major factor himself. In addition, factions within Germany for whom a right-wing political system was more beneficial, such as the army and big business, aided the eventual change in governance. Thus a series of events occurred which can be summarised by these three main factors: failure of the Weimar

Hitler's Rise to Power In 1919 The Weimar Republic encountered harsh economic, social and political problems. After the new Democratic Republic signed the armistice it put Germany not only into an economic crisis, it also caused Ebert’s Republic to get off to an unpopular start. The new government were branded ‘The November Criminals’ even though they weren’t to be blamed, and were left little choice. Some people felt the government should be based on communism, and the Spartacist uprising in 1919 caused major political problems.

The Weimar Republic was set up mainly to help Germany out of their economic crisis at that time. Germany lost a lot of its land and the German people very

Members were taking the law into their own hands and this gave the impression of a revolution from below. The Enabling Law was the constitutional foundation stone of the Third Reich. In purely legal terms the Weimar Constitution was not dissolved in 1945, and the Enabling Law provided a legal basis for the dictatorship which evolved from 1933. Gleichschaltung could never allow the existence of other political parties. Nazism openly rejected democracy and any concessions to alternative opinions. Instead, it aspired to establish authoritarian rule within a one party state. The regions had a very strong tradition in Germany. This contradicted Nazi ideas to create a fully unified country. Nazi activists had already exploited the climate of February-March 1933 to intimidate opponents and to infiltrate federal governments. A law of March 1933 dissolved regional parliaments and reformed them with acceptable majorities, allowing the Nazis to dominate regional state governments. In January 1934, regional parliaments were abolished. The governments of all the states were subordinated.

The Weimar Republic had a system of proportional representation in elections. This is a method of voting by which political parties are given legislative representation in proportion to their popular vote. This would allow all parties to be represented, including extremist parties such as the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or Nazis) and the KPD (communists). It would also produce

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.