The Collapse Of The Weimar Republic

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.

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

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 Weimar Republic came into being on November 1918 and was born in the throes of military defeat and social revolution. In January 1919, a National Assembly was elected to draft a constitution. The government, composed of members from the assembly, came to be called the Weimar coalition and included the SPD, the German Democratic Party and the Centre Party. Weimar was a rushed and often referred to as a ‘mistaken democracy'. Its been said "The dysfunctional nature of Weimar democracy ... aided

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

Friedrich Ebert took over the Weimar Republic as its first leader, who received resistance from the Freikorps and the Spartacists. While he did, for the most part, defeat the communist threat from the spartacists and the threat from the Freikorps, many were infuriated when on November of 1918 he agreed to sign the treaty of Versailles, dooming all the public to pay the backlash of the armistice and causing them to loathe Ebert and the Weimar republic. Gustav Stresemann, in August of 1923, had taken over the Weimar republic. Many praised Stresemann seeing that he turned the economic problem around and he was competent enough to renegotiate reparations payments. Under his leadership times were prosperous, considering the economy and political stance were both stable, culture was free-spirited, and foreign policy was a great exultation for Stresemann because he was able to reverse some of the terms of the treaty of Versailles and remove British, French, and Belgian troops from the Rhineland. Nevertheless, the government under Stresemann had its downside such as the fact that his policies didn’t seem to cater to the middle class and peasant farmers of the time, many Germans did not like the moral decline that came with the break loose style of the culture, and the fact that Stresemann joined the league of nation infuriated most Germans as it inclined them to infer that he accepted the treaty of

The Weimar Constitution was a genuine attempt to create a perfect democratic country. In his book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960), American historian William L. Shirer described the Weimar Constitution as "on paper, the most liberal and democratic document of its kind the twentieth century had ever seen ... full of ingenious and admirable devices which seemed to guarantee the working of an almost flawless democracy.” The constitution guaranteed equal rights to the German people, yet also contained the fundamental structural flaws that would play a major part in the Republic 's downfall (and thus the Nazi Party’s rise). Two clear examples of such weaknesses were the use of an excessively proportional electoral system and the

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

German history is seen as a ‘painful issue for thousands of Germans and other Europeans’ . However it has interested many historians over the years into inquiring how and why Hitler came to power and how much of this was to do with the failure of parliamentary democracy in Germany. To fully ascertain to what extent these events have in common and what reasons led to the fall of democracy and rise of the Nazis, each have to be looked at individually. Also it seems beneficial, to be able to evaluate these in the relevant context, to look at the situation in Germany was in prior to 1920.

The collapse of the Weimar Republic can not be seen as solely indebted to the severe economic problems faced during the period of its rule, but consequently it was the economic issues that became a footstep to the ultimate demise of the Republic. Subsequent to Germany’s defeat in the First World War and German Emperor Kaiser’s abdication from power, the Weimar Republic was proclaimed. The Republic that had emerged from the German Revolution of November 1918 would inevitably fall as a result of numerous issues. However, the extent of which economic problems had in the dissolution of the republic, and how these issues caused or came about due to separate concerns faced by the new democratic system became a major contributing factor.

These included the aspect of German imperialism, the unresolved defeat of 1918, financial collapse and the forced struggle against the activities of the National party as well as inflation. Other factors which influenced the failure of Weimar were the structural weaknesses induced by the constitution and the basic lack of support for the Republic