Essay On How Did The Weimar Republic Recover Under Stresemann

First, the defeat of WWI was not just the beginning of the Weimar Republic but could be considered a catalyst to its downfall as well. During the later stages of WWI

Due to the failure of the Weimar Republic and general public dissatisfaction arising from poor economic conditions exacerbated by the Treaty of Versailles, coupled with the 1929 Wall Street Crash, German citizens were understandably desperate for change. Until this point in time the Nazi party, and Hitler, had been essentially unpopular. However, the economic situation ensured Hitler’s increasing popularity as the people looked toward more extreme but non-communist ideals. The initial consolidation of Nazi power in 1933 arose from key events such as the support of the Nationalist Party with the Nazis to form a coalition government, implementation of the Enabling

Thus, a series of parties against the Weimar gained power, although through coalition, reducing the power of the already fragile Republic. Here we can see the system of parliamentary democracy was a factor in the collapse of the Weimar. The series of economic crisis’ which affected post World War One Germany assisted in both the fall of the Weimar and the rise of Hitler. The Treaty of Versailles left the country with extremely large debts and when Germany did not keep up with payments, the French responded by invading the Ruhr, an industrial region in Germany, resulting in a general strike and ruining the middle class who would eventually make up the foundation of Nazi supporters.

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 employment, convinced Germany, in a state of disillusionment, to support the nazi party. The Weimar’s instability contributed to the collapse of the Weimar republic provided perfect conditions for the nazi party to rise to power.

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

Gustav Stresemann was undoubtedly significant to Germany in the 1920 and early 1930s. He was highly significant in the recovery of Germany after the Great Depression. However, during Germany’s recovery, Stresemann did not face many important issues at the time such as employment, military and social. This meant that he had a lot less support from the German public. Stresemann would have accomplished much more in the recovery of Germany if he had faced other issues which were being ignored.

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

Also to Germany's disadvantage, the funds could be withdrawn at short notice. As the country was economically becoming more stable, the public spending was increasing which was not good as the money in the country was coming from loans. Although export production was stronger than before, they had been accompanied by a wave of imports which caused a trade deficit; the country was importing more than it was exporting which meant trading was unbalanced. In the early 1920s there was unemployment however by they end of the 1920s the unemployment numbers had increased, one of the main reasons being because trade unions were successful in winning wage increases for their members.

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

Third, the false Golden Age of economic prosperity created by the Dawes (1924) and Young (1929) Plans and resulting loans from the US Government the during the 1920s had come to a close as the Great Depression hit, and unemployment rose to over 6 million in Germany. Yet, the Weimar Government has survived the hyperinflation of the early 1920s, and therefore it is easy to over-estimate to impact of the Great Depression on the failure of democracy. The economic situation did help to draw more voters towards the fringe parties, and create an atmosphere more willing to foster extremist views as the Weimar Government was seen as weak and unable to cope with Germany’s problems. Thus, the first major factor attributing to the downfall of democracy in Germany was the preceding failure of the Weimar Government politically, structurally, and economically to take a firm hold over Germany.

The above section has outlined the three major parties of the Weimar Republic that would attribute to the political instability. It is only a snapshot of the parties within the Weimar Republic, in total there were nine major parties, and this was one of the leading causes of the political

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

The economy appeared to have stabalised with the introduction of the Dawes Plan. Before 1924, Germany was experiencing hyperinflation. The old Papiermark was rapidly depreciating and so Germany had to print more and more of it to pay reparations. By December 1922

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 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