“The Weimar Republic was a victim of political chaos and economic failure.” discuss.
During 1919 The Weimar Republic was in a state of disrepair after the First World War. Wilhelm II, the Kaiser of Germany fled after the defeat they suffered during the war. The leaders of the army Hindenburg and Ludendorff also handed the control of the army over to chancellor, Prince Max of Baden. Prince Max passed a number of reforms to help improve the state of the new republic. Prince Max gave all control to the Provisional Government lead by the socialist, Friedrich Ebert. As the Kaiser has fled and both leaders of the German army had stood down, they were now seen as the heroes and all of the blame for the loss of the war was placed with Prince Max and Freidrich Ebert. During this time extremist parties took advantage of the weakness of the republic. Both left and right-wing extremists targetted the new government. The most serious of these was the Spatacist League uprising in January 1919. Even though there was a large amount of political uproar across Weimar Germany, they also enjoyed a limitied period of prosperity.
After the Novemember Revolution of 1918 Germany was in a state of termoil and something had to be done. The Kaiser had now fled and Friedrich Ebert was now the head of the government, this was the first sign of a republic being formed. Most of the German public, however felt that a republic is not want was needed and refused to back Ebert while he tried to generate the power Germany once held. The population also blamed Ebert for the heavy defeat suffered during the war, which also created more hatred for him and his ideas to improve the state The Weimar Republic was now in. This added to the political problems that would effect Weimar, if nobody wanted it; nobody was going to support it. It was doomed for failure from the very beginning.
The Weimar republic government suffered from both revolutions from above and below. The revolution from above occured in August 1918 when the Allies begun to drive Germany back on the Western Front, Germany’s allies surrender and by September Ludendorff knew that defeat was inevitable and a liberal government would have better prospects of negotiating peace with the Western allies. The majority parties of the government were forced to form a reforming government under Prince Max of Baden and to create new reforms that became known as the October reforms. The October reforms stated that the army was to come under control of the government rather than the Kaiser, The ministers of the government because responsible for the Reichstag (German Parliament) and that a more democratic voting system would now be used. This revolution from above was forced by the Pruissian Establishment. The Reformers were now left to pick up the pieces that were left of Germany and take the blame for the war defeat and the signing of the Treaty of Versallies. Due to this the Weimar Republic fell into more political chaos as nobody supported the new leaders, they wanted justice for the war defeat and the Weimar government and Ebert were expected to take all of this blame.
Revolutions from below were also suffered by the Weimar government, these revolutions showed the magnitude of the hatred felt for the new government. There were a huge number of revolutions from below, the first took place in early November. The Royal Navy mutinied, the formed soviets (workers’, soldiers’ and sailors’ councils).
This idea quickly spread and Communist lead groups soon begun to form and take power of different areas. This revolt caused more political unreast as the popularity of the Communists grew and the government quickly wanted to squash these extremist groups. They politcal chaos in Weimar at this time made it almost impossible for Ebert to gain the trust and support of the people of the Weimar Republic.
The Spartacus Union, a left-wing party, led by Karl Liebknechy and Rosa Luxemburg was one of the most radical of proto-communists. They has campaigned for organised resistance to the war since the early days and now supported a violent revolution to overthrow the government. In January 1919 they attempted to overturn the Weimar government by using violent force. Liebknecht believe the the only way to do so was by an armed seizure of power. The Spartacus Union took control of a number of significant building in Berlin setting up machine guns on street corners. The Republic’s Minister of Defence knew he had to do something quickly and turned to the Freikorps(volunteers from the old army) to extinguish the rising of the Spartacus Union. The Spartacists never stood a chance against the Freikorps and the revolt was trampled in a feast of violence. Both leaders of Spartacists were brutally killed. It appeared the Republic and Ebert had survived such a strong uprising, but of course there were a number of implications. The Social Democrats were never forgiven by the Left for the way the revolt was prevented. It divided the goverment and many often seemed to be workiiung with the Nazis to undermine the Republic. Another problem the Weimar Republic now faced was its reliance on the enemies from the right (the army, judges and the civil servants) to survive thoughout the difficulties that were to come. This one of the most potent political problems facing Weimar, opposition made it harder for the government to do anything to make the Republic more stable without causing resistance from other enemies they have aquired. Political chaos continued throught The Weimar Republic.
The government didn’t just have enemies from the left but from the right also. The most significant of revolts that took place was the Kapp Putsch that took place in early 1920. The revolt was lead by Captain Ehrhardt. The government tried to disband parts of the Freikorps who had outlived there usefulness and those who violated the army limiatons set by the treaty of Versailles. The group marched on Berlin and the government fled as they had nobody to help them fight the resistance. A hew regime was put in place under the leadership of a civil servant, Dr Wolfgang Kapp. Ebert needed to do something to destory the revolution which appeared to be succeeding. He applead to the army for help but General Von Seeckt refused stating that thwe army should not be involving itself in political problems;
“Troops do not fire on troops. When Reichswehr fires of Reichswehr all comradesgio within the officer corps vanishes.”
Although there appeared to be nothing Ebert could do to crush the revolt, trade unions, bank workers and civial servents showed Kapp and Ehrhardt hostility and the Berlin came to a stand still. The Freikorps were forced to retreat. Normality was not yet restored as many people were still in support of the right. Teachers were teaching children to dispise the Weimar Republic and judges were encouraging terrorism from the right. Although this revolt had been far more effective in weakening the government the punishments administered to the revolutionists was far less brutal than those given to the Spartacists. The Weimar government was now in complete political turmoil, nobody supported Ebert or The Republic. People wanted the Kasier to take control of the country once more. This just caused more problems for Ebert as he had no way to gain support from the left and right wing parties. Without their support he would never gain the publices trust. Chaos and distrust continued in the Weimar Republic.
The government controlling The Republic in itself was also somewhat unstable as it was a coaltion goverment, which meant there were a number of different views fighting for centre stage. The government was made up of the Social Democrats, The Catholic Centre Party and Progressives, under the control of Freidrich Ebert, a Social Democrat. Due to all the different parties who had a majority in the Reichstag, it became impossible to run the Republic with such an unstable government. During this time there was also a significant amount of political intrigue as there was four different Chancellors put into power within just three years. It is said that this is when the Weimar government brokedown. The first Chancellor that President Hindenburg put into power was Heinrich Brüning in March 1930 and he was in power until May 1932. He was known as the “Hunger Chancellor” and aimed to keep the governments spending under strict control, to do so he cut wages and unemployment benefits and increased taxes which upset the public. This was the first time economic for the government became obvious to the people of the Weimar Republic. Brüning was dismissed due to how high unemployment was in the Republic during his rule. More political chaos was caused by this as people still didn’t trust the government had felt there were a huge number of backroom dealings occuring in politics. The Weimar Republice still wasn’t wanted.
Franz Von Papen, second Chancellor took power in June 1932 and only lasted five months in his position. His aims as Chancellor were to improve the lives of the upper class citizens. Von Papen was a clever man and knew he needed the support of the Nazis. He did so by holding elections to increase the power the Nazis had and appointing right wing people to his government. However Von Papens plan backfires as Adolf Hilter demands Chancellorship in July 1932, he was refused. Hitler then urges followers to demand a vote of no confidence in Von Papen. Although Von Papen holds onto Chancellorship for a number of months after this time. Hindenburg is advised to dismiss Von Papen by Schleicher and in December Von Papen is dismissed. The Nazis had now gained a large amount of support after winning 37% of the vote in the election held by Von Papen. This caused problems for the Weimar government as an extremist party was getting closer and closer to there goal, taking over the Republic.
Another Chancellor then took power in December 1932 but only lasted two short months and were dismissed in January 1932. This was Kurt Von Schleicher, Hindenburgs adviser since 1930. He was not tursted by the public and was forced to resign for a number of reasons; Hindenburg was unreliable, Von Papen wanted revenge and Hitler was becoming too powerful. There was now crisis in government, not only did they have no Chancellor but the Nazis were no the largest party but were being excluded from the government because of rule was under Article 48. Political chaos continued because the government didn’t want the Nazi party to become so large and powerful that they could overthrow the govenment with ease and take control of the Weimar Republic. The government wanted to avoid this due to the Nazi’s extremist views. Gustav Stresemann was appointed Chancellor in 1932.
Not only was The Weimar Republic facing a number of political problems, they were also experience considerable economic complications. The economic difficulties were brought on by the Treaty of Versailles primarly, due to the war reparations which had to be paid by the Weimar Republic. The Republic couldn’t pay back the reparations are quickly as was expected and France took control of the Ruhr. In early 1923 Germany had fallen behind with her payments oof 140,000 telegraph poles and coal. The Ruhr was invaded by French and Belgian troops, Germans richest industrial area. German worked and officials refused to cooperate and strikes broke out all across the Ruhr. The striking had a devastating effect on the economy of the Weimar Republic. The striking workers still had to be paid by the government, as they had called the strike. This caused inflation across the entire country and people were collecting their wages in suitcases and wheelbarrows. Money was continuely printed, with higher and higher face value. Inflation was happening so quickly that it was wise to pay for your coffe whilst you ordered it as the price would have risen in the time it took you to drink it. Although huge economic failure was starting to form, inflation become useful for the government because they could pay it’s internal debts at a ting fraction of the original value. The first bout of inflation put the Weimar Republic into a downward spiral of econmic turmoil, the republics economic failure was becoming more and more apparant and the government couldn’t do anything about it.
Hyper inflation soon became the biggest economic problem facing Weimar. Money became completely worthless and people were burning it and using it as toilet paper. Products became so expensive that peopel couldn’t afford basic necessities to live. The Weimar Republic was suffering heavily from hyper inflation and the economy was so bad that the government had very little ways of solving the difficulties they were facing.
Finally the economy was in such a state of disrepair and The Weimar Republic suffered a great depression following the Wall Street crash of October 1929. The great depression across the republic was caused by the Wall Street crash, Weimar had borrowed a large sum of money from America to help pay the reparation costs and now that they were also suffering from a bad economy. America demanded there loan back from Weimar, this brought on a great depression across the country and unemployment rose to a high of six million in Germany. Due to this Hitler and the Nazi’s popularity grew once again. The Weimar was now in complete political and economic termoil, there was very little the government could do to stop Hitler rising to the top of politics and taking control of the government.
Although The Weimar Republic was suffering from astronomical political chaos and economic failures, they were also under threat by the Rise of Hitler. Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party and has a number of personality traits which made people believe and trust in him. He was one of the Weimar governments biggest threats. During Hitlers rise to power he suffered a number of set backs. During November 1923 Hitler led a march through Munich (Munich Beer Hall Putsch) he hoped this would overthrow the government but the Putsch failed as a hail of gunfire dissolved the march. Hitler was accused of high treason following his arrest due to the Putsch, Hitlet was fined and sentanced to five years in Prison. Whilst on trial Hitley turned it into a personal trial and it recieved a consierable amount of favourable press coverage. Hitler hoped the Nazi party would continue it’s rise to power whilst he was in prison. In 1924 Hitler was released having only served a year of his five year sentance. He swiftly begins to further his hold over the party and improve the popularity of the Nazis once more as a new government had taken control of Germany and stability was starting to show. In 1929 Hitley exploits The Wall Street Crash using clever propaganda through the newspaper. He makes a number of promised which would appeal to everyone; work for the unemployed, profits for industry and expansion of the army. Hitley gains support for a previous Chancellor Von Papn, who suggests to Hindenburg that Hitler could gain a lot of support for the government and Hitler now takes up the postion of Chancellor. Hitler now had his grips on the government and can manipulate the government and the public of Weimar to follow his extremist views of what The Weimar Republic needs to once again be a super power. This shows that the Rise of Hitler was extremely threatening to The Weimar Republic, he can now take full control of Weimar.
The Weimar Republic did suffer badly from political and economic catastrophe but did enjoy a short period of prosperity and normality. This was under the Chancellorship of Gustav Stresemann. Stresemann came to power in 1923 and became Foreign Minister in 1924 until his death in 1929. Stresemann’s achievements vastly improved the state of Weimars economy and politics; he firstly persuaded the French to leave the Ruhr, he restored the value of the Mark and replaced it with a new currency – the Rentenmark, he persuaded the Allies to reduce reparations, he achieved some sort of friendship with France. All of these things improved the start of The Weimar Republic significantly and people begun to trust the Weimar government.
Under the Weimar government Germany enjoyed some success during the Stresemann years however Stresemann’s successes were greatly overshadowed by the problems which were suffered by The Weimar Republic. The Republic suffered from huge political chaos during it’s time. There was much resistance from both left and right wing parties which made it vertually impossible for the government to gain public support, nobody wanted or felt The Weimer Republic was needed. Revolutions caused political anarchy across the country whilst people attempted to overthrow the government. The government itself was also extrememly unstable, making it even harder for the public to put their trust in. Along with political chaos The Weimar Republic was also a victim of huge economic failure and brutality was felt from the French. Hyper inflation made the currency completely worthless and all industries stopped whilst the French occupied the Ruhr which just increased the inflation Weimar was suffering from. It can therefore be seen that The Weimar Republic suffered from unbareable political chaos and economic failure along with a short period of prosperity.