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The Weimar Republic was weak from the start, its collapse was likely. How far do you agree with this judgement on the period 1919 - 1933? Theoretically the constitution the Weimar Republic was based upon was a perfect democratic instrument including aspects such as individuals rights; this was democratically advanced for its time. It would therefore be unjustified to say that the collapse of the Weimar Republic was likely form the start. It was introduced during a time of great political instability for Germany; going from Monarchy to democracy in just six weeks, having just lost a war and with popular discontent engulfing the population, the new republic had a difficult task to face.
The constant disruptions of party politics as well as attempted seizes of power from both sides made this task even harder. Taking all this into account it is apparent that its collapse was due to a continuous flow of difficult and unfortunate circumstances during the period of 1919 - 1933, which I shall now explain. The German Reich is a republic. Political authority is derived from the people, this is the first clause of the Weimar constitution, authority is derived form the people, therefore it is the people that held the power to whether the Weimar Republic would be successful or not. Early in 1919 the government faced an attack from the left in the form of the Spartacists, this was dealt with, yet early in 1920 the government faced another attack from the right in the form of the Kapp Putsch; these two examples indicate the situation into which the republic was born. Further problems came form the constitution itself, it was indeed theoretically democratically perfect; the problem with this is that democracy does not necessarily lead to a strong government.
The Reichstag was elected using proportional representation which is the pinnacle of democracy however this led to a series of weak coalitions and as a result a weak government which the extremist groups realised, thus the attempted putsches took place. At this stage the government had already won the support of the military with the Ebert-Groener pact, so the Weimar republic was able to remain strong in the face of its enemies. Another aspect of the constitution which was criticized was Article 48. Designed to give the President Powers, essentially dictatorial, to deal with any immediate threats, it was put in place to protect democracy although some argue that it undermined democracy. As with the constitution, in theory article 48 was a good thing and was used effectively against threats to the Weimar, however its later abuse meant that it would be deemed as the death of democracy. It strengthened the Weimar Republic in its early years but arguably played a major part in its down fall later on.
June 28 th 1919, signing of the treaty of Versailles. The government was some how found responsible for the treaty as the leading generals in the war, Ludendorff and Hindenburg, made sure the army was not to blame for its defeat, rather claiming that it was stabbed in the back by the November criminals and the newly formed Weimar Republic. This caused irrevocable consequences for the country as the population drowned in shame and self pity, faced with an inconceivable reparations bill, set to cripple an already bankrupted country. Regardless of how strong the Weimar Republic was perceived to be, this would be a substantially difficult task for any government to under take, especially facing the inevitability that the German orange would be squeezed until the pips squeaked as the British Prime Minister phrased it. Germany was unable to keep up with reparation payments and invasion of the Ruhr Valley from the French and the Belgium troops followed. As a result of printing masses of paper money the government now had to deal with hyperinflation in 1923, as well as yet another take over attempt from the right, the Munich Putsch.
Despite these over whelming obstacles the Weimar managed to survive these unstable and turbulent times and it looked as though democracy could have a realistic chance of taking root in Germany, under the continuously strengthening Weimar Republic. In the years that followed the German people were once again able to experience prosperous times under Stresemann, known as the golden years. If the Weimar Republic was doomed to failure and was weak from the start it would not have been able to survive these harsh times and certainly not be able to sustain prosperity surely? Hyperinflation had been reversed with the introduction of the Rentenmark mark, people were making money, voters switched back to voting for the main democratic parties and the need for a revolution had been temporarily crushed. Under Luthers government, Stresemann was building up Germany's profile in Europe, attempting to strengthen the Weimar Republic however he faced opposition from with in the government, namely the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP) who opposed the Locarno Pact. The Weimar Republic was attempting to reinforce its position and stability, whilst party politics was undermining its efforts.
The supposedly weak democratic Weimar Republic was rebuilding Germany, until one of the most unfortunate circumstances occurred which would lead to an end to German democracy and the introduction of the third Reich, the Wall Street crash and the great depression. In order to cope with the demanding reparations payments Germany depended on loans form the USA and as a result of the crash these loan were withdrawn. Political stability of the grand coalition 1928 - 1930 ended as parties could find no common ground as a result of the depression, no one party had enough support from others to govern on their own, thus the only available option was rule by presidential government under article 48. Parliamentary government had broken down due to the inability to cooperate by its members during the harsh times. The powerful position of chancellor was being occupied by men who were looking out for their own ends, gaining power by betraying others and seeking revenge, at the core consistently was Schleicher and Von Papen.
The Nazis party had become the single largest party in the Reichstag as they aimed to gain power legally, campaigning against previous difficulties the Republic had faced, the signing of the treaty of Versailles, paying reparations and blaming the government for the countries hardships offering to address unemployment which rose to nearly 6 million by 1930. As leader of the single largest party, Hitler demanded Chancellorship, which Hindenburg had no choice but to eventually offer to him, left with no other option. January 1933, Hitler made chancellor, in February Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag, and effectively democracy was dead along with the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Republic managed to survive for 15 turbulent and troublesome years; clearly this would not have been possible if it had been weak from the start. During the period of 1919 - 1933 the newly formed democratic government dealt with many problems, however taking into account the series of unfortunate events that took place and the inability of the coalition parties to cooperate for a substantial period of time it did become inevitable that it would collapse. These unfortunate circumstances worked against the Weimar Republic but worked for others, most importantly the Nazis party, where as the republic collapsed due to unforeseen situations arising, the Nazis Party strengthened and effectively came to power as a result, ending democracy.
The democratic Weimar Republic was supposed to be a revelation for Germany and considering the catastrophic difficulties it faced from its birth until its death it did very well, solving many problems and rebuilding Germany. If the parties could have seen past their differences to work to build a strong democracy and greater Germany, united against extremists things would have turned out very differently.
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