Weimar Republic – Political, Social and Economic Issues

Political, stinting and affable issues in the Weimar country to 1929 Year 12 Modern History 2013 * Mrs k sick(p) Jenni Hamilton Due Date 26th of March 2013 Word Count 1,665 The collapsework forcet of the Weimar res publica was due to many social, governmental and scotchal 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 caller and economic crisis problems were constantly appearing for the new government.The Weimar Republic never truly had a stable political party, having a whole half-dozen antithetical parties between 1924-1928 does non create stability. Many of these parties were also narrowly sectioned, with messed up priorities such as to look after the interests of divide area of organized religion that they represented within the Weimar Republic, loyalty to democracy was of least importance. In 1929 the tribulation that had aided the e fforts of Weimars enemies in the early 20s had been relieved by tailfin years of economic growth and rising incomes.Germany had been admitted to the League of Nations and is once to a greater extent an accepted member of the international community. The bitterness at Germanys defeat in the Great struggle and the humiliation of the accord of Versailles had not been forgotten notwithstanding most Germans appear to have come to terms with the new Republic and its leaders. Gustav Stresemann had headstrong to take on the job of leading a contend for a policy he felt was in his nations vital interest rase though he was tired and ill and knew that the opposition would be stubborn. Stresemann was the major force in negotiating and guiding the new-made Plan through a plebiscite.This plan although opposed by those on the right-wing won majority approval and moreover reduced Germanys reparations givements. The Weimar Republic was a bold experiment. It was Germanys first democracy, a state in which elected representatives had real power. The new Weimar constitution attempted to blend the European parliamentary system with the American presidential system. In the pre- World War I period, only men twenty-five years of shape up and ripened had the right to vote, and their elected representatives had very little power. The Weimar constitution gave all men and women twenty years of age the right to vote.Women made up more than 52% of the potential electorate, and their support was vital to the new Republic. From a ballot, which much had thirty or more parties on it, Germans chose legislators who would make the policies that shaped their lives. Parties spanning a broad political spectrum from Communists on the far left to National Socialists ( Nazis) on the far right competed in the Weimar elections. The premier and the Cabinet needed to be approved by the Reichstag (legislature) and needed the Reichstags move support to stay in power.Although the constitution ma kers expected the Chancellor to be the head of government, they included indispensability provisions that would ultimately undermine the Republic. Gustav Stresemann was briefly Chancellor in 1923 and for six years foreign minister and close advisor to Chancellors. The constitution gave soupcon powers to the directly elected President and made him the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. In measure of crisis, these presidential powers would prove decisive.During the stable periods, Weimar Chancellors formed legislative majorities based on coalitions primarily of the Social Democrats, the Democratic Party, and the Catholic Center Party, all damp parties that supported the Republic. As the economic situation deteriorated in 1930, and many disillusioned voters turned to extremist parties, the Republics supporters could no longer command a majority. German democracy could no longer function as its creators had hoped. Ironically by 1932, Adolf Hitler, a dedicated enemy of the Weim ar Republic, was the only political leader unfastened of commanding a legislative majority.On January 30, 1933, an aged President von Hindenburg reluctantly named Hitler Chancellor of the Republic. Using his legislative majority and the support of Hindenburgs emergency presidential powers, Hitler proceeded to bring down the Weimar Republic. Germany emerged from World War I with huge debts incurred to finance a pricey war for almost five years. The treasury was empty, the currentness was losing value, and Germany needed to pay its war debts and the huge reparations bill imposed on it by the accord of Versailles, which officially ended the war.The treaty also deprived Germany of territory, natural re reference points, and even ships, trains, and factory equipment. Germanys population was undernourished and contained many widows, orphans, and disabled veterans alert in poverty. The new German government struggled to deal with these crises, which had produced a solemn hyperinflati on. By 1924, after years of crisis management and attempts at tax and finance reform, the economy was stabilised with the help of foreign, particularly American, loans. This relative golden age was reflected in the strong support for moderate pro-Weimar political parties in the 1928 elections.However, economic disaster struck with the onset of the world depression in 1929. The American stock market crash and bank failures led to a disclaim of American loans to Germany. This development added to Germanys economic hardship. Mass unemployment and suffering followed. Many Germans became more and more disillusioned with the Weimar Republic and began to turn toward radical anti-democratic parties whose representatives promised to relieve their economic hardships. The government no longer had sufficient resources to support the German economy, but continued to print paper money.This caused rapid inflation, which Germany used as an excuse for not being able to pay its second instalment to wards the reparations. The French government, besides, decided to force Germany to pay. It did this by sending French and Belgian troops to the industrial heartland of Germany, the Ruhr to collect reparations still owing to them, but the German Chancellor called for static resistance by the workers of the Ruhr a refusal to co-operate with the troops. This, however, led to the collapse of the German economy, as the government was forced to print more paper money in order to pay the striking workers in the Ruhr.This caused hyperinflation as Germany was not producing anything its industrial heartland had been destroyed and yet the number of notes in its economy was increasing. The German currency soon became worthless and prices were constantly rising (For example, an American dollar in July 1914 was worth closely 4 tag, whilst in November 1923, its equivalent in marks was 4,000,000,000,000 marks). This struggle is because proved by Gustav Stresemann in the following source We in G ermany in recent years have lived on borrowed money, if a crisis ever hits us and the American withdraw their short-term credits thusly we would be bankrupt e are not only militarily disarmed, we are also financially disarmed The social effects of this hyperinflation were disastrous, particularly for the German middle classes who had lost all their savings and pensions as a result. Then, in September 1923, Gustav Stresemann called for the end of passive resistance in order to puzzle the restoration of the German economy. This led to great political humiliation however, as it showed that Germany had been forced to do what the French wanted.This led to the Munich Putsch, which was an attempt by the Nazi Party leader, Adolf Hitler to overthrow the government Hitler was determined to show the German hatful that not all Germans were going to accept what the French had forced the German government to do. Bavarian police broke up the revolt however and Hitler was arrested. In Saxony, t here was another revolt against the republic, but this was a commie revolt and a communist government was set up, but Stresemann arranged this government to resign or else it would face military action.Therefore, the Ruhr Crisis led to economic collapse, political humiliation, dissatisfaction within society, further opposition to the Weimar Republic and finally, its destroy effects caused people to start looking towards extreme solutions. The Weimar Republic, in filthiness of all its problems, did delay the crisis that had befallen it between 1919 and 1923 even though it had inspired barbarian political opposition from right and left wing groups, it had faced a devastating economic situation creating a high level of discontented within society, and had brought about serious political humiliation upon itself, it had still managed to survive.All these problems contributed to the political difficulties which Weimar faced during its first few years a general abhorrence amongst Ge rmans of the new system and constant opposition towards it. The political issue of the Treaty of Versailles was probably the most important individual cause of Weimars crisis however. It had been the Treaty of Versailles that caused nationalistic opposition to Weimar and theGerman nation to step down to a second class power, losing much of its territory, having extreme military restrictions imposed on it, and it had been the treaty of Versailles that had brought about reparations, leading Germany into an extremely difficult economic situation causing further social tensions, and it had been this treaty that had inspired communist opposition by speech about the need to get Germany back to work, causing the majority socialists (SPD) to get together with the old order.It can be argued that this treaty was responsible for most of the shame of the German people towards Weimar between 1919 and 1923, but on the other hand, Germany would not have been able to negotiate peace had they not signed the treaty. Germany managed to survive this crisis of economic collapse, political humiliation and dissatisfaction within society. Bibliography Secondary Sources * Republic to Reich, A history of Germany 1918-1939 terzetto Edition K J Mason publish 2007 * http//www. ohndclare. net/weimar5_affleck. htm Primary Source * Republic to Reich, A history of Germany 1918-1939 Third Edition K J Mason Published 2007 Gustav Stresemann page 43 We in Germany in recent years have lived on borrowed money, if a crisis ever hits us and the American withdraw their short-term credits then we would be bankrupt we are not only militarily disarmed, we are also financially disarmed