The Weimar Government faced an association with the war defeat; the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles and the reparations. This hindered the Weimar government right from the start, as many Germans considered the signing of the Treaty of Versailles treason. Even though the government had very little choice in signing the Treaty, many Germans seemed to blame them for the war defeat, even though it had been under the authoritarian government that the war had been lost. When the terms of the Treaty were known in Germany, there were storms of protest from German civilians, leading to a split in Government. Chancellor Schneidermann resigned, but since the military was so weak, Chancellor Baver was forced to accept the Treaty. President Ebert made an address to the Weimar assembly in February 1919 saying “We have lost the war. This fact is not a consequence of the revolution.” Ebert goes on to blame the old government for having too much faith in the army generals, and rightly so, but despite this fact the war defeat was still blamed on the new government by many people because it was them who signed the Treaty of Versailles. Many of the German people seemed to convince themselves that the army were stabbed in the back by the new government; that the revolution betrayed the army by stopping the war. However, it was the Generals that decided that they were too weak to continue the war, not the Weimar Government. Nevertheless, the fact that the new government were blamed for the Treaty meant that they were unpopular with many, especially the right wing who believed they had committed high treason.
The actual terms of the Treaty of Versailles also caused huge problems for the Weimar Republic. The reparation charges meant that the country had massive debts to pay, which resulted in families barely being able to support themselves with food and other basic necessities. Lots of land had been lost to other countries, which resulted in Germany losing a lot of their workforce along with their industrial strength, which made it even more difficult for them to cope with the reparation payments. There were also, clearly, many people unhappy that 10% of the German population had been lost due to the land taken in the Treaty of Versailles. These problems meant that many people wanted to reverse the Treaty, which meant increased support for extremist parties, especially the right wing. This support for extremist parties was another cause of problems for the Weimar Government, because there were several uprisings from each side between 1919 and 1923.
In January 1919, the Weimar Republic faced its first uprising: the Spartacist Revolt. The KPD tried to take control of Berlin, but the leaders were assassinated and the strikes and riots which broke out across Germany afterwards were ruthlessly suppressed by the Reichswehr and the Freikorps, due to Eberts agreement with these military groups in November 1918. This increased fears in the middle and upper classes of revolution and increased the fears of socialists that the power war government would not listen to the demands of the workers, as they had been so brutally crushed. The Munich Revolution, also in 1919, was successful for the communists who took control of Bavaria, declaring it the Bavarian Soviet Republic. However, on May 3rd 1919, the Soviet Republic was put down again by the Freikorps. Munich subsequently became a key area of right-wing activity, where Adolf Hitler and National Socialism (Nazism) rose to power. In 1923, Hitler and his supporters made an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Government and seize power; this was called the Munich Putsch, or the Beer Hall Putsch. The revolt failed, resulting in Hitler’s arrest. Hitler tried to force the powerful people in Bavaria to support the putsch by seizing them. They seemed to cooperate and support the putsch, but when Hitler released them they went to the police and the putsch was stopped. The Munich Putsch was the second revolution from the right wing; the other was the Kapp Putsch in March 1920. The Kapp Putsch began when the Government began to disband the Freikorps. General Luttwittz exploited the anger and called for President Ebert’s resignation and the revival of the Freikorps. The Freikorps subsequently marched into Berlin and proclaimed Wolfgang Kapp, a 62-year-old Nationalist, as Chancellor. When the Government tried to suppress the putsch, the army refused with the head of the army saying “Reichswehr does not fire on Reichswehr”. The government, forced to abandon Berlin, moved to Stuttgart. As it did so it issued a proclamation calling on Germany's workers to defeat the putsch by means of a general strike. The strike call received massive support. With the country paralysed, the putsch collapsed. Less than a month later, the Government had to face another uprising, this time from the left. The Free Workers Union of Germany formed as a reaction to the Kapp Putsch in the Rurh Valley. After the general strike was called, the Ruhr Red Army – an army of 50,000 left wing workers – defeated the Freikorps and the Reichswehr in the area and started the biggest armed workers’ uprising in Germany. In early April, 1920, the Ruhr Red Army was crushed when the Government sent more troops into the Ruhr to re-conquer the area.
Therefore, the way in which the uprisings from each side were dealt with varied, which caused problems for the government. The right were dealt with more peacefully through organised strikes to make the right wing governments unable to govern, whereas the left were ruthlessly crushed by the Reichswehr and the Freikorps. It was felt that the right were dealt with more softly than the left: both of the Spartacist leaders were killed whereas Hitler was sentenced to 5 months in prison in a comfortable cell following his Munich Putsch; he was then released less than 8 months later. This lead to the left thinking that they were being treated unfairly, as the government was favouring the right by not crushing them. This went against what democracy stood for, which lead to people distrusting democracy even more. It may have scared extremist parties away from trying to campaign legally, even though in a democracy they have the right to run for election. On the other hand, some would argue that the right wing parties had the force of the army and the Freikorps behind them so force was not an option against them, whereas the trade unions were on the left wing, so trade unions could not be used against the uprisings from the left.
The fact that extremist parties were allowed to stand and gain power may be seen as a constitutional weakness: the constitution allowed these parties to gain power and gave them more freedom. Due to proportional representation, extremist parties could achieve power because they would get votes in some areas. The constitution may have also been the cause of the problem for other reasons: the constitution was democracy, so it was the constitution that caused the lack of support for the government as it was so democratic. Some believed the system was far too democratic for what had previously been an authoritarian regime; this lead people to distrust it. Perhaps if democracy had been introduced more gradually over time, it would have been accepted more easily in German society and would therefore have been more successful. However, as the constitution introduced democracy so rapidly, people did not trust it because it was so different to the old system that they were used to. It could also be argued that proportional representation weakened the government because it was so fragmented due to all of the different parties having some power in parliament. Some people also disagreed with some of the points on the constitution, which lead to people disliking the whole constitution and therefore wanting a change to the system. For example, people may have disagreed with the equality of men and women and the abolishment of the state church. Article 48 was very controversial because many believed that it gave the President too much power and went against democracy; some believed that Article 48 was bound to be abused at some point. The use of Article 48 by successive governments helped to seal the fate of the Weimar Republic. When Article 48 was used excessively in the 1920s, this may have decreased public confidence in democracy even further, in turn leading to the rise of the extremist parties.
Finally, the short-term economic weaknesses damaged the Weimar Republic. As well as the reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, which was blamed on the Weimar government, the Ruhr area was also occupied by the French when the second reparations payment failed. This made it even harder for Germany to survive financially, as the Ruhr was a strong industrial area and when it was taken Germany lost a lot of income. Hyperinflation in 1923 increased Germany’s problems when money became worthless. When hyperinflation hit, most Germans suffered badly and basic values were challenged. With millions desperate, it was easy for demagogues to offer simple explanations and solutions. Some of the explanations offered were the Treaty of Versailles and the Weimar Democracy, so hyperinflation was blamed on the Government and therefore led to an increase in support for extremist right parties who would be able to fix the economic crisis. As well as finance, health suffered as a result of inflation-induced poverty. The hyperinflation crisis therefore inflicted wounds on Weimar which would contribute to its death.
In conclusion, there were many reasons for the death of the Weimar Republic. The problems faced by the government were brought about by several long and short-term factors. The most important of these reasons is the fact that the democratic republic never really gained the widespread support of the German people. The democracy was so much of a change to the authoritarian government that existed before the revolution that the German people did not trust it. The democracy was only in place because it was set up that way in the constitution, so the lack of support for democracy could be blamed on the constitution, which is a wider cause of the Weimar Republic’s problems. There were also other weaknesses in the constitution, though, such as proportional representation which weakened the government because it was so fragmented, and the controversial Article 48 which many disagreed with because it gave the Government too much power: Article 48 eventually lead to the downfall of the Republic because it was abused by governments in the late 1920s and early 1930s, which weakened the support for democracy even further. Constitutional weaknesses are the second most important cause of the problems faced by Weimar in the early 1920s, as this is the basis of the unsupported democracy, caused the government to be weak and gave the Reich President too much power. The defeat in World War I and the association with the Treaty of Versailles was the next important reason for the problems faced, as Germany lost a lot of strength due to the Treaty, and the agreement was seen as high treason by many Germans. The reparations imposed in the Treaty also damaged the country greatly and made it economically weak for the duration of the Weimar period, especially when the Ruhr was occupied by the French and when hyperinflation hit in 1923. The least important reason for the problems faced by the Weimar government was the way in which they dealt with the uprisings from the left and the right; although this caused unease in the country and may have been seen as unfair, there were reasons for the way they reacted to the uprisings and some would say that the Government were justified in reacting in this way. The uprisings can be seen as less important than the lack of support for democracy because the uprisings were a result as this lack of support; therefore it is just one outcome of the larger problem which was the lack of support. However, their reactions may have gone against what the democratic republic stood for, thus problems were still caused by this.