The Weimar Republic was weak from the start; its collapse was always likely.(TM) How far do you agree with this judgement on the period 1919-33?

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‘The Weimar Republic was weak from the start; its collapse was always likely.’ How far do you agree with this judgement on the period 1919-33?

        In the early period of the Weimar Republic between the years of 1919 and 1923 it had already faced many problems. It was after the German revolution in 1918 that things started to go wrong for the Weimar. The first problem being the signing of the ‘Treaty of Versailles’, June 1919. This treaty basically made Germany take the blame for the war and also to pay huge amounts of money as reparation to the allies. The politicians who signed the treaty were then called the ‘November Criminals’ by the people and the army as they were seen to have backstabbed Germany. This was obviously not the start that the generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff had in mind when planning the new Republic. Another reason why the Weimar was weak to begin with was that it was basically forced upon Germany by the Allies. Hindenburg and Ludendorff realized that in order to get into the Allies’ ‘good books’ they would have to form a democratic system to show that Germany had changed. So the birth of democracy was forced upon Germany meaning that it was not out of choice which also signified that it was weak to begin with. The First World War also influenced the weakness at the start of the Weimar Republic. Illness and poverty had spread across the country angering thousands of peasants and workers. Also during the war German trade had been blockaded by the Allies which meant that Germany had very little resources. Even though these problems were not actually caused by the Weimar Republic the people blamed it on it as it was an easy target. This would have caused hatred for the Weimar from the people which would in turn make it even weaker as something like that needs full support from the country to work. Finally, a major flaw in the Weimar was a new law that passed the article 48. This contradicted the ‘democracy’ of the Weimar as it allowed the President to take total control of everything if the country was in an emergency. This was obviously a mistake as it is subjective to whether the country is in an emergency or not. However the new Weimar Republic was not all bad as the new system was definitely a lot more democratic than the previous. Now the people of Germany could vote for who they wanted in power which gave them more power in deciding their country’s fate. Another strength of the new Republic was that it kept the far right and the far left ‘balanced’ as neither side seemed to have more power over the other which would have made politics a lot easier in Germany than before.

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        Between the years of 1924 and 1929 the Weimar was experiencing its Golden Years. After the Weimar collapse in 1923 various changes were made and luckily for Germany they worked and created 6 years of wealth and prosperity. The economy was restored when produce levels and exports increased. Because of these increases hourly wages also went up creating widespread happiness in the people. This shows a sign that the Weimar Republic wasn’t always going to collapse. Another point to argue against the original statement of the Weimar’s collapse being “always likely” is that the culture drastically changed along with the ...

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