The Spartacists were very aggressive and although they had said, “Spare your enemy”, they decided that violence was the way to get through to the country and eventually they hoped to overthrow the government. The first act of violence that the Spartacists committed was in January 5th 1919. The Spartacists formed a strong, armed uprising in Berlin and started to create havoc in the town centre. They had weapons of all sorts and demanded Germany to become Communist. They occupied most of the town centre, taking over shops, newspaper stores and public buildings, holding their post, threatening and shooting any people who dared stop them.
The Weimar Republic realised this problem and immediately formed their own stronger army, called the Free Corps, also known as the Frei Korps, who were old soldiers from the First World War, who did not like the Communist ideas and revolution, as especially did not have any respect for the Spartacists and the working class. They were sent by the government to Berlin and started to attack to the Spartacists in a gruesome way, with many gunfights, which ruined much of the city. After many days of fighting, the Spartacists finally lost the battle as the Frei Korps were too strong for them, being better armed and trained and also the two leaders of the Spartacist Party, Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht were killed by the army. The rest of the rebellion surrendered along with the death of the leaders. They stopped the major violent riots as they had done before as there weren’t any strong leaders anymore and they did not want to be killed by the Frei Korps. They did cause some smaller riots and rebellions after the major uprising in 1919, which were violent, and some were quite serious but because of the strong government and their army, Frei Korps, they were either killed or they surrendered.
In 1920, some of the government’s Freikorps turned against the Weimar Republic and were angered by the government’s order to disband army units to agree with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. These Freikorps seized the capital, Berlin, and set up a new government, under the control of Wolfgang Kapp (an extreme right-wing politician). The Weimar tried to get the army to get rid of this revolt, but the army refused to kill their own army. The Weimar government thought up a very clever plan, where they paralysed all communications. The country came to a stand still and although some more people sympathized with the Kapp Putsch, they realised that the revolt was failing and did not join it. The revolt ended shortly after it had begun, and the Weimar Government resumed its job in Berlin.
When the 1920 election came, the Weimar had to form coalitions with the Centre Party and right-wing German People’s Party (DVP) in order to win the election. In the election, the USP were very successful but over half of the party left to join the German Communist Party. The German Communist Party then with their increased quantity, tried to overthrow the government yet again, like in the Spartacist’s Putsch. The government quickly, like with the Spartacists, took control and shut down the revolt.
When everything had settled, from both the right wing and left-wing attacks, the Government started to think more about how to pay the Reparations they owed. In 1922, the Weimar fell back in payment and France became angry. French and Belgian armies were quickly sent to Ruhr, in Germany and set up. Germans became very angry and many began striking along with right-wing members who started to sabotage the country. This was the Ruhr Crisis. The president of the Weimar used his powers and appointed a new government, under Gustav Stresemann to end the crisis. The passive resistance to the French in the Ruhr was put to an end, and Germany began paying reparations again. At the end of this, Adolf Hitler was planning on how to overthrow the Weimar. In a meeting, in Kahr, Hitler stopped the meeting, with a shot from his revolver, and he told the politicians about his ideas. They pretended to agree with Hitler and the next morning, when Hitler marched to Munich, with his 3,000 Storm Troopers, he was met with heavily armed policemen. They all opened fire but in the end, Hitler was arrested and peace was finally restored for the Weimar Government.
In the election following the events, all of the workers obviously did not agree with them and did not vote for them but because of the Weimar Republic’s strong link with the middle class, they were able to win the election once again. The middle class were not like the working class in the way that they did not want a revolution and they agreed with the Weimar’s views and ideas for Germany. Because of this strong link and agreement with the middle class, who had a majority of votes in the election, they were able to win the election for many years until Adolf Hitler came to power and overthrew them.
In conclusion I believe that the Weimar Republic was very successful and strong as a party, as even though they had to go through many attacks and revolts on them, they still ended up on top of the election, beating the other parties. The Weimar Republic survived all of these attacks and riots from the German Communist Party, the right-wing Kapp Putsch and the French and Belgian armies because of their strong army and strong government. They had ordered the Freikorps to destroy the uprising and revolt that the Spartacists had created and therefore they were victorious in the end. The Kapp Putsch was defeated by outsmarting them. The quick thinking of the government, of shutting down all the communications, succeeded and they once again were victorious. The government’s strong thinking also solved the French and Belgian armies and the Ruhr Crisis. By appointing the new government, run by Stresemann, they could continue to pay reparations and get rid of the French and Belgian. Their final threat made by Hitler was quite a strong one, but because of their devious thinking, they tricked him and managed to arrest him and his soldiers. They had a strong link with the middle class, who allowed them to win the election as they could still destroy the German Communists, the right wing, and the French and Belgian, and still have the majority of the vote. By defeating all of these problems, the Weimar Government proved to the Germans that they were the only government that was strong enough to withstand anything, and because of this reason, the Germans still wanted them and therefore voted for them yet again.