The main effects of the war, aside from social and political, was of course the catastrophic effect it had on the economy. Left reeling by the reparations from the war; 6,600 million pounds, it seemed improbable Germany would ever recover. Then there was the 1923 crisis of the Ruhr, as mentioned above. When the Germans stopped paying reparations in 1923 due to their own needs and poverty-stricken lives, the French and Belgian decided to take matters into their own hands, and literally walked into Germany and took the goods from them, with only passive resistance offered. With the militaristic restrictions being placed on Germany in 1919 as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, the 100,000 men Germany possessed in its army was unable to do anything. In response to this situation, Ebert called for a general strike, which the German people heavily supported. Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister, retaliated by sending his own workers in to mine the coalfields and exploit their situation. This led to an extreme lack of resources and money within Germany, causing the printing press to be put under huge pressure as the economy struggled not to collapse entirely. This of course led to inflation, and then inevitably, hyperinflation. The country was now in its worse economic state since the Bismarck wars when Germany was formed. Ebert was unable to control the spiraling devaluation of money and was still helpless to do so when he died in 1925, although he had been removed from power a year earlier. This was the start of Stresemann and his ruling of Germany. 1924-1929 were known as the Golden Years, and for good reason. When Stresemann came to power, one of the first things he did was to withdraw all the German marks in circulation, and instead print new currency with a stable value, known as the Reichsmark. He also managed to solve the problems of reparations, as proved by the flow of money in and out of German in the years 1924-1931, an average of 11,100 million marks leaving through reparations, but 18,000 million entering via foreign loans, leaving an extra 7 million marks to recover the economy. He also signed the Young and Dawes plan, which allowed Germany to pay reparations on a long-term basis, and therefore reduced the amount of money leaving Germany each year. The downside of signing these pacts was that it refreshed the minds of the German people as to their suffering at the hands of Versailles, and put fresh enthusiasm into the opposition groups within Germany at this time, especially Adolf Hitler and the Nazi’s.
The Nazi party stemmed from a group of Freikorps who had had to leave the army due to the reduction in size to only 100,000 men. It was based on a very nationalistic view and was heavily against Communism, as proved by the 1920 crisis in Berlin. As national feelings towards the government were at their lowest ever in Germany, the Communists and Socialists saw 1920 as the perfect opportunity to attempt a Coup D’etat, or the Kapp Putsch as it became known as later. They flocked to Berlin after the signing of the Treaty and demanded that they replace the government, which was already predominantly Socialist. The people would have welcomed this new government as they felt the Weimar had stabbed the min the back by signing the treaty, and so they did not attempt to stop it. Spurred on by the 1919 revolution in Russia the Communists believed that this was the next stage in world domination, however Lenin did not. He claimed that the German Communists “would not even storm a railway station unless they’d first bought platform tickets”. He was proved right however as Ebert unleashed the Freikorps into Berlin to repress the Communists, which they managed to do so entirely in less than a week. This caused huge outrage in Germany however as the people saw Ebert as a megalomaniac, a man so obsessed with power that he would set his own people against each other. What it also did was build up the confidence of the Freikorps and nationalists, and their popularity. This proved to be a hugely negative thing for the Weimar Republic by 1923 as this was when Hitler conducted his active opposition towards the Weimar government in Prussia. He marched into the middle of a government meeting and held captive all of the ministers, along with Erich Von Ludendorff; his accomplish who fully supported Hitler in this action. It is claimed that Ludendorff may even have been mesmerized by Hitler and his oratory skills, and would have been willing to do anything to assist him. After he held the government captive, he made them sign a memorandum saying that they supported a march on Berlin to be held by the Nazi’s to gain power. They quickly denounced this after they were released however and Hitler was arrested after a brief and unsuccessful march in which 14 Nazi’s died, including the man next to Hitler. Hitler was arrested and tried for treason. He turned his trial into a complete mockery of the Weimar government and gained national acclaim and respect from the people. He was given 5 years in jail and released after 1, which allowed him to reflect on his actions and rethink his methods. Despite the success in bringing these attempted ‘coup D’etat’s’ to a halt, the fact that they had to be stopped by suppression instead of negotiation suggests the weakness of the government to act and its failure to listen to the people and what they wanted.. The first major task for the Weimar however came in trying to keep the people happy; something they attempted to accomplish with the constitution, a new set of laws set out for a new Germany. This would greatly appease the people as it gave them freedom of speech and allowed enfranchisement, something that would allow every German citizen over 20 to vote on a new representative in the government’s structure. Another political weakness of the Weimar was that there was never any sole party in charge of the government; it was a variety of groups with a diversity of ideals. In 1919 the Socialists contained the majority of seats, with 37.9% of the vote won by them, in 1928 however, we can clearly see they lost 8.1% of the vote to more radical parties, such as the DNVP. Between the years 1919-1928 the government had no less than 7 different leaders. This proves the discontent within Germany and shows that the people were desperate for a strong leader able to change their situation. Fortunately for them, Stresemann was able to help them, he denounced the Nazi’s and exiled them, whilst he gave the people the stability they needed to survive and grow stronger. He consolidated the governments power in the 1920’s and ensured that the Weimar was safe from any more attempted Putsch’s. Apart from Stresemann however was Ebert. In 1919 when the government was first formed Prince Max Von Baten made a very wise choice when he appointed Friedrich Ebert as prime minister. Ebert was an extremely able politician who, in my opinion, was the reason that the Weimar Republic was able to survive the post-war turmoil, although he did seem to lose the hold he had on the Germans after 1923 and he lost power. So it would seem that on the surface, the political problems had been resolved, but when looking deeper we can clearly see that there were fundamental political problems that remained, such as the government’s weakness and inability to function decisively at pivotal moments.
I believe that the Weimar government did exceedingly well to remain in power for over a decade, but as to whether or not it was down to them or due to other events happening around them is another matter. It is clear that their inability to defend the country was a vital weakness in the country, but the defense of Germany from the various uprisings also brings light to the successes of the government. The hyperinflation and its consequences were pivotal in the Weimar government’s existence; it was handled badly by Ebert, but then recovered remarkably well by Stresemann, who gave new hope for the government. However the economy was still damaged each year by the loans it had to take, and the reparations it had to pay. It is clear that no strategic thinking could have solved the problem of the German economy. Socially the government was extremely weak, it had a bad reputation and this did not change with time, it only intensified as the years grew on; starting with the reputation as November criminals, all the way up until they signed the Young and Dawes plan. It is therefore my view that there were in fact major weaknesses within the Republic, even before the Great Depression of 1929 and the death of Stresemann. In my opinion Stresemann and Ebert did remarkably well to keep a hold on Germany for so long and helped it to its eventual road to recovery. Without these two men, Germany would have collapsed in 1920 and the Red Scare would have been realized.
