According to the Source, the German people felt humiliated because of the treaty of Versailles. Most Germans blamed the singing of the treaty on the new Weimar government. The Treaty of Versailles restricted all German industry to 10%, which meant lots of people lost their jobs, they blamed it on the signing of the treaty, and of course were not happy to comply with this, it caused havoc when trying to re-stabilise the Weimar government. The army was dramatically reduced, and it was non conscription. Lots of bloodthirsty soldiers who had lost their jobs, established a group called the Freikorps, this was an organisation which the government let be, it was not officially for the government, but it did their dirty work. If the government would try to disband the Freikorps there would be a huge revolt and the government would probably be overthrown, but the Allies were not happy with the Freikorps being. The (arguably) most hated thing by the Germans was that article 231 of the treaty suggested that Germany was guilty of starting the war. They believed the war was slef defence, and as compensation (including reparations) Germany owed 6,600million (which could be paid in annual installations, if necessary), this commission was issued in 1921.
However, the reparations issues, as the source suggests, caused further problems with Weimar Germany. Germany was already in hyperinflation and the mark was rapidly losing value (In December 1923 the exchange rate was 4,200,000,000,000 Marks to 1 US dollar). The cost of the reparations was a huge burden for Germany to repay, because lots of their industry and agricultural land had already been ‘confiscated’ by the UN, and on top of this the Germans thought that they shouldn’t be paying any compensation because they only went into war as an act of self defence. The German public wanted Germany to be one of the superpowers of the world and the dominant European country, but the way the war was taking them they were becoming poorer every minute, as the source says ‘The size of the reparations threatened to make Germany very poor.’ Trying to tell the public all this information found to be very difficult and lots of people blamed the new government for all this. As a result lots of people found mistrust in the new government.
Creating the New Constitution and signing the armistice led to severe political disturbances as the source lets us know. The Weimar Constitution let all people have equal rights, which was a major weakness because in 1919 the republic had many enemies. This was also a positive attribute as all people were allowed to vote. The new idea of proportional representation was a blessing and a burden, all parties were allocated seats in parliament (in proportion to how many votes they got), it also meant that no one got a large majority and so coalitions had to be formed. To sum it up, the Weimar Constitution was one of the most liberal in the world, everyone was equal, everyone could vote and there was no distinction between German Jews and Non-Germans everyone was a citizen. Even though, there were many problems, many extremists could form, left (Communists) and right (German National Party), they hates the Weimar democracy and wanted to destroy it. The president was allowed unlimited power, in times of emergency, he could force law without consulting his board of officials, and he was close to becoming a dictator he had so much power. The Constitution needed a very strong leader to be the president.
Overall the source is correct in its claims that the German people felt humiliated and wanted revenge by the way the Allies had treaty Germany and by the Treaty of Versailles being signed by the Weimar government. Evidence does suggest that the size of reparations threatened to make every German poor. And it is clear that many Germans blamed the New government for signing the armistice that had led to the peace treaty. From my point of view, the main factor which contributed to the difficulties in establishing stability in the Weimar Republic in the years 1918-24 was the government signing the treaty of Versailles, and that caused an avalanche of problems and disputes developing into the many revolts and perceived deception.
Ruairi O’Hara