However there are definitely some positives that came out of all this. Because of the stable government democracy, A Bill of Rights guaranteed every German citizen freedom of speech and religion, and equality under the law. All men and women over the age of 20 were given the vote. This was even better than Britain where only women over 30 could vote. There was an elected president and an elected Reichstag (parliament). The Reichstag made the laws and appointed the government, which had to do what the Reichstag wanted. This made a fair system if not always fast. Before the German people were vastly split with different political ideas and values. Now with the “stab in the back” circulating and a mutual hate of democracy, the German’s united. This is a very small positive against the massive negatives in the last paragraph. Altogether the Weimar Republic brought peace stability and democracy although opposed by the citizens!
With the reformation of the new democratic constitution came more problems. There were two main weaknesses. The Reichstag made the laws and the number of seats was allocated by proportional representation. The percentage of votes equalled the number of seats, this system was fairer with every vote counting. However it had major flaws, proportional representation meant a lot of insignificant parties held a few seats and this meant no party had the majority. As you can imagine this meant that the law making process was a long, laborious and boring path, with many alterations to suit enough people to make a majority. It was weak because it led to coalition governments which always ended up compromising, if it could even be agreed on. To combat this, the President had Article 48 which stated in the event of a emergency the President could make laws without passing them through the Reichstag. The problem was that it did not state the definition of an “emergency” so in the wrong hands it could effectively be turned into a dictatorship. This undermined the whole point of democracy.
However it could be argued that article 48 meant the president could make laws in an emergency and this was a good thing, to keep the country under control. Plus proportional representation was fairer, with every vote counting.
It is argued that the fact there were a lot of Putsch’s (attempts to overthrow) indicates a dislike for the government. The Kapp and Sparticist Putsch’s are an example of a dislike for democracy uniting people and an attempt to take power ensued. The Government had no army and in desperation to foil the Putsch it brought together the Freikorps. This ruthless band of ex-army men thwarted the Putsch but later would stab the government in the back when many went on to join the Nazis.
On the positive side, the Government survived them which considering they had no army was a good achievement. It gathered together the opposite wing of political beliefs to the Putsch and managed to stay in power.
The Versailles Treaty it was felt was too harsh. This caused much resentment. A dictated peace (Diktat) was not the answer and huge reparations bills did not help. Germany lost 13% of it’s land and some of it’s population. However the thing that caused the most hatred was article 231, the term which said Germany had to accept blame for the war.
It may be said that the Treaty was a fresh start and showed Germany was willing to make friends. Scrabbling for other reasons, it is true that it made German people unite, if albeit in bitterness.
Reparations bills of £6600 million were massive. It was clear Germany could never pay so much. When it could not pay the French mainly invaded the Ruhr and so the government ordered a strike of workers to get the foreign occupants out of the Ruhr. A policy of passive resistance was ordered since they had no army. However the government then had to pay the workers something for the passive resistance and so it simply printed more money. This caused inflation as discussed later. With no food, water or gas being produced, German people began to starve.
It can be said that these problems united the government and workers for the first time as they planned a strike in protest.
And finally, inflation was a massive problem in the early Weimar Republic. Inflation was fuelled by the strike and printing more money. The value of the mark plummeted. Currency became worthless until gas was worth more than notes so people burnt money to fuel their stoves. The rich became richer and the poor became poorer. As the economy struggled to keep it’s head above water, other countries refused to trade with them, further adding to the starvation in Germany. People could not afford to buy food and of course this only added to the loathing of the government.
However a man called Stresemann brought about change in Germany. He introduced a new currency, recalling the old one. He ordered the workers to go back to work and restarted reparations. Despite lifting Germany out of a bleak future, he was still unpopular. In fact so much so he was forced to resign.
Overall I think that there were definitely telltale sings that the Weimar Republic was doomed. However good things came out of it, even if the German’s weren’t ready for them. I think Democracy was pretty much achieved and Germany gained a great man, Stresemann. Who knows, Germany may not be the same today if it had not learnt lessons back then.