In what respects, if any, could Weimar Germany be held to be 'doomed from the start'?

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In what respects, if any, could Weimar Germany be held to be ‘doomed from the start’?

Germany’s first attempt at democracy, the Weimar Republic, established after World War One, had, by the late 1920s, failed and was beyond repair.  The many problems during its fourteen years resulted in major support for extremists and what had been deemed one of the freest states in the world crumbled, ultimately leading to the rise of Hitler and his autocratic regime.

The failure of the Weimar Republic in bringing about support for the callous and brutal polices of the Nazi party has consequently been highly debated and contested by modern historians studying the creation of the Third Reich.  It is now understood that circumstances in the early 1930s did not completely render the Nazi state inevitable.  Rather, a series of individual miscalculations and a long-term lack of support were to cause the fall of democracy in Germany in 1933.  Although, in the end, catastrophic events such as the Wall Street Crash in 1929 are largely to blame for the republic’s demise, many historians claim that faults in Weimar were already apparent from the start.

It is generally agreed that the birth of the republic could not have been in more hostile circumstances.  The government, who had ‘stabbed Germany in the back’ by accepting the ruthless terms of the Versailles Treaty, was opposed by both the left and the right.  There were numerous uprisings around the country, with sailors mutineering at Kiel in November 1918 and the Spartacists’ attempt at revolution in January 1919.  The republic was forthwith associated with humiliation and defeat, particularly by the elitist Junkers, and so any attempt at major change would face antagonism.  Ruth Henig affirms how the ‘imposition of a democratic republic in 1918 by enemies was bound to arouse resentment and to discredit the regime.

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There were even weaknesses in the Weimar constitution itself that could be easily abused.  The president had supreme command of the Reichwehr and had the power to appoint or dismiss chancellors, and Article 48 provided that ‘if public safety and order’ were ‘materially disturbed or endangered,’ the president could suspend the Constitution and rule by emergency decree.  The electoral system of proportional representation resulted in coalition governments that could not agree on drastic measures to improve Germany’s problems.  Gordon Craig noted how ‘the failure of the Weimar government to draft rule to prevent its undermining’ meant that even ‘the ...

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