Rachel Evans 10W.
The Weimar Republic was set up in Germany after world war one, after the Kaiser had been abducted in 1918 . It was the most democratic government in the world, even allowing women to vote. The new government got off to a bad start, Germany was nearly bankrupt and unemployment was higher than ever. They were labelled ‘November criminals’ due to the agreement of the treaty of Versailles and unpaid reparations lead to challenges from political extremists. The new system of government was weak and faced some economic disasters such as hyperinflation in 1923 and the Wall Street Crash that left Germany under serious strain in 1929. In some ways they dealt with these problems successfully but in others not.
The problem the Weimar government faced was the resentment German people had against the Politian’s that signed the treaty of Versailles. They were names the ‘November criminals.’ Germans disagreed with the terms of the peace treaty and few accepted that Germany was responsible for the First World War and depended on the politicians to deliver this point across. The treaty demanded high levels of reparations which made it difficult for the Weimar republic to cope with the economic strain. The public became even more portrayed when this lead to the Ruhr invasion. This then caused hyperinflation and high levels of unemployment. On the other hand the German citizens didn’t considered the consequences of not accepting the treaty and blamed all their struggles on the politicians agreement. This did not lead the government to a very successful start.
Germany had been run as a dictatorship by the Kaiser until he fled in 1919 , a new constitution was set up by the Weimar Republic. The new government was the biggest democracy in the world. Which allowed anyone over twenty including women to vote. The new government looked perfect, a new Bill of Rights gave every German citizen freedom of speech and religion, all men and women had rights to for an elected president and chancellor and the government had to do what the Reichstag wanted. But there were two major faults in the new constitution.. The new law of proportional Voting made it difficult for a party to get a majority vote. The government was run by weak coalitions of parties that didn’t agree on ideas and had different opinions on how the government should be run. During 1919-1932 there were 20 different parties which made German citizens lose faith in their republic. Also Article 43 meant that the president did not need the agreement of the Reichstag in case of an emergency. This was a problem as it did not state what an emergency was and later on let Hitler take power legally.