During its short period of power the Weimar democracy suffered many economic failures. Firstly the signing of the treaty of Versailles restrained Germany into paying the reparations this had massive financial implications. Annually Germany would have to pay an immense amount of money to France, Britain and the U.S this of course led to a huge debt. To pay the reparations, the government printed paper money, resulting in inflation. In 1923 Germany defaulted on its reparations payments. France responded by occupying the Ruhr (a huge industrial area of Germany). Passive resistance in the Ruhr brought Germany’s greatest industrial area to a standstill. By November 1923 hyperinflation left the mark worthless. Streseman, who became chancellor in August 1923, defused the crisis. He called off the campaign of passive resistance. In 1924 a new currency was introduced, the Rentenmark, and the Dawes plan scaled down the annual payments of reparations. The French withdrew from the Ruhr. Although Weimar managed to solve this problem embitterment and resentment toward Weimar was rife. Particularly the middle classes who had lost all their savings through hyperinflation had no trust in Weimar; as a result it lost a lot of political support. “ It is true the republic managed to survive this massive crisis, but one consequence was a loss of a significant amount of middle class political support. Those people who saw their hard earned savings or rent lose all value while at the same time those with significant debts appeared to benefit from the crisis were left feeling extremely bitter.”
Unemployment was also a major failure for Weimar throughout its reign unemployment levels gradually increased. Most, though not all, of the unemployed were male. These men were almost certainly family men who could see no way ahead with regards to providing for their families. Money was required for food, heating a home, clothes etc. With no obvious end to their plight under the Weimar regime, it is not surprising that those who saw no end to their troubles turned to the more extreme political parties in Germany - the and Communist Parties. The unemployment levels from 1928 are as follows; September 1928- 650,000 unemployed, September 1929- 1,320,000 unemployed, September 1930- 3,000,000 unemployed, September 1931- 4,350,000 unemployed, September 1932 5,102,000 unemployed, January 1933- 6,100,000. By the winter of 1932 one third of the German workforce were unemployed. This was seen as a huge weakness of the Weimar government.
The onset of depression after the Wall Street crash in 1929 was the final straw for the Weimar government. America was, through the Young plan, loaning money to Germany to help pay for the reparations. The Wall Street crash led to the withdrawal of these loans. In the 1930 coalition between the Social Democrats, the Centre Party and the Peoples party collapsed because of disagreements about measures to deal with the budget deficit. President Hindenburg appointed Bruning, leader of the Centre Party, as Chancellor. Unable to gain a majority in the Reichstag, Bruning used the emergency decrees to force through his proposed expenditure cuts. On the streets the Communists and Nazis were increasingly turning to political violence. In September 1930 a general election was called. Bruning hoped the violence of the extremists would increase more support for the moderate parties, but instead the instability of the Weimar system led many to turn to the extremes. The Nazis gained 107 seats and the Communists 77. With the moderate parties at odds with each other and no party willing to co-operate with the Nazis and the Communists, it was impossible to construct a government with a majority. Bruning had to continue to rely on the Presidents emergency powers. As the economic crisis worsened in 1931 and 1932, violence continued and confidence in the government ebbed away. The extremists gained more and more votes whereas the moderate parties became less popular and more divided. Weimar was ceasing to become a functioning democracy. “Given the scale of the economic problems, the existing divisions in German society and the pressures of a modernising state, the new republic was unable to gain the confidence necessary to guarantee its survival.”
The sequence of events in 1932-33 were also a major factor which allowed Hitler to gain power. In April 1932 the growing strength of National Socialism was clearly demonstrated in the presidential elections. Although Hindenburg was re-elected, Hitler gained 37 per cent of the votes in the second ballot. In May Hindenburg, following the advice of General Kurt Von Schleicher, dismissed Bruning and appointed Franz Von Papen in his place.
In July the Nazis won 230 seats in the Reichstag elections, thus becoming the biggest party. The Communists also did well gaining 89 seats. Papen invited Hitler to join his cabinet, but Hitler was not willing to accept any position other than Chancellor, and Hindenburg did not agree to this. Papen therefore called another election in November. This time the Nazis lost two million votes and 34 seats, while the Communists made substantial gains. Papen was still unable to acquire a majority and resigned. Hindenburg then appointed Schleicher as Chancellor. He too failed to put together a coalition with a majority in the Reichstag. Papen, resenting the way Schleicher had replaced him, did a deal with Hitler: Hitler would become Chancellor of a coalition government with only three Nazis and Papen as vice-chancellor. Hindenburg believed that Papen would be able to keep Hitler under control and agreed. On 30th January 1933 Hitler was appointed Chancellor. “There was nothing predestined about Hitler’s triumph in 1933. Like the democrats in 1918, the National Socialists came to power more because of their enemies’ weaknesses and failures than because of their own strength.”
Proportional representation led to unstable coalitions. In the end it was impossible to form a government that commanded an overall majority in the Reichstag. This instability discredited the democracy. During the early 1920’s there were very few Nazi deputies within the Reichstag. Hitler realised that he could not take power through force he knew that he should manipulate the parliamentary system and be voted in democratically. “ Instead of working to achieve power by an armed coup we shall have to hold our noses against the Catholic and Marxist deputies. If out-voting them takes longer than out-shooting them, at least the results will be guaranteed by their own Constitution!” If the democratic system in Weimar were different, first past the post, for example then Hitler would have never been able to gain a majority and to lead a government. The Nazification of Germany would never have occurred and democracy may have survived.
It is a fact that proportional representation is a weak form of democracy. The government is always a coalition; frequently the parties involved are in opposition therefore sagacious decisions are rarely made.
There were many other factors that allowed Hitler to come to power such as the appeal of Nazism and Hitler as an authoritative power, Weimar’s failure economically and politically, the hatred of the Treaty of Versailles and the naivety of Von Papen and Hindenburg thing that they could control Hitler. “The rise of Nazism was due to special conditions within a sixty year span- anti-semitism, nationalism, imperialism, defeat in war, the Versailles Treaty, the vindictive attitude of the Western powers, catastrophic economic circumstances, Germany’s unstable political institutions and parties, the myopia of Hindenburg and his conservative clique, and the charismatic genius of Adolf Hitler.”
Within the system of proportional representation of Weimar, no matter how many votes a party acquired they were all represented in the Reichstag. Hitler used this to his advantage and gained power democratically. If the system had been different in Germany Hitler would never have gained a majority to accomplish power. This utilisation of the indecisive form of democracy allowed Hitler to obtain enough authority to become Chancellor, consolidate his power and to eliminate democracy and create a one party terror state.
