This was a problem for the Weimar Republic because, with the French in the Ruhr causing the production of goods to stop and the government to continue printing money it caused hyperinflation to build up. People’s life savings were turned to nothing over night as the price of everything sky rocketed.
The French in the Ruhr is linked back to the Treaty of Versailles because without such harsh terms like reparations of £6660 million then the Weimar Republic could have been able to pay them back, without having to print more and more money resulting in hyperinflation which led to the French occupying the Ruhr and then they were not able to manufacture more goods as the workers went on strike meaning that they were stuck in a loop were they couldn’t repay and couldn’t stop hyperinflation.
The next problem faced by the Weimar Republic was hyperinflation. As I explained earlier, hyperinflation is where prices shoot up as the number of goods falls. The amount of money printed by a country all depends on the wealth of the country. If too much money is printed off then the wealth of that money decreases, so therefore the price of goods increases to match the wealth of the money. Eventually though the money becomes ordinary paper again if more and more is made, because it loses its value. This is what happened to the Weimar Republic. Desperate to pay reparations they decided to print more money than the wealth of its country to pay with; however the massive bills drawn up by the Treaty of Versailles meant huge sums were needed. This led to hyperinflation in Germany, where people were taking suitcases full of money to buy a loaf of bread and children were building houses out of their father’s wages. People’s life savings were crushed to nothing. As a result the money they were paying with became useless to anyone else as well. France wasn’t going to stand for this and took matters into her own hands and invaded the Ruhr, where Germany produced most of its goods. However German workers and the government felt humiliated by this and went on strike against working to produce goods which would go straight into the hands of the French. This links with the Treaty of Versailles as the terms agreed on were to harsh on Germany.
Out of the two so far, it seems that the French in the Ruhr seems to be the biggest problem faced by the Weimar Republic as the Treaty of Versailles led to hyperinflation which led to the French invading the Ruhr. However there is one more problem faced by the Weimar Republic. This was the Munich crisis.
Hitler tried to take advantage of the current crisis facing the Weimar Republic at this time by causing an uprising in Munich, called the Munich Putsch. This started in the beer halls in Munich were Hitler gathered support for his Nazi ideas. He was ring wing and the left wing was Spartacists which were communists. Communism was very much hated in Germany at the time while the ring wing; Freikorps, were ex-soldiers from the war which felt they had been stabbed in the back by their government as they believed they were winning the war, not losing it and also felt that it was the politicians fault as they were the ones that signed, but it was also the generals and captains faults as well. They were just overlooked by when it came down to blaming someone.
The Munich Putsch did not last long and was put to and end quickly, ending with 16 Nazi’s dead and Hitler went to jail. However because they were ring wing and not left they were left off much easily than they would have been if they were left, because they were seen as the real hero’s of world war one so punishing them did not seem right to the Weimar Republic. Hitler was sent to prison for 6 months at one of the nicest prisons in Germany.
This was a problem for the Weimar Republic because if they cannot control or punish their people than they don’t stand much hope at lasting a long time before being overthrown. If the government is unable to defend itself, then that presents a problem.
One of the main reasons for the start of the up rise was the fact that the ex-soldiers hated the government for signing the Treaty of Versailles and surrendering at world war one. They felt they had been stabbed in the back and would never forgive the government for betraying its people so badly. So the Munich crisis is linked back to the Treaty of Versailles because they wouldn’t have felt so angry or the need to overthrow the government if they had not felt so back stabbed.
In conclusion it seems the Weimar Republic was faced my many problem during its rein and it seems a miracle that they lasted for as long as they did. They were faced by rebellions, invasions and an economical shut down. Although theses point I listed were very crucial they are not, however the most important challenge faced by the Weimar Republic. I believe that the Treaty of Versailles was the most important problem as it spawned hatred towards the government even though they had no choice and had to sign the agreement they still paid a very heavy price for doing so. Without the treaty then there wouldn’t have been the need to pay reparations, so they wouldn’t have fallen behind and the French wouldn’t have invaded causing the economic system to fail and hyperinflation to set in and finally there wouldn’t have been the need to overthrow the government as they had not agreed to being fully at blame for causing world war one.
Although if I had to choose one of the three as the most crucial I would pick the French in the Ruhr as my most important because it affected everyone by destroying the financial system which then led on to cause hyperinflation. So that meant that the government lost a lot more support and likeability as it had not managed to save peoples life savings and had not been able to do anything about the French controlling the Ruhr.
