What Problems threatened the survival of the Weimar Republic 1919 – 24?
The Weimar republic was formed after the first world war, Any government facing the task of rebuilding a nation after a war undertakes a very difficult task, and this is even more so with a defeated nation. During this essay I will be discussing what threats the Weimar faced and the problem it brought to the Weimar Republic.
The root to the problems facing Germany between 1918 – 23 leads to Germany’s defeat in the first world war as it consequently brought about all the other problems that the Republic would face. The key element was the fact that Germany lost the war so the new government was in no situation to reject the Treaty of Versailles which was always going to be a harsh treaty with the allies. This resulted in compulsory military service being abolished, the army being reduced from 600 000 to 100 000, naval personnel not to exceed 15 000, and a limit of twenty-four naval ships with no submarines as well as stopping exportation and production or war materials. This meant that the Weimar had insufficient resources to keep order and defence and left many soldiers unemployed, automatically decreasing in popularity. The treaty also ordered to provide all countries that sustained damages from the allies during the war with compensation, both financially and in the form of trade goods, the reparations was set far too high and meant that the Weimar would have a tough time repaying the reparations let alone stabilizing the German economy. There was also a loss of many German colonies; this meant the loss of many economic regions and negatively affected Weimar.
