One of the revolts that Weimar had to face was The Spartacist Revolt in 1919. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht led them, their aim was to create a Soviet Germany in alliance with a Soviet Russia but they were poorly organized and when the Freikorps were set loose on them they were killed. In Bavaria another revolution was taken place with the socialists in command, but in 1919 their leader was assassinated and Bavaria fell into Communist hands, but again when Government troops and Freikorps units attacked they were defeated. The Kapp Putsch was an uprising in Berlin were Ernst Kapp and General von Luttwitz seized control of the capital and the Freikorps would not attack them, the freikorps liked the ideology that the Right wing wanted to make Germany great again. The revolt was only ended when the city went on general strike, the city ground to a halt and Kapp and Luttwitz fled to Sweden.
All of these uprisings failed because they were either too badly organised or weren’t strong enough.
The Germans could only pay 1 instalment of the Reparations after that they simply could not afford it, when the Reparations ceased the French were angered and decided they would invade the Ruhr, their idea was to take the coal directly from the Ruhr.
This angered the German people, that the French would dare invade their land. So the Weimar Republic called on the people of the Ruhr to Passively Resist the French, this meant that they would go on strike and the French would be unable to effectively get any coal out of the region. But with the people on strike the Republic still had to pay the wages, they could not afford this and they printed more money, this confounded the already fragile economy of Germany.
Soon inflation was spiralling out of control, Hyperinflation was causing all sorts of trouble; people on fixed wages were ruined because what they earned a month could not even buy a loaf of bread. People with fixed pensions had the same problem. People who had savings soon found their hard saved money was worthless. Only the people who were being paid wages could survive, their wages just went higher and higher. The only way this was solved was when the new chancellor got rid of the old currency and brought in the new more stable Rentenmark. The Government also called of the passive resistance that had been crippling the Government, this angered right wing nationalist and they rebelled in 1923 in Munich.
The Munich Putsch was caused by the Weimar’s “weakness,” the Nationalists were vehement that passive resistance should never of been called off. The Putsch was a dismal failure because both the Army or the Police could not be persuaded to change sides, and Hitler was arrested and put on trial for treason. Hitler’s performance in the box was a Propaganda masterpiece. The judges were sympathetic to Hitler’s motives and he was given the minimum 5 years in Landsberg Prison.
My Conclusion, as to why Weimar Republic survived, is that the Republic was that there was no better alternative at that time. The Government were never overthrown because all of the revolts were neither strong, organized or had the support the needed. Either their ideology was too far left or too far right or not enough of either to capture the peoples minds.
The Government were also faced with the paradox of that the answers to their problem were the cause of many others. For example one of the answers to Hyperinflation was to call of passive resistance, this angered the right wing and caused the Munich Putsch, this is also the same for the Ruhr invasions passive resistance causing Hyperinflation.
So the Weimar Republic survived by not being the worst, they were never the best and they were never going to be liked by the people but they were always going to be better than anarchy.
