Why was the Weimar Government unpopular?

Authors Avatar by adiththomasgmailcom (student)

One reason why the Weimar Government was unpopular was because of their signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty was very punitive, and the part that the German people hated the most was the ‘war guilt’ clause, which essentially stated that the Germans were to blame for World War One, and the Germans felt this was unfair because to them, the war was one of self-defence, and because of this, they had to pay £6600 million in reparations. The Germans believed that the German army still had the ability to keep fighting, and was essentially stabbed in the back by the weak politicians who signed the Treaty of Versailles, whom they referred to as the ‘November criminals’

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This links to what happened as a result of Germany’s inability to pay these reparations, which was the occupation of the Ruhr, and the Weimar Government was unpopular because of how they responded to this issue. Germany was struggling to keep up on its reparations payments, and so, French and Belgian troops occupied Germany’s main industrial area - the Ruhr. However, the German workers refused to work, and the German people saw this as a brave act of defiance. However, this passive resistance damaged the German economy, and so, the Weimar government ended the passive resistance in the Ruhr ...

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