In June 1919, Ebert’s Government reluctantly signed the treaty of Versailles, this brought immense disgrace for the country. The treaty took away one tenth of Germany’s land and gave it to her neighbours, this land meant that Germany would be losing people, factories, farms and mines. The treaty also took away a valuable source of Germany’s raw materials and trade, her over seas colonies. The German army was cut down to just 100,000 men that were not allowed to enter the Rhineland, a section of land separating Germany and France in which only allied troops were stationed. The Navy was also cut down to six battleships and banned from using submarines. The entire German air force was abolished. The treaty not only blamed Germany for starting the war but also was made liable to pay for all the physical damage caused in the war. For this Germany had to pay reparations, in total 132,000 million gold marks over the next 30 years. The German public met this harsh treaty with disgust, they were outraged that the Allies could impose such an unfair treaty. The whole county rejected it and the politicians of the time were further discredited by the “stab in the back” theory. Hugo Preuss, the lawyer chiefly responsible for writing the Weimar constitution in 1919 said,
“That it did not collapse immediately under the strain of the intrinsic (genuine) vitality of its basic principles.”
I believe that the Weimar Republic survived because there was no other strong political party at that time that had the support to take over government. However although the Treaty did not break down the government it did re-enforce the hostility of many Germans to the new Weimar system and parties from the right had a basis of argument to gain new support, it was obvious that the treaty left a deep scar in the new Weimar Republic.
The government faced their first major crisis from the right in March 1920, when an extreme nationalist, Wolfgang Kapp and other army officials led the Freikorps into Berlin, the army did not stand up for the Weimar government and so Ebert and the other politicians were forced to flee Berlin. A new government headed by Kapp was announced but the Putsch did not win widespread support. The whole of the Germen public refused to recognise the new government and the country went on general strike in protest. This saved the Weimar government as the government governed by Kapp had not the opportunity to govern, the new government fled, and Ebert and his politicians came back to govern Germany again. The German people were obviously unhappy about the way the Kapp Putsch took place, they had not given any support for the Freikorps. Although many German people did not fully support the government they saved the Weimar regime due to the general strike. A challenge from the right did not come again until three years later.
There were a total of 354 murders committed by Ring- winged supporters, and only 22 from the left. This wave of assassinations occurred between 1919 and 1923, ring-winged Germans resorted to murder to weaken the Weimar system, the lenient attitude of conservative Judges working at the time encouraged more murders to take place by giving short sentences to those guilty of murder. The Republic lost hundreds of devoted servants through assassination including one of its greatest statesmen Walter Rathenau. Over 700,000 Germans demonstrated in Berlin against his death, His Jewish background and his involvement with the treaty of Versailles made him a target for ultra nationalist parties. His death was viewed as a major blow to the stability of the Weimar Republic. Political assignations declined after his death. The German people inevitably felt disillusioned by the murders and revolts made towards the regime but did not feel the need to support Parties such as the K.P.D or the D.N.V.P. After the 1920 election the S.P.D still had the highest number of votes. The Weimar Republic survived the assignations because of the large public support against the assassinations.
To help pay the reparations asked for by the treaty and the workers affected by the invasion of the Ruhr, the government began to print money. This made prices soar, and in the space of five years the cost of a loaf of bread rose from 0.63 marks to 201,000,000,000 marks. Many Germans suffered badly, savings were lost and all people found it hard to buy necessities. No matter what class of people, all Germans felt disillusioned, people began to spend their money as quickly as possible and had to but food that would last them a week. However the hyperinflation could not overthrow the government by itself, it would only become a major problem for the government if it stirred up a revolution. However extremist support did grow but not significantly so the Weimar Republic was saved by the financial crisis it faced. In fact it could be viewed that the government gained from the hyperinflation in a way, the Weimar Republic pleaded to the Allies that it was unable to pay reparations, Britain ordered France out of the Ruhr where German workers were on “passive resistance”.
Gustav Stresmann helped steady the situation by calling off the strike in the Ruhr, stopped the printing of money and a new currency was introduced called the Retenmark. However the older Germans suffered due to inflation induced poverty, and the people blamed the government.
The final major challenge the Weimar Republic faced was the Munich Putsch. It came in 1923 by a little known right wing extremist group, the N.S.D.A.P that marched to Munich where a right wing political meeting was being held. Hitler, the leader of the N.S.D.A.P forced the two leaders of the meeting, Otto von Lossow and Gustav von Kahr to agree to the marching to Berlin and the takeover of the government. However the two leaders later denounce the agreement and so Hitler and 2000 Nazis march towards Munich where armed police met them and firing took place. Hitler was imprisoned for only nine months where he wrote the book “Mein Kampfe” This failed putsch created publicity for the Nazi party and helped them gain a substantial share of the votes in the election. The German people may have come round to the idea of a dictatorship, as the democratic regime was obviously not working because of the amount of crisis’s it had faced. Although wary of the Nazi party and other extreme groups Germans went along with it as they believed it could be better than the Weimar Republic. The Weimar survived this attack because of a few reasons, firstly, after the two leaders denounced their agreement to the March Hitler was very unsure whether or not to go ahead. He was reluctantly persuaded by General Ludendorff and so never fully believed in the march. Secondly, the march, alike so many others before it, was not properly planned and was uncoordinated. Thirdly, the government still had the support of the army and police forces when the Nazis came face to face with the armed police. Ludendorff had not expected this and was therefore unprepared.
From over coming all these challenges it is evident that the Weimar Republic had strong principles. Not only this but the challenges it faced, especially from the left and right parties, did not have the support needed from the German public to cause any change in the government. The left was too divided to have any major impact and the right did not gain enough support. The French may have taken some of the German peoples blame by invading the Ruhr however the financial crisis did knock the government severely, although Streseman’s recovery plan did earn the government some credit. The public’s opinion of the Weimar Republic was not all hatred, as we can see from the general strike so the Weimar Republic could carry on working with the steady support. The harsh treatment used on those who wanted to overthrow the government, using the army to squash any chance of a revolt, enabled the Weimar Republic to survive.
Victoria Levitt 12 AC