Year 11 History GCSE Coursework- Weimar Republic and Hitler

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Edward Millett BB

History Coursework 1- Weimar Republic and the Rise of Hitler

1. Explain why the Weimar Republic was weak between 1919 and 1923.  (9 marks)

The armistice and the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm in November 1918 heralded the beginning of a new period of democracy in Germany. The constitution of the Weimar Republic was signed at Weimar in February 1919, but the Republic suffered a great deal of problems almost throughout its short existence.

From the start, the Government, led by Friedrich Ebert, was very unpopular with the public. Ebert was blamed for the surrender and for crippling Germany; he and his followers were called the ‘November Criminals’ by Hitler. Many in Germany felt betrayed, and laid all blame on Ebert’s Social Democrats for the enormous reparations, military restrictions and the hated Article 231, the war guilt clause, describing it as a ‘dolchstoss’ by the Government. They felt vulnerable and bitter, with only a small army of 100,000 to defend them against attack, and the economy in tatters. This sentiment even led to the assassination of Walther Rathenau, the foreign minister in June 1922.

The unpopularity of the Republic is also shown in the amount of political opposition it faced, often leading to violence. The left-wing Spartacists, led by Luxemburg and Liebknecht, attempted to seize power in January 1919, before the Republic had even been officially formed, showing how weak it was from its very beginning. There were also uprisings by the right wing, in the Kapp Putsch of March 1920, and the Munich Putsch of November 1923. The Munich Putsch was a protest against the Ebert’s Government and the policy of passive resistance adopted in response to the French invasion of the Ruhr. This example exhibits the unpopularity of the Government’s decisions and their failure to follow a policy more popular to the German public. In fact the disastrous economic outcome of passive resistance only lowered the Government’s popularity. It also shows the polarisation of public opinion and how volatile the situation was in Germany at this time.

The response to these uprisings showed clearly how weak and unassertive Ebert’s Government was; he was forced to depend on the disloyal Freikorps to suppress the left, but they turned on him and supported the Kapp Putsch, and it was only due to a general strike by the left-wing that this failed. When the Nazis tried to take power in Munich, it was with the help of disloyal army members, including General Ludendorff, and 20 (both Nazis and Weimar Police) were killed. Not only had the Government been proven unable to defend itself and the German public, but its political standpoint was constantly shifting, as it was indecisive.

Another reason for the weakness of the Republic was its inherently faulted constitution; as a result it suffered problems from the beginning. The system of voting- proportional representation- meant that small, radical groups could easily get a few seats, and as a result, it was difficult to gain a majority in parliamentary votes, as the Reichstag was so fragmented. This led to many coalition Governments, and a single-minded, strong Government could never form. Frequent changes in Government exacerbated the problem, plunging Germany into political chaos, and the public lost all confidence in the Government and democracy, an idea that they were unused to, following years of strong leadership. The constitution also gave the army (including the Freikorps) far too much power, and they turned on the Government in the Kapp Putsch of March 1920.

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The huge reparations saddled on Germany left the country in a dire state economically; printing more money to counteract this only led to hyperinflation (by February 1923 one US dollar was equivalent to 4.2 trillion German Marks). Most Germans- but especially the middle classes with savings- went bankrupt, and the public became disillusioned with the Government, as poverty and unemployment rocketed. The Government’s credibility was also affected by its dealing with the French invasion of the Ruhr. Passive resistance was economically disastrous, as the Ruhr was a prime industrial region, and Germany was crippled economically. The fact that Germany ...

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