Describe the Foundation of the Weimar Constitution.

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Eleanor Richens                19th October 2004

Describe the Foundation of the Weimar Constitution

On the 11th of November 1918, at 11 o’clock the signing of an armistice brought an end to a world war that had raged for 4 years. Defeated, Germany was in a state of economic and social disaster. France and some of their allies were keen to blame Germany for the war and quickly sort to claim compensation for their losses.

The German people were bitter of their defeat and many felt it was problems and lack of support at home that had lost them the battle rather than their soldiers on the front. They looked for someone to blame and found it in their ‘unpatriotic’ politicians.  Unrest began to spread through Germany as the “stab in the back” theory developed.

The resentment and bitterness that remained in the aftermath of war meant that Germany underwent a revolution, loosing the Kaiserreich and instead looked towards a new political development; the Weimar Republic. A lot of anger and humiliation surrounded Weimar however, as it was associated, amongst the German people, with the same politicians that had unnecessarily signed the armistice and agreed to the embarrassing peace terms. The republic  is often considered a revolution from above as it was the ruling class of Germany at the time that initiated and made the great change.

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 The republic was proclaimed on the 9th November 1918 and the election of the first constituent assembly took place on 19th January 1919. The SPD (Social Democrat Party of Germany) won easily as expected, however against expectations failed to win an overall majority. Theories behind this are that the Sparticist uprising of 1919 had upset some of the supporters and giving women the vote changed the outcome.

The head of state of the Reich was to be a president and each term would last seven years, with a new election taking place subsequent to the end of each one.  The president’s powers ...

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