To what extent were Germany’s problems between the years of 1919 and 1923, fundamentally economic?

Right wing attempts to overthrow the government were also made. The main reasons for nationalist hostility to the régime were that firstly, they felt that the new Republic had betrayed Germany as they believed that whilst the German army were willing and able to continue fighting, they were "stabbed in the back" by German politicians who surrendered by signing the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles greatly weakened the German nation as it caused Germany to be severely cut back as a military power with its army and navy being dramatically reduced in size. The treaty also caused Germany to lose a large amount of territory as well as all its colonies. Finally, the treaty included the War Guilt Clause, which forced Germany to accept that they bore sole responsibility for World War One and would consequently have to provide compensation for any damage they had caused. Again, Germany's political problems were based on economical problems.

Many Germans, however, did not believe that they were responsible for the war or that they had been defeated. They resented the economical consequences of the treaty of Versailles and thus blamed the government causing political problems on top of the economic crisis. As a result of this, the nationalists, who believed in the idea of a strong nation, were deeply angered at what they saw as Germany's decline from the greatest power in Europe to a second-class power. In March 1920, Dr Wolfgang Kapp, with the support of the Freikorps, launched a Putsch in Berlin in order to overthrow the government. They did manage to take over Berlin, but as a socialist city, Kapp was not likely to find many supporters in Berlin and so the government, fleeing the capital for safety, called for a general strike of German workers and without essential services such as transport, gas and electricity, Kapp was not able to govern and so his rebellion failed. However, if it had not been for the far left's general strike, Kapp could easily have seized power. This was very worrying for the Weimar Republic because, again, it had been saved by those that despised it, and the army that was supposed to be supporting it refused to act against Kapp and his supporters of which many were ex-soldiers; this was very humiliating for the government as it meant that they had to flee Berlin .The government was to face much more right wing opposition though in the form of political murders and violence. For example in June 1921, the USPD leader Karl Gareis was shot, as was Matthias Erzberger two months later. In June 1922, Walther Rathenau, a leading Weimar politician who believed that Germany should fulfil the terms of the treaty of Versailles, was murdered by right wing extremists, who threw a bomb into his car and shot him several times whilst he was driving to work. The outrage amongst the supporters of the Republic at such acts of terrorism led to the passing of the Law for the Protection of the Republic; it imposed sever penalties on acts of political violence but was only to be proved weak when judges who opposed the Republic refused to implement it. Thus, the government was shown to be even more unstable and weak and these rebellions showed how little support people, including Germany's own army, had for the new Republic. This situation, however, was worsened even further due to the government's failure to prevent Germany's economic crisis.

The most important economic problem for Germany was the impact of the Treaty of Versailles was its demand on Germany to pay reparations. The figure for the reparations was eventually fixed by the Allies at 132,000,000,000 marks (£6,600,000,000). The government no longer had sufficient resources to support the German economy, but continued to print paper money. This caused rapid inflation, which Germany used as an excuse for not being able to pay its second instalment towards the reparations. In 1922, however, Germany signed the Treaty of Rapallo with Russia: this was an agreement that neither side would pay each other war debts any longer. The French government, however, decide to force Germany to pay. It did this by sending French and Belgian troops to the industrial heartland of Germany, the Ruhr to collect reparations still owing to them, but the German Chancellor called for "passive resistance" by the workers of the Ruhr; a refusal to co-operate with the troops. This, however, led to the collapse of the German economy, as the government was forced to print more paper money in order to pay the striking workers in the Ruhr. This caused hyperinflation as Germany was not producing anything; its industrial heartland had been destroyed and yet the number of notes in its economy was increasing. The German currency soon became worthless and prices were constantly rising (For example, an American dollar in July 1914 was worth about 4 marks, whilst in November 1923, its equivalent in marks was 4,000,000,000,000 marks). The social effects of this hyperinflation were disastrous, particularly for the German middle classes who had lost all their savings and pensions as a result. Then, in September 1923, Gustav Stresemann called for the end of passive resistance in order to begin the restoration of the German economy. This led to great political humiliation however, as it showed that Germany had been forced to do what the French wanted. This led to the Munich Putsch, which was an attempt by the Nazi Party leader, Adolf Hitler to overthrow the government; Hitler was determined to show the German people that not all Germans were going to accept what the French had forced the German government to do. Bavarian police broke up the revolt however and Hitler was arrested. In Saxony, there was another revolt against the republic, but this was a communist revolt and a communist government was set up, but Stresemann ordered this government to resign or else it would face military action. Therefore, the Ruhr Crisis led to economic collapse, political humiliation, discontent within society, further opposition to the Weimar Republic and finally, its disastrous effects caused people to start looking towards extreme solutions.

There were also a number of social problems directly affecting Germany's people. Apart from the disastrous state of the German economy, Germany suffered a collapse in food prices causing wide spread rural poverty. Food prices had to be decreased so that people could by food. However, this decreased income was not enough for farmers and rural workers to live on. Taxation rose from 9% in 1913 to 17% in 1925 as a result of government deficit. Although taxation needed to rise to help raise government funds, the people simply did not have the income to purchase basic goods. This also resulted in crime rates increasing and an increase in prostitution as a result of the unemployment. The quality of life dropped considerably as a result leading to morale reaching am all time low.

In conclusion, although Germany had severe political unrest, it was the economic crisis that formed the basis for most of them. The government's economic problems were the basis for their unpopularity and therefore began the political opposition the Weimar. If more money had been poured into the economy, the German people would have been content and anti-Republican movements would not have been so supported. So, in summary, Germany's problems were fundamentally economic during this period as it was the economic crisis that was the basis of most of Germany's social and political problems.

Charlie Matthews 12CAS 05/05/07

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