There was also tension in the government due to the ambiguous relationship between the government and the reichstag. Under the ruling of article 48 the government had the right to interfere with legistations. This gave the threat that the republic could turn into a democracy at any time.
The first major task for the republic was the signing of the treaty of Versailles. This treaty was embarrassing for the new republic and increased the public’s unrest for the democracy. The treaty meant harsh terms for the weimer. The army was reduced from 600,000 to 100,000, naval personnel not to exceed 15,000, a limit of 24 naval ships with no submarines, all military and naval aviation to be abandoned and all importation, exporation and production of war materials was to be stopped. Weimer was ordered to provide all countries that sustained damages from the allies with compensation, both with money and trade of goods this compensation was known as reparations. The terms of the treaty of Versailles were believed to be unfair by many Germans, this was because they were under the impression they were fighting a purely defensive war.
The new republic also immediately faced rising from political parties. The action of the treaty of Versailles resulted in lots of unemployed soldiers and caused a great deal of resentment, especially with the officers. A group of officers decided to make plans to overthrow the government, lundendorff supported them. Several army troops defied erberts order to disband and walked into centre of Berlin to join the kapp putsch. The freikorps occupied Berlin without resistance. Erbert turned to the army for support but they refused by saying army does not fire on army. It was left to the workers to put down the kapp putchs. The workers went on strike and life came to a standstill in Berlin consequently support fell for the uprising and it failed.
There was also another big rising by a group called the spartacists. The group was called the kpd their aim was to create a new revolutionary government to replace the existing weimer one. Their aim was to achieve this without using violence. Two leaders called Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebnecht led the uprising. It was up to Erbert to put down the rising. He turned to a right wing group of ex soldiers known as the freikorps to help repress the uprising.
All the above examples are the problems that the early republic faced they overcame this which was important to the future. Having now secured a position of control of Germany the republic had to now look at the long term’s events that the republic had to face.
The weimer faced major economic crisis. The cost of losing the war had not been taken into account because Germany was so confident that it was going to win the war. The cost of the war, lack of confidence in the currency, willingness of government to print money, government expenditure outweighing income, reparations and attempts to put of reparations all contributed to the problem of hyperinflation. It was mainly the middle classes that lost out, also people on fixed incomes such as pensioners and students. There were also people who benefited those with debts and mortgages, tradesman and exporters due to the weakness of the mark. Hyperinflation had advantages and disadvantages in the survival of the weimer. It aided the survival by reducing unemployment; it threatened the weimer by causing the people unhappiness.
The weimer republic did not get off to a good start. In the early part the republic faced many uprisings and did not have much support. The republic also had many problems to face in the future. The weimer republic was to be doomed in the end though. You have to remember that the republic was set up and was nether meant to succeed. The conspiracy was called the stab in the back.