Many Germans who were opposition to the Government such as the left and tight-wing parties were unhappy with the Ebert- Groener deal. Ebert at this time was afraid that as the government was weak it could have been overthrown. The deal meant that Ebert had the army on his side as long as Groener still had his powers. Germans were unhappy with this because this benefited Ebert rather than the people.
Now with the deal Ebert was able to suppress opposition. Example of this would be the Spartacist Uprising being crushed in 1919 and the death of the Communist leaders.
Many Germans would be unhappy because they could see that Ebert was using the army and Freikorps to suppress opposition which meant they weren’t allowed to demonstrate their ideas. Also the Freikorps methods were very harsh and many Germans saw that this was wrong and wasn’t democratic to which the Government was aiming to make Germany as. Also this made the left-wing very hostile as they were harshly brushed away and their leaders murdered.
Another major reason was the invasion of the Ruhr.
Germany was struggling to pay the reparations to the allies which led to the French soldiers invading the Ruhr. The French soldiers invaded the Ruhr with an “Iron Fist”. They were cold and bitterly and did what ever they liked. For example they would of made a German walking on the pavement to get out of the way on to the road just to show that they were superior. The French had control of the Ruhr and the Weimar Government did stop this.
The Germans were angry with the Weimar Government for this because this showed that they were weak and that they let a neighbouring country invade and do what they wanted and humiliate the German people.
The invasion of the Ruhr caused further hatred towards the government, who were seen as being weak because a foreign country had invaded Germany. The German Government wanted people in the Ruhr to strike, this was the passive resistance. The Government said they would still pay the people even though they were on strike. However the Government did not have the money so they came up with printing even more money. This caused the economy to go into chaos as the value of the mark went down against the dollar. Prices were rising and wages went up. Many Germans lost out on this including the middle class who saw their businesses being destroyed and pensioners as the money which they had saved up their whole life was now worth very little. However there were some who benefited including people who took pout loans as they could now easily pay as the loan was fixed.
Many Germans hated the Government for this as they caused the hyperinflation and left the economy in chaos.
As Germans were becoming even more hostile towards the government, there was more opposition including the Munich Putsch in 1923, led by Hitler, who tried to overthrow the Bavarian government but was suppressed by the police.
Overall we can see that a majority of people were unhappy with the Weimar Government and that it was all types of German people from old, young to left and right wing- parties. We also have to consider that it all started with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles which caused major problems in Germany.
