Anti Marxism: Communism was a threat to German values
Anti democracy, which the left viewed as being weak and causing Germany many problems.
Authoritarianism - they wanted some kind of authoritarian, dictatorial regime, though not exactly knowing what that would imply.
The DNVP was the largest extreme right party and enjoyed 15.1 percent of the votes in the 1920 elections. Cositst of landowners and indsutariles, but also a big number of the middle class. (page 43).
Conclusion: How did Weimar deal with the opposition?
The right wing opposition was a lot different from the left: A lot stronger in its variety of opponents and means of getting power. They did in comparison to the left wing manage to gather as a opposition.
When looking at what the oppositions of left and right wing had, it seemed as if the right had more purpose and hardcore aims. The left did have Marxism in common but they did not want it as much - after all, the moderate left-wingers were pro-democracy, and thus it can be said that because of the internal disagreement to which extent the left wanted an overthrowing of Weimar in comparison to the more fundamental and strong which from the right, made right a more powerful opponent to the Weimar republic. Racist nationalism
Racist nationalism was a big component of the right wing parties and could have bound them together. An example was the German Workers Party founded by Anton Drexler, where Hitler gained power in 1921. However polices divided the groups, and it was not until the mid-1920s when Hitler started to gather all the different groups under the NSDAP, that these forces became really relevant.
ConsuL Organists was the military threat from the right. They had assiaoamat key republican politicians, and they were responsible for 354 out of 376 political murders in the year 1919-22. (The result was from the left). Most significant, though, was the Kapp putsch. 12,000 troops marched on Berlin to seize main buildings and install a new government.
How did Weimar deal with this?
The German army did not provide any resistance to the putcsh, since the army did not want to get drawn into the situation. As senior officer in the Defence Ministry, Generwela von Seeckt put it: "Troops do not fire on troops" (page 46). What did save the government was that the SPD-members of the government had called for a general strike which paralysed the country - it only took four days before Kapp realised that he had no authority over the city or the country and soon fled.
Problems within Weimar
So the Kapp putsch already highline a major issue for the Weimar republic, and already here, in 1920 it was clear that the government was in no control of the army what so ever - they did as they wanted and did not see any need to answer to the government.
These problems of the army also contributed to the Munich Beer Hall putcsh: The conservative Gustav von Kahr who controlled the State of Bavaria wanted like Hitler to destroy the republican regime and also an dinepnedted Bavaria and so he cooperated with Hitler to take control over Munich. He persuaded the Army’s commander in Bavaria, General von Lossow, not to obey orders from the Defence ministries in Berlin. However in the end there ere insufficient support from the Bavarian police. Hitler was arrested.
What was Weimar’s biggest weaknesses in dealing with the oppositions from the other parties?
They views the left as too big of a threat, because he left was so good at giving the illusion of being a more powerful threat. So what we can see from the dealings with the opposition is that there were both flaws within the military itself, but more importantly from the leading persons in the military and national sntuatuin, which can bee seen. In some ways, the Munich Beer Hall putch was a strength to the Weimar Republic: the army had for once withstood orders in did not sympathize with the military leader and the Nazis. On the other hand, Weimar did not entirely manage to take control over the situation . Hitler was released after less than 10 months, and Ludendorff had not even been caught. (page 50)
Also the Weimar failed in seeing how big of a insinuation the right wing was, which the putches of both Kapp and Hitler was a warning of. On the other hand, if Weimar had instead changed the leaders of the national insutaint and army, and arrested Hitler and Ludendorff maybe the right wing's future plans would have been much harder to carry out. So it was not as much because of major weaknesses in the building of the Weimar Republic but more because of its lacking ability to identify the real enemies and replace people in power with true republicans.
The economic problems of Weimar
Twenty years prior to the first world war Germany’s economy had gone through a rapid growth and by the year 1914 was had the most powerful economy in Europe. (page 58). Her economy was based upon natural resources, engineering, chemicals, electronics, as well educated population and advanced banking system. However following the war some crucial problems worsened the German economy:
- Loss of recourses from areas like Saar, Alsace-Lorraine and Silesia, which was probably the most important industrial areas for Germany.
- Paying reparations and national debt increased.
- Increase in prices which caused hyper-inflation and eventually the fall of the mark.
Many Germans blame the signing of the Treaty of Versailles for the economic difficulties. It was because of this, that land was lost and reparations were to be paid. In reality the real cause was the governments decision to print more and more money in order to overcome the indaces financial costs and also the costs of introducing social welfare plus the government’s decision to adept the policy of passive resistance when the French occupied the Ruhr in 1923. This meant that the government had to pay the population in resistance, while they did not work to help the economy.
How did Weimar deal with these issues?
Instead of increasing taxation or cutting government expenditure, which was impossible because Germany was to pay her debts, the financiers decided to increase the nations debt by reducing taxation, which would give the population more money and increase the demand for goods and thereby help creating jobs. This way the German population would boom in work and that in turn would create more demand. But when the government printed more money to meet its new goals, the mark went even lower in value. This can be seen on page 59, when in July 1914 the exchange rate of German marks against the dollar was 4.2 and then in November 1923, it was 200,000,000,000. This became known as the Great Inflation, which not only caused hunger but also a decline in law and order, increase in crime and suicide, etc. (page 64).
In conclusion, the government, instead of taking care of its economy, printed more money which only worsened the economy. It was again unable to identify the real causes of the issue - it was not that their needed to be more money in circulation, but that the money was ill-spent and the demand was too low. This was a major cause to the instability of the Weimar republic. Also, the German belief that the signing of the Treaty of Versailles for the economic difficulties was a cause to right wing support, which of course added more to the list of Weimar’s' weaknesses and which eventually meant the rise of Nazis.
What could have been done to avoid the Great Inflation? Of course, cut in spending could have done a lot. However, some historians suggest that actually the economic tackling was not as bad; according to these, a cut in spending would have caused even greater economic and social disasters - The argument is that several countries in Europe experienced post-war recession in 1920-, and when comparing to other European countries, Germany actually got away well. For instance:
- There was a low rate of unemployment - 1.8 percent in Germany against nearly 17 percent in Britain.
- Rising wage levels.
- Growing foreign investment
- Increased production (p. 66)
However, these argument does not take into account the human and social consequences of the inflation, such as hunger and a sense of hopelessness.
A turning point in the economy
In the summer of 1923, however, a turning point occurred in the German economy: The German currency had collapsed, and nonetheless the Ruhr was occupied by French and Belgian troops, which lead to passive resistance, which pressured the economic problems even more because the government had to pay the workers on strike. Also left wing extremists crated unrest in the streets.
Then, in August 1923, Gustav von Stresemann was appointed chancellor. By taking big risks he succeeded in a series of dealings: He was the one who called the passive resistance -instead, the payments were to be resumed; government expenditure was cut - 700,000 public employees were now unemployed; a new German currency was introduced, the Rentenmark; the Dawes Plan was made, which fixed the payments in accordance with the Germanys abilities to pay ; Extremes of the left and eight were defeated as mentioned earlier in the essay.
Stresemann’s initiatives were probably a leading factor in the Weimar survival of these economic challenges.
Another factor was that the population still had some faith in their government. Popular anger was more directed towards the French and the allies who had occupied the country. Also, some businessmen became more reluctant to Weimar since they did well from the inflation. Nevertheless, the left and right was both weak and dealt with so effectively that there were little support to the extremities. Also the fact that many other European countries were suffering under bad leadership helped (for instance, Italy) Hence, people so no other alternative to the government.
So all in all, at this stage of the Weimar time, there was a bigger acceptance of Weimar government. However, the government did not pay all too much attention to the Great Inflation - bigger initiatives could have been taken to secure the long-term consequences of the economic issue - Such as ensuring the growth of investment. This showed that the government did not get into the roots of the economic problems, thought dealt with. However, up until 1923, at least, Weimar had proven that it could in fact withstand some opposition (i.e. the extremist parties). But was the avoidance of understanding the seriousness of the economic problems going to haunt Germany in the following years to come?
