Explain why the prospects for the survival of the new democratic regime were not great in Weimar Germany?

be treated fairly after the war. But, evidently Germany were treated unfairly because they were blamed for causing World War I and were forced to sign the treaty. Therefore the burden of World War I was a problem for the new democratic regime because, the day the treaty was proposed the old government refused to sign it, therefore the Regime had no other choice but to sign it, making a majority of the German people hostile towards the new regime. Ultimately the Treaty of Versailles undermined the Weimar Regime because it showed the government to be weak in the midst of the pressure to sign the Versailles Treaty. The Treaty of Versailles was something that the Weimar Regime were long to be associated with, and even took the name of ‘November criminals’ by the people.    It could be argued that the burden of World War I was an underlying reason for the unstable start for the new democratic regime, because it had a crippling effect on the economy. The onset of the economic malaise was key in contributing to an unstable start to the new democratic regime because it exposed how the new regime was unable to stabilise the faltering economy. As a result of World War I the mark lost 75 percent of its value between 1913 and 1918. The government failed to re-stable the economy, rather the latter, they worsened the economic situation by printing money to finance the war, thus leading to inflation. The people on fixed incomes they were affected most by inflation because whilst prices for goods rose their income was unable to compete with the rising prices. This resulted in many German people being left hungry because they were unable to buy food. This reinforced their hostility to the new Weimar Government because the situation had been worsened as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. As a result of the Treaty an allied blockade was set up on areas of the Rhineland including the west bank, this resulted in the shortage of essential goods, again reinforcing the German people’s hostility to the new Weimar Regime. Therefore the onset of the economic malaise was detrimental for the new democratic regime because they came into power at a time when Germany needed economic solutions. Although we have to recognise that the cost of war was a main contributory factor towards the economic malaise because taxes had to be raised in order to cover the cost of war, therefore the burden of World War I was an underlying reason for the problematic start for the new democratic regime contributing to an unpromising survival for the regime.    One other significant factor that hindered the prospects for the survival of the new democratic regime was the structure of the Weimar Regime. The new constitution which was drafted and accepted in August 1919 was structured in favour of proportional representation. Proportional representation was beneficial because it prevented any one party from having the majority of the power, thus preventing the intervention of radicalist and extremist ideas. However this did mean that whilst the Weimar Regime was in power there were many coalition governments ‘attempting’ to work together, but in reality they often reached deadlock because the parties could never agree on policies. Therefore proportional representation resulted in an unstable government. It addition to this, the emergency powers of the President under the Article 48 was equally detrimental to the nature of the Weimar Regime because he had the power to dismiss and appoint chancellor’s. Hand in hand, the frequent changes of chancellor and of government caused instability within the Weimar Regime. Thus the prospects for a new democratic regime were flawed because the unstable structure of the new constitution.    The opposition to Edbert’s socialist government was significant in contributing to hindering of the Weimar Regime’s survival prospects because at the time the Weimar Regime was introduced revolutionary ideas and attempts were rife and people were dissatisfied with Edbert’s socialist government. The left opposition to Edbert’s government inflicted upon the success of the Weimar Regime. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht  led the extreme left-wing, Sparticasts League. The Sparticasts had been formed in 1905 as a splint of the SPD party and by 1918 is had a membership of almost 5000 people. On the 1st January 1919 the Spartacists formerly founded the KPD party, a German Communist party. They believed that Germany should follow the same route as Communist Russia, and on attempted to overthrow the socialist government during a spontaneous communist rising in which members of the Sparticast league tried to take over in the hope it would become a communist revolution. Edbert called upon the Freikorps to crush the communist rising, thus the socialist government was undermined because of its over reliance on the military to suppress the rising. And there was a lasting bitterness between the socialists and the communists that the Weimar Regime would have to address. Therefore Edbert’s exaggeration of the dangers of a Soviet-style revolution, leading him to over rely on the military to suppress the opposition did contribute to the eventual failure of the Weimar Regime. Therefore it can be argued that the Weimar Regime was born out of revolution, so from its birth it was doomed to fail. In essence the survival prospects of the Weimar Regime were significantly hindered because of the onset of the economic malaise and the structure of the new Weimar Republic in that its structure of proportional representation failed to compromise on a policy that could have stabilised the economy. However, to a certain extent, I would argue that the burden of World War I undermined the Weimar Regime as it was blamed for the Treaty of Versailles which undoubtedly harvested opposition for the Weimar Regime from its birth because people distrusted the regime.