How far do you agree that opposition to the Weimar Government In the years 1918-32 was rooted in a hatred of the Treaty of Versailles?

Groups such as the Freikorps formed out of a hatred of the terms in the Treaty of Versailles. The Freikorps were a group of ex-soldiers who lost their jobs as a result of the military restrictions put on Germany in the Versailles treaty. Their aim was to overthrow the Weimar government and replace it with a military dictatorship. They showed their aims in the Kapp Putsch in March 1920 where the Freikorp, led by Wolfgang Kapp attempted to and almost succeeded in taking over the government in Berlin. The Nazi party, originally the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) was formed in order to reverse the disgrace of the Versailles Treaty. The Nazi party gained a lot of support and in 1923 Hitler led the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. The failed attempt to take over the government ended with the arrest of Hitler but clearly demonstrated the Nazi party’s involvement in the Treaty of Versailles.

One term of the Treaty of Versailles was that a democracy with proportional representation had to be put in place. Many people in Germany would have been satisfied with the previous Kaiser dictatorship and a democracy would’ve seemed quite radical to many. This is a reason why groups such as the Freikorps opposed the Weimar Republic. Additionally, proportional representation made it very hard for one party to win a majority and very often coalitions could not make decisions because of disagreements. The presidents (Ebert 1919-25 and Hindenburg 1926-33) often had to use Article 48, which allowed them emergency powers to rule by decree when the coalitions were failing. The weakness of the government was a reason for opposition in the years 1918-32.

The economy during the Weimar period was affected by the Treaty of Versailles. The occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 was when Germany had failed to pay its reparations, and as a result French troops marched into the industrial Ruhr and occupied it in order to take Germany’s goods as compensation. The workers reacted with passive resistance and production rates fell dangerously low. During this time the government printed more money in order to pay reparations which caused hyperinflation. Hyperinflation caused poverty, unemployment and a widespread hatred for the Weimar government. People opposed the government because they felt it did not handle the economic crisis of 1923 well at all. Although things improved in 1924 when the new chancellor Gustav Stresemann called off passive resistance and organised the Dawes plan.

Although the hatred of the Treaty of Versailles caused a majority of the opposition to the Weimar Republic there were other factors. Members of left-wing groups such as the KPD (German Communist Party) and the Spartacists opposed the government because they wanted a communist revolution. People had saw the Bolshevik revolution under Lenin in Russia (1917) and they called for a similar thing to happen in Germany.

To conclude I do think that to a large extent the opposition to the Weimar government in the years 1918-32 was rooted in a hatred of the Treaty of Versailles. This is because the terms of the Treaty, the military cutbacks and war guilt caused opposition groups such as the Freikorp and NSDAP to form, who showed their opposition in attempted putsches. The reparations also caused large economic problems for the Weimar Republic which got them a lot of opposition such as hyperinflation in 1923. Additionally, a democracy would have been unwanted for many. However, opposition groups such as the Spartacist and the KPD were fuelled by their aims of a communist uprising.