Arguably, the right posed a greater threat to the Weimar Republic than did the extreme left because it had the support of most of Germany's establishment such as the military and much of the press. However the extremist right were not trusted within the Reichstag as they opposed democracy and desired to establish a conservative authoritarian regime. Their hatred towards the Republic stemmed from the "stab in the back" attitude after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and was expressed in many forms of violence from petty crimes to mass murders, between 1920-22 354 murders were carried out by members of right wing organisations. The political response to these murders especially after the Foreign Minister’s assassination was to set up special courts to deal with assassins and terrorists. However, another threat to the stability of the Weimar Republic was the attitude of the judiciary which was often very lenient towards the right and bias against the Republic because they wanted to destroy the new democracy. The effect this had on the Republic was that it helped to create an atmosphere which suggested challenges made to the state were semi-legal as shown in the Erzberger case which led to his resignation in the Centre Party. In terms of the judiciary being a main threat to the stability of the Weimar Republic however, it is more of a contributing factor than a main threat as I believe the main threats were from the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and political opposition from right and left.
In addition to the violent political opposition and bias judiciary, the Republic had to make do with a weak economy plagued by high rates of inflation and unemployment. Inflation was fuelled partly by the enormous wartime debts and reparations demanded by the Allies, which made economic recovery seem impossible to many of the public. Inflation affected millions of people, largely middle-class Germans and below. This wasn’t helped by the high rates of unemployment during this period. These groups of people living in this economic misery were easily persuaded by the claims of the extremist political parties demanding for change.
However, one main point to consider is the weaknesses of the Constitution, the enabling of Article 48 allowed the President to potentially overrule the Reichstag and in the event of ‘emergencies’ although luckily Ebert used it mainly for preservation of the Republic such as he gave power to the army in 1923 in order to put down the Munich Putsch, however later on in 1930s we can see how much Hindenburg took advantage of this ‘loophole’. For the political system to succeed, it was essential that it was recognised as legitimate by the majority of the population but this was hard to ensure as it was difficult to create a strong government through their system of proportional voting which made it virtually impossible to establish a majority within the Reichstag. This political instability led many to lose faith in the new democratic system and therefore damaging the stability of the Republic, this wasn’t helped by the fact Germany was a federal state and some of the German states had too much power and often ignored the government.
The year 1923 was one of many threats to the Republic. In January, French troops occupied the highly industrialised Ruhr area because of German defaults on reparations payments. The Weimar Government responded by calling upon the Ruhr population to stop all industrial activity. The government also began printing money at such a rate that it soon became virtually worthless. By mid 1920, one US dollar was worth 40 marks. In addition, the country was plagued by strikes, street violence, and rumours of planned uprisings by both the left and the right. In August 1923, a new government by Stresemann was formed and began to take measures in order to stabilise the situation.
In conclusion, I agree with the judgement to some extent as political violence was extremely high and chaotic from the right as shown through the mass murders and the failure to put it down effectively and quickly resulted in an undermining of the Republic. This wasn’t helped by the corrupted judiciary who sided with the right more often than none. However, this level of violence only occurred as the right wing were unhappy with the government and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, it left the majority of the population feeling humiliated and many right wing nationalists wanted to reject the terms proposed. Once it was signed, there was a growing level of hatred towards the Republic which couldn’t be changed and I believe this was the main threat to the stability of the Republic as the majority of the public believed they had been betrayed.
