Why did the Weimar Republic face so many problems up to 1923?

Another problem faced by the Weimar Republic was the left wing uprising. In January 1919 the Spartacists led an armed rebellion against the Weimar government. They called for a general strike while occupying public buildings. This was not a major problem however as there was little chance of success. The army and Freikorps easily crushed the rebellion and over 100 rebels were killed. Liebknecht and Luxemberg, the leaders of the rebellion were brutally murdered while in Police custody. Even though the rebellion was easily disbanded it was the very fact that the rebellion had occurred that was a worrying factor for Weimar. A more serious disturbance in Bavaria in April resulted in a short-lived soviet-type republic being established there. However the soviet republic did not considerably damage the Weimar government as Freikorps brought the disturbances under control. Therefore the Soviet republic was only a short-term measure.

The Treaty of Versailles caused serious problems for German Democracy. One such problem was the territorial arrangements that had a serious effect on Weimar Germany. The loss of land meant that Germany lost many areas that were key to production, or had natural resources. For example the loss of Saar and other areas meant that coal production went down by 16%. This had a serious effect on the economy of Germany. This leads onto another problem, reparations. In 1921 the sum of reparations was fixed at £6600 Million, and payments had to be made in kind (E.g. Coal). This would have a devastating effect on Weimar, and was very much a humiliation of Germany. Many of the public did not believe that Germany had truly lost the war, but were ‘stabbed in the back’ by the Government, Socialists and Jews. Therefore, even though it had not been the Weimar government that had led Germany to defeat, they had to take the blame for it, and so lost the support of the people.

Lastly the Weimar Constitution of 1919 did not strengthen the German Democracy. For instance, Article 48 gave the president supreme control over the government in extreme or emergency conditions. This power was given in an attempt to lessen fears that an unrestricted parliament would become too powerful. So in trying to limit the powers of Parliament, the constitution gave immense power to the President. This caused uncertainty in constitutional matters as it was unclear who was in charge. This suggests that the government hierarchy was very unstable and not very organised. Another problem with the constitution was that it allowed the continuity of traditional institutions. Even though it introduced a wide range of democratic rights and civil liberties, it made no provision to reform the old traditional institutions For instance, the judiciary continued to enjoy its independence, however many judges did not support the Weimar Government and were very biased, tending to favour the extreme right over the extreme left. Only 28 out of the 354 right-wing assassins were found guilty and punished, but 10 out of the 22 left wing assassins were condemned to death. This therefore meant that powerful conservative forces were able to exert great influence in the daily life of the Weimar republic, and this was at odds with the left wing’s wishes to extend civil rights and to create a modern, democratic society.

In conclusion, the Weimar Republic faced so many problems up to 1923, because in trying to satisfy everyone, it did not manage to deal with the threats it faced from inside, right versus left wing, and outside Germany, the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty of Versailles weakened German democracy in many aspects and led to many distrusting the Weimar government. The extent of the opposition from the extreme right was very much underestimated, and Weimar instead overestimated the threat from the Left wing. Therefore it was the persistence of the old attitudes in the major traditional institutions that represented the greatest long-term threat to the republic. Even though the early putsches by Kapp and Hitler were too weak and disorganized to seize power, the danger of the extreme right was a growing threat to Weimar democracy.