How successful was Weimar Germany during 1919 - 1929?

Tom Gray

How successful was Weimar Germany during 1919 – 1929?

Introduction

Weimar Germany was a Republic set up by the Allies in 1919 after Germany had lost the war and gone into negotiations with the victorious nations.

How Weimar Republic failed

The basis for the formation of Weimar Germany was not a good one as it was born out of defeat, Germany had just lost the war and negotiations with the victors (allies) had forced Germany into a Republic rather than the dictatorship it had been for so long. The German nation was used to being ruled, rather than ruling itself. This big change upset a lot of Germans especially from the left of German politics who even attempted to overthrow the government in 1919. At the other extreme on the right of German politics were people such as Wolfgang and extreme nationalists like Adolf Hitler who also opposed the Republic.

The Treaty of Versailles was drawn up by the Allies at the end of the First World War and was another reason for Weimar Germany failing because it made Germany totally responsible for the war and demand reparations be paid to all the Allied nations (The reparations bill came to 6.6 billion pounds), this led to financial crisis in Germany later on. The Treaty also humiliated Germany by expelling them from parts of their own country (The Rhine etc) and the limitation of their military force to such any extent that Germany would not be able to repel an invasion of their country. This caused a lot of resentment and certainly did not help the new Republic in anyway.

I also believe the constitution weaken the Republic due to the fact that many of the main features were not excepted for example proportional representation, parliamentary government and civil liberties. The argument that the constitution’s base was narrow and unrepresentative is based on the polls for the three major parties Social Democrats, Centre Party and the DDP. The poll they received in 1919 was 23.1 million votes but they never received anything like that again, the closest was 14.3 million and that wasn’t until 1928. Proportional representation also led to a rise and fall of a coalition of parties in which no party had the majority that meant they had to negotiate between each other, which caused problem between parties leading to political mayhem.

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Unrest, reparations and instability led to far right politicians i.e. General Ludendorff and Wolfgang Kapp to form a National Association to raise support for the restoration of a monarchy. One of these groups the Ehrhardt Marine Brigade seized government buildings in Berlin that led to the Commander-in-Chief of the army to use force against the uprising. Political violence and instability continued through 1921-22 which included the KPD uprising in Hamburg and central Germany which were crushed by the army, Freikorps also maintained a programme of political violence which led to the USPD leader Karl Gareis being shot and his replacement ...

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By 1922 the currency was the main problem in Germany with a national debt of 144,000 million marks made worse by the reparation payments was blamed on government policy. This led to the policy of passive resistance but this came at a huge price for Germany:

Government had to pay out millions in lost revenue
Denial of revenue resulted in government issuing more banknotes
By August 1923 there were 663 billion marks in circulation leading to hyperinflation
By December 1922 the exchange rate stood at 8,000 marks to the dollar and by November the following year it had risen to 4.2 billion marks to the dollar

Weimar politics also failed when Stresemann’s government collapsed on November 1923 and was replaced by one led by Wilhelm Marx. The republic had gone into a state of emergency that was only lifted in 1924. Government instability was also true in the period between 1926 – 1928 when a new coalition was formed involving the Centre Party, DVP and the DNP that foundered on instructions it gave to the country’s diplomatic corps to use the old imperial flag. The Reichstag passed a vote of no confidence in 1926.

Economic problems were the main downfall of the Weimar Republic, its deteriorating economy, the slow growth and relative stagnation of the economy was due to the fact that the Republic had a weak economic structure also meant that Germany’s economy was weak until 1929. Also effected by the weak economic structure was unemployment, which in 1928 stood at 14.3 million or 14.5% of the workforce. The set up of the new Republic had serious repercussions as the nation tried to adjust the relative normality after years of war and trying to rebuild Germany all took their toll on Germany’s economic structure. Matters worsted with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that meant that international loans pretty much vanished and other countries started demanding their money back on other loans they had made to Germany.

Conclusion

The points above are the reasons why and how I think the Weimar Republic failed; it also includes events that happened because of it and events that caused it to collapse. The reasons the Republic failed in my opinion are: the Republic was born out of defeat, opposition to the republic, huge change from dictatorship to democracy, Treaty of Versailles, main points of the republic not excepted, weak econmic structure and the Wall Street Crash. All of these points played their part in the downfall of the Weimar Republic.

How Weimar Republic was a success

The Weimar Republic was a success because it produced a new constitution that promised social reforms and freedoms not seen before in Germany. This new Republic overcame the economic and political threats in the immediate post-war years, which caused the economy to grow and a new welfare state to develop. The Republic was able to repel uprisings in Berlin and Munich and gained a lot of support due to the fact that it was anti-communist.

The new constitution created the Reich state as a parliamentary democracy, which was seen to be a better system by the rest of the world excluding the east (Russia and China). It also provided for a strong executive in the form of a president and implemented proportional representational voting that meant small parties got their say in the running of the country and provided a wider opinion therefore a better decision could be reached. The Bill of Rights was introduced under the new constitution that guaranteed individual rights such as freedom of speech and the right to belong to a union. Also the Weimar constitution reflected a broad spectrum of political opinion and included built in checks and balances which if used could produce political stability. The constitutions tried to stop one power dominating Germany and create a fair and equal society.

Although political violence was a problem the republic was able to control all the uprisings such as the KPD and Freikorps.

In August 1923 a new government led by Gustav Stresemann was formed to take measures to stabilise the situation.

September 1923, French agree to set up a commission to study Germany’s economic problems.
November 1923, new mark was released that was covered by mortgage bonds and all assets at the time and printing was strictly limited.
In an effort to balance the budget 700,000 state employees were sacked.
November 1923, new bank opens and Hjalmar Schacht was appointed special currency commissioner to keep control of the currency

The Dawes Plan helped the Republic no end by suggesting that the French no longer occupy the Ruhr which happened, reparations would be paid over a long period of time and credit advanced to Germany to help re-build their economic structure which also happened and the Reich bank would be reorganized and reparation payments controlled as not to threaten the stability of Germany’s currency.

Also another plan that helped the Weimar Republic was the Young Plan, which was dominated by socialists and broad enough to include members of the SPD, DDP, DVP, Centre and BVP and made the following points:

A timescale would be put on the reparation repayments and the amount paid each year would be lower.
Responsibility for making the transfers would be given to Germany
The total amount paid would be 1,700 million less than before
That the French would evacuate the Rhineland ahead of schedule

This plan was accepted which was an important victory for Stresemann and the Republic.

The Republic made diplomatic improvements in the post-Locarno period due to its admittance to the League of Nations in 1926. The Treaty of Berlin was signed between Germany and Russia, reaffirming the Treaty of Rapollo in the fact that each county would stay neutral in the event of an attack from a third country. In 1927 the Inter-Allied Military Commission withdrew that was set up to oversee military production in Germany. All of these points prove that the Republic was succeeding.

The Welfare State is another reason why the Weimar Republic should be considered a success, public spending on housing increased to 33 times it was in 1913 and the effect was a considerably improvement in the quality of housing which in turn lowered disease and death rate all over Germany. Children were given the right to a good upbringing and so life improved greatly for the nation children.

Conclusion

I consider the Weimar republic a success after considering the things that happened or were made possible by the formation of the republic. Life in Germany was changed from chaos to improved living conditions and better education for children. All the points above either helped the Republic or were made possible because the Weimar Republic was a success.