four thousand million Marks. Worker's and their families could not afford bread and the loss of
savings embittered everybody. The German economy collapsed and a solution needed to be
found for the problem of hyperinflation before economic stability and progress could be
achieved. The hyperinflation angered everyone affected and it lost the Weimar Republic a great
deal of support, for example this can be seen because the Nazi's Munich Putsch took place
during the depression as they believed hatred for the government would inspire a desire for
revolution among the people. In 1924, the Weimar Government called off the passive resistance
in the Ruhr, and thus restarted production. The introduction of the Dawes Plan in 1924 changed
the currency in Germany from the Reichmark to the Rentenmark, and this combined with
restarting industrial production stabilised the economy. The Dawes Plan also arranged American
loans and money poured into Germany to help her develop industry once again. The
Hyperinflation was therefore ended as stated by Histortian A Wood:
"The Dawes Plan was successful in re-creating a sound currency and...enabled her industry to be re-organised and her reparations payments to be met."
By the end of 1924 the average wage in Germany was 10% higher than the previous year. The
National Income was also increased and unemployment was reduced to one million for the first
time since 1918. Employment meant that working men's situations were improved and hence
their families benefitted also, creating a large proportion of Germany that was better off. Thus
the problems of unemployment and a poor economy were reversed by 1924, and the Weimar
Republic was successful in overcoming the issue. However, the economic stability did not bring
back the money people had lost in their savings during the crisis itself, and therefore, the public
lacked trust in the government and their support in them during the time of relative economic
stability during 1923-26 was not stable or guaranteed. The temporary economic situation was also
highly reliant on American loans, so therefore it could not be regarded as stable because it was
reliant on American stability. Compared to the rest of Europe, Germany's growth was also
inferior, and hence she was not in a necessarily good position, just a better one. The growth in
the economy was also somewhat erratic and in 1926, it took a downturn. Therefore, the general
conclusion is that although the economic situation was solved to an extent, it was no means
secure. Also, although the government had gained support for their success, the German's still
viewed the Weimar Republic with an air of caution and distrust resulting from the hyperinflation
days. Thus the effectiveness was limited in terms of support and long term security, because the
support was not necessarily support but in fact just mere apathy for the government of the time,
but any small crisis could spark up hatred and distrust immediately.
The German people hated reparations payments and the Weimar Republic had lost
support when they agreed to pay such high demands because many German's believed the
demands were both unfair, and that agreeing to pay for the demands showed that Germany
admitted to War Guilt. Being unable to meet the demands of the reparations caused the French
to invade the Ruhr and the hyperinflation ensued. In 1924, the hyperinflation made the allies
realise the extent of the German economic crisis, and the League of Nations was then able to
work with the Weimar Republic to revise a more realistic system for reparation payments. The
reduction of reparations payments helped Germany to thrive industrially, as she had more money
available to help boost her industry. Therefore, the reduction of payments as part of the Dawes
plan solved help to solve the poor economic situation and increased support for the government
because Germany was more economically sound as a result. Also the government gained support
because the issue of reparations was very sore with the German's and any action against the
demands of the Allies would please them. It can therefore be concluded that the Weimar
Republic was effective in dealing with the issue of unfair reparations payments and reduced
support because of it. However, although improved economic situation increased Weimar
support, some German's did not regard their achievements with reparations as a success. There
were many who regarded the payment of any reparations as wrongful altogether because it was
seen as admitting war guilt, and hence even at a reduced level of payment they did not support
the Weimar Republic paying the Allies. Therefore, the success of reparation reduction was
limited in terms of regaining popularity.
Risings against the Weimar Constitution from the left wing were recurrent prior to 1923,
for example the attempted revolutions led my Rosa Luxemburg and Liebknecht in 1919.
Communist electoral support was increasing before 1924, and this indicates that support for the
Weimar Constitution was decreasing. This put the Weimar Republic under threat from attempted
revolutions and the threat needed to be quenched. The freikorps and the biased nationalistic
judges were successful in deterring communist revolutions because after 1924, there were no
more significant attempts for power from the communists. Their electoral support also
decreased, the communists losing a thrid of their seats in 1924 elections. This is because the
Weimar Republic had relieved the economic crisis and there was less of a reason for people to
look for alternatives. Therefore, the problem the Weimar Republic faced from communist
opposition was overcome as they increased their internal political stability, improved economy
and successful defence. However, there was still some support for the communists but it was no
longer threatening. Therefore, they were effective in dealing with the problem from the left.
The constitution had also dealt with many uprisings from the right. Namely these were
the Kapp Putsch in March 1920 and the Munich Putsch in 1923. After the November Munich
Putsch the Nazis did not attempt to take power again in the period 1924-26. They also only
gained 12 seats in the December 1924 elections. This implies both that the right wing extremists
were losing support because there was a decrease in people voting for them and that the Weimar
Republic was gaining support because there was an increase in people voting for them. It can be
concluded that through general improvement of the German situation, people were happier with
the coalition government and had no need to turn to the extremes. Therefore, the coalition had
effectively dealt with the situation of revolutionary opposition because they had taken away the
dissatisfaction with the government. However, they had not vanquished the problem, merely
controlled it temporarily. The Nazis and the communists still regularly had street fights, and there
was much lenience given to the nationalist demonstrations, and so this could lead to problems
over time, because the support for the Weimar Republic was still unstable and hence the volatility
of voters was an issue. The Republic had pushed the problem aside but still had it to deal with in
long term. Voters have more political apathy when their country is running smoothly, but this
does not mean that they necessarily supported the Weimar Republic, just that they weren’t
bothered about voting elsewhere. If the country did fall into crisis again the people would not
stand by the Republic and would be more likely to support extremists again at the slightest
Republican slip.
Germany had felt she deserved ‘Her place in the sun’ Kaiser Wilhelm, prior to the war.
After the War she had her colonial territories removed and lost much of her Land, such as
Alscase-Lorraine, the Sarrland and Silesia. This severely damaged German national pride at a
time when the German's thought they deserved more influence in the world. Her citizens felt
and powerless country in the sphere of Europe. The Weimar Republic did not succeed in
regaining any land taken away from them by the Treaty of Versailles and therefore the
government was not effective in dealing with this issue. The failure of reclaiming land also meant
that the government suffered decreased support and this gave German's a lower opinion of the
government as a whole, so the government would be more open to scrutiny for the smallest
mistake.
Germany had lost her power in Europe due to the First World War, and this damaged
National Pride. This had led to lack of support for the Weimar Republic in 1919-23. In 1925,
however, as historian D Thomson states
‘Germany was brought back into the magic circle of great powers, and seemed likely to take her place in
international relations as a conciliatory and unaggressive power’.
This was because she signed the Locarno Pact in London 1925, which contained
arbitration agreements between Germany,France, Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The
treaty reduced the question of the French invading the Ruhr again and causing further damaging
problems to the economy. It gave the Germans protection and stability and hence increased
National Pride and gained support for the Weimar Republic because the government was seen as
more stable and stong. In this way the Republic was able to overcome the problem that Germany
was under threat and had no influence. In the process of doing so they helped to overcome the
problem of lack of support because support from the people is an important factor in a good
government.
The Germans despised the League of Nations and the coalition government that had
signed the Treaty of Versailles because both meant that Gemany had no control over her place in
Europe and no say in European decisions or even her own affairs, such as spenditure, as the
League kept records on everything Germany spent money on. The League of Nations made
decisions about Germany without her being able to object. In 1926, the Germans managed to
join the League of Nations as a permanent member of the Council, with veto power. This meant
they had gained influence within Europe again and could stop the victorious nations making
decisions that would be damaging to Germany any longer. Therefore, the problem of restricted
power in Europe was overcome when Germany joined the League. It also had the additional
bonus of providing the German Government with the abilities to start working on reducing the
restrictions placed on her by the Treaty of Versailles, such as reparation payments. However, it
did not necessarily please the German people or gain much support for the Weimar Republic.
The Germans hated the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles and many saw joining
with the Allies as a further act of treachery. However, any general increase in the state of a
country’s welfare improves support for the government. The support however, was fragile
support, and did not solve issues in the long term, just helping Weimar in the short term.
Therefore, the government’s effectiveness was limited.
Another way of increasing German influence and power was found in signing
the Treaty of Berlin to gain alliance with the USSR. The treaty secured economic and military
deals and gave an advantage to Germany. It also put gentle pressure on the western world to
make an effort to treat Germany fairly, because otherwise signing the treaty was almost an
unwritten threat that she could join with USSR against them. This was effective because it helped
to give Germany more power and influence within Europe, she could not be seen as weak by the
other nations when she had the help of the Russians.
Germany was seen as a "leper state" prior to 1924; no one wanted anything to do with
her. Her trade had suffered as no one wanted German exports or would import to Germany.
Relations with other countries needed to be solved to help improve the economy because trade
contributes massively to a good economy. The Weimar response to this isolation from Europe
was the Locarno pact and the pact with Russia. The forging of contracts with the other European
nations and Russia meant that nations felt less distrust and hatred for Germany and began to no
longer treat her as a 'leper state'. Increased trade relations helped Germany to boost her economy
and therefore the Weimar Republic was effective in dealing with the issue of being isolated from
Europe because Germany gained influence in both power and trade from the deals made by
them. However, Germany was still not allowed Anshluss with Austria, so restriction in her
International affairs was still in existance, and thus the effectiveness was limited.
In 1919-23 the Army viewed itself as an organisation independent of government
control. The army had supported some nationalist revolts such as the Kapp Putsch because they
were attracted to the offer of having more power and being allowed to increase in size. The
Treaty of Versailles had imposed many restrictions on the size of the army and they were irritated
by this. They resented the peace loving Weimar Republic and wanted to go back to their former
strength that they had enjoyed under the glorious days of the Kaiser. After 1923 steady
rearmament began to take place illegally under the Weimar Republic and the army was pleased
with this because it gave them more power, and hence issues of lack of army support began to
slowly subside. The election of the war hero Hindenburg as president also pleased the army, as
they felt they had someone on their side. This meant that when posed with any future rebellions,
the Weimar Republic had better chances of keeping the army support and became a safer nation
again. The Army were not going to help a revolutionary party against a government who seemed
to be helping them once again. The pacts with Russia also enabled Germany to regain her
military strength as weapon building began to take place in Krupps armaments factories in secret
in Russia. The Army knew of this secret building and it gave them the impression that the
Weimar Republic did plan to make Germany a military power again and not just agree to the
League of Nation's demands that she remain peace loving even though the rest of Europe was
alllowed an army. Therefore, the Weimar Republic were successful in keeping the support of the
army and overcame the problems that the army were publicly unhappy at Treaty of Versailles
restrictions. Joining the League of Nations offered future hope to the army as a European power
again, although some German soldiers resented joining with something they regarded as a
disgrace against their country.
In 1919-23 the Weimar Republic had introduced a Welfare state with relied on
redistributing the country’s wealth from the rich to the poor, using taxation. Also working
conditions for the working class were improved. The reduction in working hours for the working
classes caused the middle classes to become unhappy with the welfare state as it meant that they
lost out on profit. The middle and upper classes were also unhappy with their increased taxation
levels. This meant that the elite voters were more likely to vote Nationalist. However after 1923,
the Weimar Republic made an effort to keep the elite voters happy and did things such as
lengthen maximum working hours. Although the elite voters were unhappy with the Weimar
Republic, things were not sufficiently bad within Germany for them to turn their back on
democracy, they voted a party that was average for fear a party that could possibly be worse
would get into power. By making the country safer, more powerful and stabilising the economy,
the Republic were more likely to maintain votes in 1926 than they were in 1923. However, the
support was fragile so the problem of displeasing the elite voters was not solved completely and
the government lacked effectiveness in being a catch-all party.
In conclusion, many of the problems the Weimar Republic faced in 1919-23 had been
dealt with in some way, and had achieved some degree of success in being eradicated. The main
problem of decreasing support for the party has been somewhat decreased because of the
compound gains in situation that Germany had made. However, many of the problems were only
over come in the short term and support for the Republic was still very fragile. They had
managed to lay the foundations for a stronger country, for example joining the League of
Nations, but were living in a volatile Germany, where one drop in the puddle of tranquillity could
stir up waves of discontent among the citizens who still had the period of 1919-23 firmly painted
in their memories. Problems were dealt with to a small degree but the Weimar Republic had the
black mark of having to deal with the League of Nations against their name, so whilst the country
was running smoothly, people could ignore this anger, but scapegoats for Germany’s later demise
were already been prepared.
