“In the form it took in 1919, parliamentary democracy was truly accepted and zealously defended by only a minority of the population.”
The French occupation of the Ruhr in January 1923 was a crucial economic point for the Weimar Republic. The workers in the Ruhr were instructed no to co-operate with the occupiers and in effect, strike. A massive increase in public spending was met by a reduction in taxation due to the Ruhr being paralysed. This led to the collapse of Germany’s currency, and also hyperinflation in Germany. Hyper inflation hit the middle class the hardest. They had that little bit more money than the working classes, and therefore had savings. However, hyperinflation saw the value of their savings totally wiped out. Hyperinflation and the collapse of the currency obviously reflected badly on the Government, and made it more unpopular with many Germans.
The Weimar Republic also faced a lot of opposition from the left and right wings in Germany during its early years. The Communist groups in Germany saw the Weimar Republic as a sell out. This led to a number of Left uprisings against the government including the Spartacist Revolt of 1918 and the Red Rising in the Ruhr in 1923, where communist groups organised strikes, demonstrations and disturbances to undermine the new government. Right wing groups found expression in attempts to seize power violently or in violence targeted at undermining the new system of government. The most obvious examples of this are the Kapp Putsch of 1920 and the Munich Putsch of 1923 led by Hitler.
However, even though the Weimar Republic had been put under a lot of pressure since its formation in 1919, it was still in power. Therefore, if the collapse of the Weimar Republic was inevitable, why had it not collapsed by 1923? It is clear, then, that the Weimar Republic was not as unstable as we are sometimes led to believe. Even though many Germans were suspicious of democracy, they seemed to be tolerating it, and may be even supporting it. Examples of this can be seen in the Kapp Putsch and the French Occupation of the Ruhr. In both cases, the government asked the German people to help it by means of a strike, and the people did what the government asked, which enabled the Weimar Republic to survive these events. Also, the Munich Putsch could have started the loss of Law and Order in Germany; however, it was put down by the local authorities. Again the police force and army stayed loyal to the Government. Therefore, maybe the collapse of the Weimar Republic wasn’t inevitable, as it did seem to have a fair bit of popular support before 1923.
The period from 1924 to 1929 is often known as “the golden years of the Weimar Republic.” There was much economic stability in the 1920’s, mainly thanks to Germany’s Chancellor from November 1923, Gustav Stresemann. This was quite ironic, as Stresemann had originally been anti-Weimar and pro-monarchist. As chancellor, he did much to ensure that the Weimar Republic survived the economic crisis it faced. He introduced a new currency, the Retenmark, in order to stop hyperinflation. He also acted decisively to prevent the rise of communism in Saxony, and refused to be panicked by the activities of the extreme right in Bavaria. In the mid to late 1920’s Germany had a very stable currency, competitive interest rates and an increasingly settled place in the international community. However, in a number of respects, the Weimar economy was structurally unsound. Its prosperity relied very much on foreign investment, which could easily be withdrawn without notice. Public spending was also considerably higher than taxation. This is why the Wall Street Crash affected Germany and the Weimar Republic so badly. Foreign investment that Germany relied so heavily on was withdrawn, as investors scrambled to get their money back, in order to pay off their own debts. German exporters were also hit hard by the post-1929 contraction of world trade. This led to high unemployment (30% of the workforce), and those still in work were hit by wage cuts. During this time, the “Grand Coalition” of the DVP, DDP and Catholic Centre Party was in power in Germany. The Wall Street Crash caused the collapse of the Coalition over the issue of taxation and public spending. Once the Grand Coalition had collapsed in 1930, Hindenburg used Article 48 of the constitution to rule by presidential decree. Layton argues that:
“Democratic rule in Germany had actually died in the spring and summer of 1930”
Referring to the time when the Grand Coalition collapsed and Hindenburg began to rule by Presidential Decree. However, by this time Hindenburg was 83 years of age, and mentally unstable. When watching a Military March past, he once commented to his son “I did realise we had taken so many Russians prisoner.” Unable to run the country alone, he was therefore influenced by a small group of advisers; namely, his son Oscar, state secretary Otto Meissner, and senior defence minister Kurt Von Schleicher. Schleicher saw the collapse of democracy as a chance for a “Conservative revolution”. He therefore tried to place people who were not pro-Weimar into the job of Chancellor. His first choice was Brűning, who was a WW1 frontline general, and had authoritarian political leanings. However, when he failed to keep the confidence of his patrons, Brűning’s Chancellorship came to an end. He was replaced by Von Papen, who, when he revealed plans to make himself Germany’s dictator, suffered the same fate as Brűning. Schleicher took over as Chancellor himself. However, he did not do anything more than his predecessors. It could therefore be argued that the collapse of the Weimar Republic was not inevitable, and was helped by Schleicher for trying to put anti-Weimar politicians in the job of chancellor.
Since as early as 1923, the Nazi’s had been using the proportional representation system to slowly gain seats in the Reichstag. They became particularly popular during the depression of the early 1930’s. They stirred up opposition to the Weimar Republic by linking it to Versailles, and Versailles to all Germany’s problems. Hitler had such a wide appeal. He was attractive to the workers because he promised employment, and to the middle class because they did not trust the Weimar Republic. By this time the Nazi’s had a majority in the Reichstag, though not an overall majority. The Nazi’s also made the government look weak by destroying law and order in Germany, using the SA. However, Hitler himself bears very little responsibility for the collapse of the Weimar Republic. Before his appointment to chancellor in 1933, Hitler’s destiny was in the hands of others. The collapse of the Weimar Republic could thus lie partly with Schleicher and Hindenburg, the people who made Hitler chancellor. It was hoped that Hitler would just be a puppet chancellor. With the failure of the previous chancellors, Hindenburg and Schleicher decided that they needed a chancellor with popular support, and the only force capable of this was the Nazi’s. However, Hitler had his own ideas, and certainly had no intention of being a puppet chancellor.
The Enabling Law of 1933 basically made Hitler the dictator of Germany, thus completely destroying democracy in Germany. It gave him powers to make laws, control the budget, and approve treaties with foreign governments. Democracy in Germany had well and truly been abolished.
From the very start, the Weimar Republic faced opposition from both sides of the political spectrum. The public blamed Germany’s problems on the Treaty of Versailles, and in turn, blamed the government that signed it. This, along with the lack of democratic experience in Germany, and the proportional representation system, it would seem that the collapse of the Weimar Republic was inevitable. However, with all the challenges it faced in its early years, surely if the regime was going to collapse, it would have done so before 1923, whereas it actually seemed quite strong at this time. Therefore, there must have been other factors that caused its collapse. I think that the Wall Street Crash and the depression that followed it was probably the main contributor to the collapse of the Weimar Republic, along with Hitler being chosen as chancellor in 1933. The depression made people blame the German public blame all its problems on the government. They looked for an alternative, and the Nazi’s seemed to have all the answers. Once Hitler had been appointed chancellor in 1933, his destiny was in his own hands, and there was no stopping him becoming dictator of Germany. The Enabling Law that made Hitler dictator of Germany, was only in effect the “nail in the coffin” of the Weimar Republic. Democracy had been dead in Germany for a number of years, and the Enabling Law just made it formal.
