Was the Weimar Republic Doomed From the Start? 1919-23

The 'Kapp Putsch' was a further attempt by the 'Fatherland Party' in cooperation with the Freikorps to seize power from the government. The Freikorps were an anti-republican organisation made up of non-commissioned officers in the German army. These soldiers were very strongly monarchists and were committed to the restoration of authoritarian rule; they were occasionally used by the government to suppress perceived left wing threats, a job at which they were extremely good. The suppression of the perceived threat was usually brutal to the extreme. The need to reduce the size of the German army under the Treaty of Versailles caused considerable unrest among the Freikorps, and resulted in a march on the capital under the direction of Wolfgang Kapp. This attempted seizure of power failed, not because it was brutally repressed, the German army units loyal to the government refused to fight against other army units, the 'camaraderie' of the First World War, fighting side by side against a common enemy, had not yet disappeared. However, the lack of support for Kapp from the ordinary people of Germany meant that within a short space of time the regime collapsed, the loyalty of the people remained with the Weimar Republic. The Government, before fleeing for Stuttgart appealed for a general strike that was generally implemented by the workers. This incident illustrated two important factors, first that the new regime had gained legitimacy; the democratic system was felt by the people to be legitimate as it had a right to rule having been elected by the people. Secondly, the lack of support for any alternative to the Weimar government from the right wing source showed that at this stage there was no real challenge to the Weimar government despite the state of economic crisis.

However, the threats posed by these relative factions were not as great as was supposed at the time. The government were petrified of the communist movement that would overthrow the fledgling democracy, and Weimar thought that the communists were assumed to be far stronger than was actually the case, for this reason communist revolutionaries were more severely punished than right wing radicals. This was partially due to the government's paranoia towards the possibility of a potential communist revolution, and partially due to the right wing sympathies within the civil services.

The right wing parties were considered to be a lesser threat to the government than the left wing parties. The communist movement that was, at this time strong throughout Europe was much feared by the government. For this reason the government concentrated on repressing left wing threats, this was often achieved in a very violent and brutal manner. Also, communist revolutionaries were often sentenced to death or life imprisonment when put on trial. However, right wing revolutionaries often were given five-year sentences, and sometimes even less. This was partially due to the government's stance towards the right wing revolutionaries, but perhaps more to do with the right wing sympathies within the civil services. After the decline of the Kaiser Reich, many of the civil servants were requested to stay on under the new Weimar republic. For this reason, many of the judges and senior civil servants had right wing, authoritarian, monarchist sympathies, and therefore right wing revolutions were kindly dealt with in comparison to their left wing counterparts.

Much of this political unrest in Germany during this time was due to the raging inflation of the time. Germany had many economic problems stemming from the war; these were mainly due to the huge amounts of national debt accumulated by the Kaiser Reich to finance the war effort, but also the huge amounts of reparations that Germany was forced to pay the Allies. Instead of tackling the root problems by cutting government expenditure and creating greater levels of income through raising taxes, the government felt that they could not risk the unpopularity with these measures that would inevitably bring. Instead, the government chose to print large quantities of marks and sell them on foreign exchanges in order to obtain the required hard currency. The result of this policy was that a spiral of hyperinflation ensued, resulting in the mark becoming worthless to such an extent that the paper on which the mark was printed was worth more than the note itself. This situation of economic crisis would be expected to produce a detrimental effect on the state of the country politically.

However, the contrary is true, the hyperinflation of 1923 was, in actual fact beneficial to those elements of society intelligent enough to grasp the rare opportunity. Those who were in debt were able to pay off their debts with money that was worth next to nothing, as the more naive became desperate and panicked, forward thinking businessmen were able to buy large quantities of real estate, and big businesses exploited the cheap credit and inflated profits in order to create large industrial corporations. However, the inflationary spiral did have its losers, those who had made relatively secure investments such as war bonds lost large sums of money as they were paid back in worthless currency, the lower salary workers whose salaries were not adjusted quickly enough to keep up with the raging inflationary spiral, in a similar situation were those who relied on benefit or grants for survival. Then there were those who had little change in their situation such as farmers who managed to get by through bartering and exchanging goods for what they needed, in a similar way the small shop owners exchanged goods for essential items.

Yet, the survival of the Weimar Republic during this period was mainly due to the fact that things were not as bad as they seemed on the surface. In actual fact, this period was very positive for the new Republic in many ways, the policy of inducing hyper-inflation through printing huge quantities of bank notes was in many ways better than the alternative of increasing tax levels and cutting government expenditure. Although raging inflation may have been unpopular with many elements in society and left a scar on the Weimar constitution, it was perhaps less unpopular than high taxes and limited government outlay, benefit cuts and removal of government subsidy many have been two effects of such a policy, both of which would have weakened the new government's political position by a loss of essential support, vital to its survival. As it was, the government was able to reduce the amount of responsibility that fell on them through casting the blame on the allies and the already unpopular Treaty of Versailles. Yet, there were other positive economical points for Germany, as during this period Germany also had an extremely low level of unemployment, and the high level of economic activity within Germany resulted in a huge influx of foreign investment into Germany particularly from the U.S.A.

The blame for Germany's current situation of economic crisis was placed upon the 'unfair' presumption that Germany was solely responsible for starting the war, and the 'ridiculous' levels of compensation that they were being force to pay as a result, and the Weimar government were virtually exonerated from all responsibility. In fact, the real root of the problem was twofold, the Weimar republic were not willing to risk unpopularity by introducing unpopular but necessary reforms, and the debt accumulated during the war by the Kaiser Reich was extremely large. The Treaty of Versailles simply compounded the problem.

The new government was the body that signed the Treaty of Versailles, and to many, that was a betrayal and became known under the influence of Hindenburg as the 'stab in the back myth'. The consequences of Versailles were severe to Germany, and many were looking for someone to blame, the 'November Criminals' of the government being the ideal scapegoat. The treaty imposed by the Allies forced the birth of the Republic to be one of defeat. The terms of the treaty had been unacceptable to Germany from the outset, but they had no choice but to accept it, the peace expected in Germany had been along the lines of an honourable draw, close to the 14 point plan drawn up by President Wilson of the United States, instead they were afflicted with war guilt and a massive debt in reparations. Although the treaty was not perhaps as harsh as it could have been, it did contribute greatly to the financial unrest of 1922-3, and most importantly it associated the Constitution with failure and humiliation.

Although there was a wide spread feeling of resentment towards the Allies 'war guilt clause' and reparation fees, German delegates were effectively forced into signing the declaration due to the weakness of their military if faced with further allied attacks.

The results of the treaty were in fact better than presumed, as although deeply dishonoured and scarred, Germany remained diplomatically strong and if united had the potential to quickly regain power and status. This was then proved with the signing of the Treaty of Rapollo in 1922, with the Soviet Union, making Germany the most dominant power in Eastern Europe. Consequently, the Republic achieved in overcoming some areas of Versailles as well as increasing the feeling of hatred towards the Allies, thus pushing the blame from the government.

Despite all these factors that aided the survival of the Weimar republic, perhaps the most important of all was real political strength. The Weimar republic was an elected government, chosen by the people as a representative body of the spectrum of political views within Germany. Thus, it was a fair government. It had gained legitimacy through its legal right to rule. This can perhaps explain why the government had relatively weak opposition from the right and left wings. Although Germany was in turmoil in the aftermath of the war, and the conditions were right for revolutionary movements to thrive, they were weakened by the legitimacy of the government. The people felt that a body that represented their interests was governing them fairly; the blame for the problems generally fell elsewhere. The support for the government at this stage was apparent through the failed Kapp movement and the 'passive resistance' used against France, after the takeover of the Ruhr, in 1923. The people listened to what the government said and obeyed, the Weimar republic was well established and strong enough to weather the storm that raged throughout the early twenties.

There were many contributing factors that enabled the Weimar Republic to overcome the problems it faced and survive. The Weimar government itself took action to save the republic by making changes in the government, taking action to save the economy and introducing emergency powers. To prevent things getting out of control under Article 48 in times of crisis the President had the right to dismiss and dissolve the Reichstag and interfere in legislations.

In August 1923 Gustav Stresemann was appointed Chancellor and this proved to be a fundamental turning point that set Weimar on the road to recovery, as he was prepared to actually face up to the country's problems and set about resolving them. He called off passive resistance and recommenced reparation payments, reduced the trade deficit by cutting down the government expenditure and also created a new currency. This new currency, the Rentenmark, immediately stopped hyperinflation and established a stable currency, creating a basis on which Weimar's economic predicaments could be internationally negotiated.

In my opinion the problems faced by the Weimar Republic were not insurmountable as in the end they were in some cases successfully overcome. However, there is no doubt that they were very serious and at times posed a very real threat to the survival of the Republic. Although it is easy to say that the eventual collapse of the Constitution clearly states its failure, I feel that Weimar was by no means doomed to fail. Instead it was the misguidance and misjudgements of its leaders that bought the Republic to its downfall. As I have mentioned previously it was the majority of the German people who desired such a state, had this not been true the democracy would have collapsed long before it did. Furthermore, the government faced some of the hardest challenges possible to face in such era, thus showing the strength of the Republic.