Probably the most threatening problem that Weimar was forced to face was the political crisis. There was opposition from the left and right and political violence from both sides. There were three main left wing parties; the SPD who supported the parliamentary democracy, the USPD who were to an extent caught in the middle as their aim was an entirely socialist society and lastly the KPD, an extreme revolutionary left wing breakaway group of the USPD. The KPD believed that Weimar had not gone far enough and were aiming to provoke a socialist revolution, taking inspiration from Bolshevik Russia. The KPD called themselves the Spartacist League; they took this name from the ancient gladiator slave Spartacus who led a battle against the Romans.
Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, who wanted a new revolutionary to government to replace the existing Weimar one led the KPD, they aimed to achieve this without violence. On 6th January 1919 radical left wing workers began an uprising in Berlin, this is known as the Spartacist Rising, although Liebknecht and Luxemburg felt it was to early for a revolution they felt obliged to offer their support and go along with it. It was down to Noske the leader of the SPD, the party now entirely ruling the country, to put down the rising. He turned to an extreme right wing nationalist group of ex-soldiers know as the Freikorps for helping repressing the uprising. The Freikorps were heavily armed and renound for being violent and particularly nasty. There was three days of savage fighting before the rising was put down. The Freikorps rounded up all the leaders and brutally beat and murdered them, this included Luxemburg and Liebknecht. The way the SPD handled the Spartacist Uprising caused much resentment, even from people who has no Spartacist sympathies.
Right wing opposition posed much more of a threat to the Republic that left wing opposition, mainly due to the sheer numbers of right wing supporters. The main right wing parties were the DNVP and the NSDAP – they rejected the Republic and it’s principals, wanted to destroy the democratic constitution and was in support of a strict nationalist system. The army was very conservative and never really supported Weimar as they wished to remain neutral and there was also opposition from institutions. The Freikorps were becoming an increasing threat to society and the survival of the Republic – they secretly hid weapons for fighting Communists and to take part in liberation wars against France and Poland, they also were influencing the support of younger people who had not been old enough to participate in the war.
In 1920 the Treaty of Versailles directed the government, at this point under the leadership of Bower, to reduce the army from 600 000 to 100 000. This action resulted in a lot of unemployed soldiers and caused a great deal of resentment, especially with the officers. A group of the embittered officers decided to make plans to overthrow the government, Ludendorf supported them. Wolfgang Kapp, a member of the Reichstag, joined the conspiracy. The Kapp Putsch soon followed.
Several army troops defied Noske´s order to disband and they marched to the center of Berlin to join the Kapp Putsch. The Freikorps occupied Berlin without resistance and appointed Kapp as Chancellor. Noske turned to Army Command and asked General von Seekt for help but he refuses; he wishes the army to remain neutral and does not want the army to fire on other army units, his famous quote is, “Reichswehr does not fire on Reichswehr”. However, it can also be argued that the reason von Seekt does not provide assistance is because he wants Kapp to succeed, proving how little the army cared for the republic.
It was left to the workers to put down the Kapp government by going on strike. Confidence in socialist action was strengthened as a result of the success of the strike, in spite of this in some areas there was more chaos brought to the republic as some strikes turned into industrial uprisings. The consequences of the Kapp Putsch failure brought more problems for Weimar in the shape of radical right wing terrorism, known as “White Terror”. During 1921-22 Sir Walther Rathenau, Matthias Erzberger and Kurt Eisner were all murdered by right wing terrorists. Rathenau was a wealthy Jewish industrialist who supported the Weimar government and became Foreign Secretary. Erzberger imposed taxes and socialist legislation.
1920 saw another uprising in which hundreds were executed. A left wing group set up a so-called Soviet Republic but the army quickly put it down. In this situation the army were only too happy to help as communists were causing the uprising, however, they would not assist during the Kapp Putsch, as this was a right wing uprising. This leads us to question the loyalty of the army to the Republic.
There were many 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 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.
External factors also played a part in the survival of the Weimar Republic. Sympathy was gained from the allies as a result of Stresemann´s policies, this led to the Dawes Committee being set up to investigate Weimar financial situation. In 1924 the Dawes Plan was published, it designed the reparation payments in a realistic way that the economy could cope with but did not reduce the amount. Both Weimar and the Allies accepted the plan and it was a step forward regarding international relations and Weimar´s domestic position. Investment from the U.S.A. followed soon after the Dawes Plan and Weimar was able to re-establish its industry.
Despite the negative effects of hyperinflation the workers were actually better off as it created employment due to the increased levels of economic activity. Although Weimar played a principal role in the war, most of the resentment felt by the enemies was channelled towards the French and the allies rather than directly at Weimar itself. There was also no political alternative to the republic as neither the left of right would have been able to successfully run the country. The right was not strong enough and had no clear line of attack and the left did not have enough support and was still un-recovered from its earlier divisions.
In my opinion the problems faced by the Weimar Republic were not insurmountable as in the end they were 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 there were other significant factors, I feel that the evidence suggests that Stresemann was a fundamental figure in Weimar’s fight for survival. Perhaps it is true that Weimar could have survived without him, but personally I think it would have been more of a case of struggling on until its demise. Stresemann exerted such an intense influence and initiated vital economic developments.
