Why did the Weimar Republic face so many problems 1918 - 1923?

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Rebecca Thornton                

Why did the Weimar Republic face so many problems 1918 – 1923?

There were a number of reasons for the problems that the new Republic had to face. It was a completely new government which had to be established. They had to survive the defeat of the war and the lack of confidence Germans had thus acquired -mainly over the political system. There was an eminent amount of political resistance to the new Republic, from right-wing nationalists, and on the opposite end of the scale, left-wing communists – both of these groups using violence in attempting to challenge the new Regime which they opposed greatly. The Treaty of Versailles also created many problems, mainly affecting the German economy, which was after all already weak due to the war.

During the First World War, Germany was lead by the dictatorship of their Kaiser (Wilhelm), who ended up abdicating (9TH Nov. 1918) after violent uprisings against him. He was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, with new president Ebert. The Democratic Republic was something completely new to Germany, and the lost war gave the new government a bad starting point – considering the loss was one of the first things they had to inform the German public of.  Previous to this Germany had thought they would win the war because of the information being fed to them by the Kaiser. They would associate bad news to this new government; giving democracy a bad name. Nevertheless some people did welcome the end of the war and the new beginning supporting Ebert. Yet, some people went as far to say they had been ‘stabbed-in-the-back’ by Ebert – they blamed him and the new government for their loss. I could infer that this theory came from within the military somewhere, considering this got them off the hook!  There wasn’t really much of anything they could do at this time; confidence and support would have to come in time.

In general, it probably wasn’t the best time for setting up a new government bearing in mind the great amount of problems Germany was suffering. Many German people faced starvation because of blockades set up by the allies during the war; this also meant a lack of supplies in broad. Morale was now low in this once proud and ambitious country; that was now angry, bitter, and known for their conflicting. People had been used to having all their decisions made for them by the Kaiser who abdicated in stressful circumstances during the revolution – would they know what they wanted even if they were given choices?

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The next problem the government faced was dealing with the two extremist groups – right wing nationalists on one end of the scale, and left wing communists on the other. A number of uprisings were held, mainly in Berlin.

The left wing communists wanted a full scale revolution (like in Russia 1917). The ‘Spartacist League’ was set up by Rose Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and were generally supported by the working people (who they though Ebert wouldn’t help). In Jan. 1919 workers protests begun, so they took this as a chance to begin a revolution. They took over newspaper and ...

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