Why was the Weimar Republic so short-lived?

Why was the Weimar Republic so short-lived? The Weimar Republic entered a broken Germany in 1919. The Treaty of Versailles had plunged Germany into an economic recession and social outrage; the new government faced unpredictable political rivalry from extremist parties and its own constitution and parliamentary system could not solve the problems it faced as a result of the negativities of an overly-pure democracy. Apart from this, the Great Depression had the final say in securing Germany's (arguably inevitable) fate. The extensive £6600 million reparations payments (determined in 1921) of the Treaty of Versailles threw the Republic into a deeper state of national debt. Territorial losses on Germany's behalf meant that it was now harder than ever to cover these payments. Alsace-Lorraine - acquired by Germany in 18711 - was an economically and geographically important area of land that had trade routes leading from Germany to other European countries although the government now suffered a great loss in potential tax revenue. However in the spirit of maintaining good and peaceful international relations, the Weimar government printed money to cover the costs of each payment. This had the effect of causing hyperinflation (unsustainable inflation) making people's savings worthless. The government's ineffective ability to deal with the 'diktat'2 (as the people saw it) made

  • Word count: 1087
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: History
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Why was the Weimar republic so short lived?

Since it's very beginning, the Weimar republic had suffered much opposition caused by a number of different reason which went against the general thoughts: it accepted the humiliating and unpopular Treaty of Versailles, the general thought of the "stab in the back" caused people to dishonor democratic governments, the parliamentary system introduced by the Weimar Republic had serious weaknesses, the political parties had no experience on operating a democratic parliament. Furthermore, the time period chosen to give birth to such Republic was not the best, as the Treaty of Versailles, together with the Depression caused people to develop extremist ideologies refusing to support the democratic Weimar Republic. Also, the rise of single- party rulers like Hitler motivated people to go against a democratic government which accepted the limitations and punishments, causing germans to rage against their nation and, as I said, develop either extreme right or extreme left ideologies. After WWI Germany was judged responsible for the damages and deaths caused by the war, the Treaty of Versailles was created to decide how to act in respect of the above statement. The Allies chose to make Germany pay for reparations and limit it's army in order to prevent a future outbreak of war. As the Weimar Republic accepted such diminishing terms of the treaty, people always associated the Republic

  • Word count: 776
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: History
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