Weimar Republic

The problems of the Weimar republic started from the beginning of its creation in 1919 to 1923. This includes several uprisings, Invasion, and economic meltdown. It started with the signing of the armistice on the 11th November 1918 although the armistice was signed in 1918 it was still a problem for the Weimar republic in 1919 because the people and the army believed they where so close to wining the war and the government had “stabbed them in the back” by signing the armistice the government was widely hated because of this.

In January 1919 a group of communists called the Spartacists started their own revolution to take power. The problem this was to the Weimar republic was that they didn’t have enough soldiers to crush the rebellion. So they hired ex-army mercenaries called the freikorps. In a country were the army is very important the Weimar republic looks weak and without pride.

The treaty of Versailles was a treaty that decreed what Germany could and couldn’t do. The Weimar republic was hated because they signed it. It said that Germany could only have an army of 100,000 men in a country that had massive pride in its army and soldiers this was a horrible insult, they had vast amount of land and their foreign territories taken away and most importantly the war guilt clause which said that the war was all Germanys fault. The German people hated the Weimar republic for signing the treaty they thought it was unfair.

New German constitution that said how the German government was going to work and operate was put in place. This was a problem for the Weimar republic because of the workings of the constitution meant that people like Hitler could rise to power via proportional representation and the emergency powers the president had which meant that it the president wanted he could take control of the country.

There was an attempt at power by Dr Wolfgang Kapp and his freikorps this was called the Kapp putsch. This made the Weimar government even weaker because they didn’t have a army big enough to squash the rebellion and as the freikorps were the ones revolting they couldn’t pay them to get rid of the participants so they were only stopped by a general strike making the Weimar republic look weak.

As part of the treaty of Versailles Germany had to pay 6600 million Pounds in reparations (compensation for war damages) to be paid in weekly installments of raw materials. They had to be paid in raw materials to stop the Germans from just printing more money. This was a problem for the Weimar republic because Germany could not afford to pay. This also helped to cause the problem of hyper inflation.

In one month Germany failed to pay its reparations, So French and Belgian troops invaded the Ruhr to take the resources from them. This was a problem because the Weimar republic couldn’t fight back to stop the French and they couldn’t use the freikorps against a whole army and had to call a general strike to get rid of the French making them look weak.

When the workers in the Ruhr when on general strike the government had to pay them to replace the money that they would usually be earning in the mines and factories, so to pay the striking workers this they printed off loads of money. This caused hyperinflation and money became worthless it took a wheel barrow of money to pay for a loaf of bread. The people blamed this on the Weimar republic for this.

The Munich putsch was Hitler and the Nazis attempt at power in Munich. They tried to take over government buildings and the barracks after that they had planned to march on Berlin and seize power. This was a problem because it was a threat to their power and it showed what support the opposition parties had it also gave the man that would destroy the Weimar republic national awareness. His name and views were in all the papers across Germany.