Why Did the Weimer Republic Collapse?

"Why did the Weimer Republic Collapse?"

By Richard Bessel

Feb 28 /06

Snezana Miletic

20217149

History 102: Second Precise Assignment

Dr.L Taylor

640

During the late 1920's and 1930's, the Weimar Republic came to an end as soon as depression hit and began to take hold of the economy. As a result, the political situation in Germany became uncertain and dangerous. Social, political and economical factors all contribute to Weimar's collapse.

The period of 1925-1929 is often considered to be the golden era of Weimar Germany's political history. Politician Gustav Stresemann ensured the economic stability of the nation through the successful negotiation of the Dawes and Young plans. Sensible and progressive foreign policies enabled Germany to come out of the imposed isolation. Germany was finally allowed to become a member of the League of Nations in 1925 as a result of the Locarno treaties.

However the Weimar Republic faced many problems. One of the worst was the fact that German political parties found it difficult to win enough votes to gain an overall majority in the Reichstag. This was because there were too many parties, each of which only represented a small group of people in Germany e.g. the SPD (workers), the KPD (communists), the Zentrum (Catholics) and so on. The Weimar Republic had too many political parties representing relatively small sections of the population.

Another problem was that the Weimar Republic was generally blamed for surrendering in 1918 and signing the Treaty of Versailles. Many political extremists, particularly the right-wing groups such as the Nazis disagreed. Germany had no tradition of democracy in 1919, and there was no reason to suggest at this point that it would survive for long. The Weimar Republic faced serious competition from Communist, left-wing revolts in major cities such as Berlin and from right-wing, paramilitary groups such as the Nazis who were supported by wandering mob of ex-servicemen called freikorps. However, Germany faced many severe economic difficulties that made many ordinary Germans look to strong extremist groups to solve Germany's problems rather than to the relatively weak, but moderate and democratic Weimar Republic.

In many German eyes, Hitler's attempted overthrow of the Republic showed his solemn plight to save Germany