Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was the democratic government that ruled Germany from 1919 to 1933. It was born from the chaos of Germany’s defeat in World War I (1914–1918) and ended with the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The republic took its name from the town where lawmakers met to form the new government. The early years of the Weimar Republic were marked by political instability and devastating economic hardships. The republic’s leaders were often hindered in their attempts at reform by the surrender terms imposed on Germany after the war. Its later successes fell apart with the onset of a global economic depression in the 1930s. This uncertain atmosphere allowed radical groups within Germany to slowly gain power, eventually leading to the republic’s downfall. Despite the ultimate failure of the Weimar Republic, its fourteen-year life span was also noted as a time of social change and artistic freedom.

Background

For much of the nineteenth century, Germany was not a unified nation, but it was instead composed of thirty-nine states known as the German Confederation. The states in the confederation were only united under a loose military alliance. Each state was separately ruled by powerful families, nobles, or kings. The largest and most powerful of these states were the kingdoms of Prussia and Austria.

In the 1860s, Prussia’s king Wilhelm I and prime minister Otto von Bismarck began a series of wars to unite the confederation under Prussian leadership. In 1866, Prussia declared war on Austria and soundly defeated its larger rival in a matter of weeks. Prussia and its allies formed the North German Federation, while Austria and its allies were left out of the union. In 1871, after defeating France in the Franco-Prussian War, Wilhelm proclaimed Prussia and its allied states as a unified German Empire.

Knowing the new empire was in a precarious political situation, Germany signed a number of alliances with neighboring countries, promising to aid one another militarily if any of them were attacked by enemies. Concerned about Germany’s growing power, Great Britain, France, and Russia entered into similar alliances. In June 1914, the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered a series of events that put the various alliances into effect and ignited World War I.

After several weeks of success on the battlefield, the advancing German army was stopped in northern France. This began more than three years of military stalemate, as the armies of Europe’s great powers bogged down in a deadly war of attrition. In Germany, the government had sold the war to the public as a noble crusade of national patriotism. Even as the fighting dragged on with no end in sight, the government-controlled press reported only news of German victories. The tide began to turn in 1917 when the United States entered the war on the side of its British and French allies. By mid-1918, the exhausted German army was falling apart, and defeat was a near certainty.

Overview

Most Germans may have been unaware of the losses on the battlefield, but they were very aware of conditions at home. Food shortages were common, and many people were unhappy with the nation’s working conditions. In early November 1918, the German navy was ordered to stage a desperate attack on British naval forces that would have been nothing more than a suicide mission. The sailors refused and mutinied, sparking a series of antiwar protests and uprisings across the country. Germany’s ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm II, was forced from power and fled the country. Germany’s military leaders, who had in essence been in charge of running the country, turned over power to a civilian government, upon whose shoulders fell the responsibility for negotiating peace. On November 11, 1918, Germany agreed to end the fighting, bringing World War I to a close.

Germany was still dealing with outbreaks of violence in January 1919 when elections were held to select the members of a new national assembly. The capital of Berlin was still considered too dangerous, so members of the assembly agreed to hold their first meeting on February 6, 1919, in the central German town of Weimar. They selected Friedrich Ebert, leader of the moderate Social Democratic Party, as Germany’s president and agreed to work on a new constitution.

The Weimar Constitution was agreed upon in July and signed into law on August 11, 1919. The constitution established Germany as a republic, a form of government in which the people choose their leaders. Germany would not be ruled by a king, but would instead be governed by a president, a chancellor, and a parliament known as the Reichstag. The president would serve a term of seven years and had the power to appoint a chancellor. The chancellor could appoint a cabinet and was tasked with managing the daily operations of the government. Presidential orders needed the approval of the chancellor or minister of the Reichstag, although the president could suspend parliamentary rule in case of an emergency. This provision was known as Article 48. The constitution allowed all citizens—both men and women—above the age of twenty to vote. It also allowed for freedom of speech, religion, public education, and equal opportunity in the workplace.

At the same time the new government was debating its constitution, the victorious nations of World War I were negotiating the official terms of Germany’s surrender. Many European nations blamed Germany for the devastation and demanded punishments. Germany had little choice but to accept the terms, and on June 28, 1919, signed the Treaty of Versailles. As part of the treaty’s provisions, Germany lost about 13 percent of its territory, including some of its coal- and iron-producing regions. In addition, the nation was ordered to pay a staggering amount in war reparations, its military capabilities were reduced, and it was forced to admit guilt for starting the war.

Many Germans resented the terms of the treaty and felt the Weimar government had sold them out by agreeing to such harsh conditions. In 1920, a group of German nationalists tried to overthrow the new government. They blamed the civilian leaders for undermining the military during the final days of the war and causing Germany’s defeat. The rebels briefly gained power, but their attempt failed when German workers staged a nationwide strike and refused to follow the group’s orders. In 1923, members of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party, attempted to seize power in the city of Munich. This attempt, which was led by Adolf Hitler, was put down by police and the German military. Hitler was arrested and jailed, but the coup attempt brought him and his Nazi Party national attention.

With no political party able to capture a significant number of seats in the Reichstag, the Weimar government had to rely on building coalitions between groups that were often ideological rivals. In addition to the political challenges, the government also had to deal with an economic burden that was reaching crisis proportions. Hampered by a poor economy, political instability, and the reduction of its industrial capability, Germany was having trouble paying its war reparations. In January 1923, France and Belgium responded by invading the Ruhr, Germany’s main industrial region. The occupying nations intended to take the area’s coal and iron resources in place of their reparations. The Weimar government ordered German workers in the Ruhr to shut down the coal mines and factories. This defiant act had the unintended consequence of crippling an already damaged German economy.

Facing economic disaster, the government decided to simply print more money. The overabundance of currency triggered severe price increases known as hyperinflation. By November 1923, it took more than four trillion German marks to equal one US dollar. Many Germans, including some who were relatively well-off, suddenly found their life savings wiped out. Charles Dawes, an American banker and future US vice president, developed a plan to help Germany recover from its financial disaster. The plan set more reasonable payment goals for Germany’s reparations and introduced a new form of German currency, one with the backing of American dollars. By 1924, Germany was starting to get back on its feet economically.

From 1924 to 1929, the nation experienced a period of resurgence. The capital of Berlin became one of Europe’s most vibrant cultural centers, attracting some of the world’s most accomplished artists, authors, and scientists. The city was home to a thriving nightlife and a social climate that was more accepting of different lifestyles. Weimar Germany was also home to the influential Bauhaus art movement and a thriving film industry that produced several of the silent era’s most influential works.

By the dawn of the 1930s, however, Germany’s prosperity fell victim to the global economic crisis known as the Great Depression. With the United States unable to provide financial aid, Germany’s economy again suffered. The government was forced to cut back on social programs, which angered many average Germans. The German people had long distrusted the Weimar government and were growing tired of the nation’s economic hardships. Extremist groups on both sides of the political spectrum began to gain political footing in the Reichstag. With so many competing viewpoints, coalition building within the government became extremely difficult.

Adolf Hitler used this political and economic turmoil to promote his nationalist agenda to the German people. In 1932, his Nazi Party gained a majority of seats in the Reichstag, giving him the political power he had tried to seize by force almost a decade earlier. Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933 and within weeks he invoked the constitution’s Article 48 to act without parliamentary approval. Using this power, Hitler passed a law that gave him permanent authority over both the president and Reichstag. This act marked the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of Hitler’s dictatorship that would lead to World War II (1939–1945).

Bibliography

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