WEIMAR REPUBLIC: ORIGIN, CAUSES, CRISIS AND CHARACTERS - HISTORY - 2025

The Weimar Republic was the name given to the political regime installed in Germany in 1918, after its defeat in the First World War. This name is also applied to the historical period that lasted until 1933. Officially the country continued to be called the German Empire, despite the change of government system.

Even before acknowledging their defeat in the Great War, the majority of the population and the military knew it was inevitable. However, there were still some sectors willing to continue facing the Allies. This caused the people to rise up in the so-called November Revolution.

Weimar Republic - Source: Blank_map_of_Europe.svg: maix¿? Derivative work: Alphathon /'æl.f'æ.ðɒn/

In a context of almost civil war between rightists and communists, among other currents, a Constituent Assembly was convened in Weimar to provide the country with a new republican Constitution.

Despite the establishment of the new republic, instability was the main characteristic of its entire existence. The economic crisis, hyperinflation and the existence of armed groups of various ideologies gave the option of the National Socialist Party, led by Adolf Hitler, to win more and more supporters.

It was Hitler himself, with his coming to power and the laws he promulgated to concentrate all power, that ended the Weimar Republic.

Origin and establishment

Germany, after four years of war, faced the last weeks of conflict involved in a great economic crisis and without having the military resources to oppose its enemies. On August 14, 1918, the Allies made their last offensive and the German High Command had to acknowledge that defeat was imminent.

The following month, two of the most influential marshals in the German army asked the authorities to agree to sign an armistice based on the 14 points that US President Wilson had prepared.

Following this request, a new, parliamentary government was formed. This elected as Chancellor Maximilian von Baden, who, although noble, had a liberal ideology and was in favor of negotiating peace.

The conditions imposed by Wilson, who negotiated without the knowledge of his allies, were unaffordable for the German army. Later, Hitler would use these events to declare that the politicians had betrayed the country.

The government had been left in the hands of the Socialists, who thought that Kaiser Wilhelm II was going to abdicate. In this context, the November Revolution broke out, also called "the Kiel events."

Kiel events or November Revolution

In the city of Kiel an insurrection took place caused by the intention of the High Command of the Navy to confront the British. The answer was a mutiny among the navy soldiers, who considered it absurd to engage in battle when the war was already lost.

The High Command suspended the operation, but issued an order to arrest the mutineers so that they could be tried. These arrests immediately generated the solidarity of a good part of his colleagues, as well as that of the city workers. The demonstrations were repressed by the authorities, which ended up causing a general revolt.

On November 4, the sailors appointed a council of representatives before assaulting the ships and occupying the Kiel naval base. Workers soon joined them, eventually forming a common council similar to the Russian Soviets.

Together with other sectors of the population, they took the city while singing La Internacional. That same evening, a deputy from the Social Democratic Party, the SPD, appeared in Kiel and managed to calm the situation.

Contagion of revolt

The events in Kiel spread throughout the rest of the country. The military rose up against their officers and, together with the workers, launched a campaign of strikes and protests.

The results varied depending on the different areas. As an example, the sailors in Brunswick succeeded in having the Grand Duke abdicate and a socialist republic was proclaimed.

On the 7th, the King of Bavaria, Louis III, left Munich, the capital, and the government was taken over by a council made up of peasants, workers and soldiers. This declared the Republic of Bavaria constituted.

Two days later, the riots reached Berlin. The regime was finished and von Baden reported that the Kaiser had abdicated.

Little by little, the rest of the princes who ruled in the different German states were leaving power. In a situation of chaos, a former minister of the Empire proclaimed the Republic and, a few hours later, one of the leaders of the Spartacist League appeared at the Royal Palace to proclaim the Free and Socialist Republic of Germany.

The SPD

Before they came to power, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) was the one with the most supporters in the country, so they were entrusted with forming the government. A member of his party, Friedrich Ebert, had assumed the chancery on a provisional basis after the Kaiser's abdication.

In 1917 the USPD, the independent socialists, had appeared. Its split came about because it considered that the SPD was giving too much support to the Empire's government during the war. Its supporters considered that the parliamentary system was compatible with the existence of revolutionary councils.

The most radical current was the Spartacist League. This tried to take advantage of the revolutionary atmosphere that took place in November 1918. Its ultimate goal was to proclaim a socialist state similar to the Soviet one, but without the limitation of individual rights that had occurred there.

After the November revolution, the independents and the Social Democrats shared power. The Provisional Government made up of both parties was the one that signed the Armistice of Compiegne, based on Wilson's points.

The Pan-German Congress of Councils, in the meeting that took place between December 16 and 20, called an election to elect a National Constituent Assembly.

Spartacus uprising

The Spartacist Movement, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, did not accept that the workers' organizations were left aside. In December 1918 they created the German Communist Party.

Despite the fact that the two main leaders thought that this was not the time, since their popular support was not enough, the majority of the organization chose to take up arms. By the end of the years, the revolts promoted by the Spartacists led the chancellor to resort to the army. The commitment to violent repression only caused the extension of the revolts.

In January, the situation was akin to a civil war, especially in Berlin. The authorities tried to remove the chief of police, a member of the Communist Party. His refusal to leave the post led to new uprisings. In January, 200,000 workers took to the streets to demand that the army withdraw.

In the end, government troops enlisted the help of the freikorps, far-right paramilitary organizations, to end the Spartacist revolution.

Meanwhile, in the face of the warlike situation in Berlin, the government had abandoned the city. The authorities chose Weimar as the new headquarters.

The Weimar Constitution

The defeat of the Spartacists in Berlin did not mean the end of the confrontations in other pairs of the country. This did not prevent the elections from taking place, in which the SPD won the victory with 37.9% of the vote.

Failing to reach an absolute majority, the Social Democrats were forced to compromise with the right wing, in what became known as the Weimar Coalition.

The National Assembly began its sessions on January 19, 1919. Its purpose was to draft and approve a new Constitution. This task was not easy and required six months of debate until it was promulgated on July 31.

According to experts, it was a very progressive Magna Carta but with some notable flaws. The one that would have the most impact on the future of the country was the great power that was granted to the figure of the President, who was empowered to govern without paying attention to Parliament in case of emergency.

On the other hand, the Weimar Constitution reaffirmed the federal character of the country. Furthermore, it established broad individual freedoms as well as highly advanced social rights.

Treaty of Versailles

One of the first measures that Ebert proposed to approve as president of the Republic was that the National Assembly will sign the Treaty of Versailles. It was the agreement by which the First World War ended and contained articles clearly harmful to Germany. However, the Assembly ratified it on July 9, 1919.

The nationalist and conservative parties considered this signing as a betrayal. Ebert began to lose some of his popularity, although his tenure was extended until 1925.

Crisis and end

Although it can be said that the Weimar Republic was always immersed in a great crisis, the post-war years were especially difficult.

The new republic went through very difficult times in all areas, from economic to political. Attempts at coups d'etat followed, separatist movements appeared and the government encountered opposition from the left, the extreme right, the bourgeoisie and the army.

Right-wing reaction

The repression against the Spartacists and other revolutionaries made the extreme right have a greater presence in the life of the country. In the street, he had already participated by forming paramilitary groups and in Parliament they presented a party, the DVNP, headed by a former imperial minister: Karl Helfferich.

Kapp's coup was one of the most serious attempts to seize power by the ultra-conservative right. It took place on March 13 and was not controlled until four days later.

The coup plotters, led by Wolfgang Kapp and General Walther von Lüttwitz, managed to seize power in Berlin. Among other measures, they forced the Bavarian president of Social Democrats to leave office and appointed in his place a politician sympathetic to the conservative cause.

The reaction to the coup did not come from the government. It was the unions that took the lead, calling for a general strike. For its part, the Communist Party called for resistance by arms.

Thanks to these actions, the coup was defeated. The main consequence was the calling of new elections for June 1920.

Leftist reaction

Nor did the left facilitate the work of the government of the new republic. In the first years of its existence there were several uprisings led by the workers. One of the closest to success occurred in the Ruhr area, right after the Kapp coup.

Elections of 1920

The 1920 elections to form the Parliament (Reichstag) for the first time were a failure for the Social Democracy. The SPD lost 51 seats and had to settle for going to the opposition. In contrast, the nationalist and anti-republic parties did well.

The government was chaired by ZP's Fehrenbach, a centrist. To reach the majority it had to ally itself with other bourgeois parties. This result, however, did not stop the attacks committed by the extreme right.

Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic

Hyperinflation hit Germany hard from 1922. The main reason was the Treaty of Versailles, which established the payment of compensation impossible for the German economy.

In order to pay these compensation, the German government started printing money. To make matters worse, France and Belgium invaded the country's most industrialized area, the Ruhr, in retaliation for Germany's failure to pay.

The government, overcome, launched a message to begin a campaign of passive resistance and, to compensate for the losses suffered by the owners of the industries, issued even more currency.

Little by little, the bills that were printed were losing real value, while the prices increased. By 1923, there were bills with a face value of hundreds of millions, but which, in reality, were hardly enough to buy anything.

The Munich putsch

Faced with the French invasion of the Ruhr, Germany had no choice but to resume the payment of what was agreed at Versailles. It was in this context that there was an attempted coup by some nationalist organizations.

The so-called “putsch” in Munich was one of the first appearances of the Nazis, a party that had been founded three years earlier. After clashes broke out in the city, the coup leaders were arrested, including Adolf Hitler.

Hitler was sentenced to 5 years in prison, although he was pardoned after serving only one year of sentence.

Gustav Stresemann

The man called to defeat hyperinflation was Gustav Stresemann, who came to the Chancellery in 1923. He also held the Foreign Affairs portfolio.

Stresemann made the decision to create the new mark, the German currency. This allowed inflation to stabilize, although it took three years for the situation to normalize.

During this transition period, unemployment increased considerably, as did production. However, by 1924, Germany showed signs of recovery. By 1929, the economy had almost fully recovered.

The great Depression

Stresemann died on October 3, 1929, and therefore did not witness the further decline in the country's economy.

This time, the cause was not internal. Germany, like the rest of the world, was affected by the outbreak of the Great Depression, a crisis that began in the United States. The effects were devastating. By 1931, the unemployed workers numbered almost 8 million.

On the political front, the Great Depression brought about the downfall of Chancellor Müller, a Social Democrat. Heinrich Brüning, of centrist ideology, replaced him. It was the president, Paul von Hindenburg, who proposed it.

Brüning, who had little support in Parliament, was unable to carry out the financial reforms he wanted. This led to new elections being held. These took place on September 14, after a campaign in which the Nazis tried to take advantage of the anger of the population.

Nazis growth

The results at the polls confirmed that the strategy of the National Socialists had been a success. Before those elections, they only had 12 seats, which rose to 107 after obtaining more than six million votes.

From that moment on, the Nazis received funding from some large industrialists, such as the Thyssen.

Attempt to avoid Nazi victory

The situation of the economy did not improve in 1931. Unemployment affected more than five million people and financial institutions went through great difficulties.

Given this, many began to fear a victory for Hitler in the following elections. These were due to take place in 1932 and Hindenburg's age seemed to indicate that it was not going to be presented again.

Brüning outlined a strategy to eliminate the possibility of Nazi victory. This plan was to get those elections suspended and the term of Hindenburg's presidency extended. He also came to propose converting Germany into a constitutional monarchy.

Neither of the two proposals found sufficient support among the rest of the political parties, so the elections were called for the scheduled date.

Elections of 1932

The Nazi party had dedicated itself to creating an image of Hitler that presented him as the savior of a Germany humiliated by the Allies.

They maintained that the defeat in the Great War had been due to the betrayal of politicians and promised to improve the economy and restore lost greatness. All of this was coupled with propaganda that blamed the Jews for all the problems.

The Reichstag elections of July 1932 were won by the National Socialist Party. He got almost 40% of the votes in the first round, although in the second he had to settle for 33%.

In a maneuver that has been classified as highly debatable, the Conservatives decided to support Hitler in order for him to become Chancellor.

Hitler Chancellor

Although he had managed to be appointed Chancellor, Hitler's power was still limited. His group did not have a majority, so he had to enlist the help of President Hindenburg to carry out his measures. In the government cabinet, in fact, there were only three Nazis out of a total of eleven members.

In this context, an event occurred that changed everything. The Reichstag headquarters burned on February 27, 1933. The Nazis promptly blamed the communists for setting the fire, although investigations after World II suggest that it was caused by the Nazis themselves to provide the perfect excuse to increase his power.

On the 28th, Hitler asked the President to approve a decree granting him extraordinary powers. Among them, the elimination of freedom of the press and expression, the abolition of the privacy of communications and the ability to take control of the governments of each of the states that made up the country.

Once the decree was approved, Hitler made sure that the Socialists and Communists had no way of running the next election campaign.

End of the Weimar Republic

Hitler's maneuver did not give the expected result. The federal elections of March 1933 did not give the Nazis the majority they hoped for: two-thirds of the chamber, just enough to reform the Constitution.

On March 15, Hitler found a way to solve that problem. By means of the decree approved after the Reichstag fire, he expelled the Communist deputies from Parliament, 81. He did the same with part of the Social Democrats. With this, the union of their deputies and those belonging to the nationalist parties almost reached the number they needed.

The Nazis requested that the functions of the parliament pass to the Chancellor. This law was voted on March 23, 1933 and was approved with the vote of all the deputies present with the exception of the few Social Democratic representatives who had not been expelled.

That vote spelled the end of the Weimar Republic. In practice, he established a dictatorship, with all power in the hands of a single man. During the following months, the Nazis dismantled the few pockets of power that were not yet in their hands.

Causes of failure

The failure of the Weimar Republic did not have a single reason. In his fall and in the subsequent arrival of Hitler to power, political causes and economic reasons converged.

Clauses of the Treaty of Versailles

The agreement that the Allies made the Germans sign after the Great War is considered by historians as the germ of the events that would lead to World War II.

On the one hand, Germany was forced to accept a clause that made it solely responsible for the outbreak of the conflict. This, together with the loss of territories in the hands of their enemies, caused the appearance of a feeling of humiliation among part of their society.

Conveniently spurred on by the Nazis and conservative parties, nationalism grew enormously.

Economic reparations were another reason that made the Weimar Republic already born with serious problems. In fact, these were one of the main culprits of hyperinflation, whose effects on the population increased instability and the influence of anti-Republican parties.

The effects of the Great Depression

If hyperinflation had already caused a significant increase in unemployment and a decline in wealth, the next blow to its economy came after the Great Depression. Its effects affected the entire population and became one of the assets used by the Nazis to increase their followers.

In addition, Hitler and his people created a scapegoat to explain the evils that afflicted the country: the Jews.

Political instability

The Weimar Republic was the scene from its very creation of the confrontation between various ideological currents. On the one hand, the communists staged several armed uprisings and called general strikes and many protests.

The extreme right, on the other hand, also played a leading role in that period. Nostalgic for the previous regime, they tried on several occasions to end the republic with arms.

Finally, nationalist movements appeared in several federal states, seeking to gain independence from the country. His repression gave even more prominence to the radical right, which formed paramilitary groups.

Main characters

Friedrich Ebert

A member of the German Social Democratic Party, Ebert became the first president of the Weimar Republic.

Before that, he had been the president of the provisional government. From that position, he was the one who negotiated the signing of the Treaty of Versailles with the allies.

Later, he had to face the November Revolution and the Spartacist Uprising. In both cases, he did not hesitate to use the army to destroy the insurgents.

Their problems did not end with those two revolutions. In 1920, there was an attempted coup by the rightists. The workers reacted with the Ruhr Uprising. Three years later, he was responsible for arresting Hitler for the so-called Munich putsch. A year later, he pardoned the future Nazi leader. Ebert remained in office until his death on February 28, 1925.

Paul von Hindenburg

This military man and politician already exerted a notable influence on German politics during the First World War. The defeat caused him to retire later, but he resumed his activity in 1925.

That year he was appointed President of the Weimar Republic. He was a conservative politician, with little sympathy for the democratic system. In 1932, when he was 84, his supporters convinced him to run for president again to avoid a possible victory for Hitler in the elections.

During that troubled term, Hindenburg had to dissolve Parliament twice. In the end, under the pressure he was receiving, he agreed to appoint Hitler as Chancellor in 1933.

That same year, he approved the Reichstag Fire Decree, which gave full powers to the new Chancellor. Hindenburg died in 1934, which was used by Hitler to declare himself Head of State.

Franz von Papen

His machinations were essential for Hitler to come to power. Papen had been a little-known politician until Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor, replacing his party partner, Heinrich Brüning. This earned him being expelled from his organization.

His government was distinguished by its authoritarian and conservative policies. He constantly attacked the Social Democrats and legalized the SA Assault Section, a Nazi paramilitary group.

The following elections meant an increase in the votes for the Nazis, without Papen being able to increase his support. That led him to resign from his post as Chancellor. However, he continued to maneuver to retain his power.

Eventually, he agreed to ally himself with the right-wing DNVP and the Nazis themselves. Through this alliance, Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Already during the war, Papen held various positions within the National Socialist government.

Adolf hitler

Adolf Hitler, after failing as a painter and participating in the First World War, began his political career in 1919. The future Nazi leader joined the German Workers' Party, which would later become the National Socialist Party.

Already as the leader of that party, Hitler was one of the participants in the Munich "putsch", an armed uprising that ended in failure. Along with other members of the party, he was sentenced to five years in prison. During the months that he was in prison, he began to write Mi Lucha, a book in which he reflected his ideology.

A pardon allowed Hitler to get out of prison in 1924. From that moment on he began to increase his influence in German society, presenting himself as the only one who could restore greatness to the country and end its enemies.

In 1933, Hitler was elected Chancellor and after Hindenburg's death in 1934, he proclaimed himself Head of State. The Weimar Republic was renamed the Third Reich and Hitler assumed all powers.

Five years later, his expansionist policies sparked the outbreak of World War II.

References

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