Explain the Collapse of the Weimar Republic in the Period Up to 1933
Explain the collapse of the Weimar Republic in the period up to 1933
The collapse of the Weimar Republic and the subsequent takeover by Adolf Hitler in 1933 was influenced by a wide range of factors. Although the revolution of 1918 resulted in a drastic shift within the German political system, the same could not be said for the social structure, culture and old institutes of Germany. Famously acknowledged as a “republic born with a hole in its heart” the overturn of the Hohenzollern monarchy in replacement for the Republic, was fraught with difficulties from its onset, including the failure of the conservative elites to support democracy, the perceived injustice of the Treaty of Versailles, economic and political instability, and the rise to power of the Nazis. A catalyst for the collapse was the Great Depression which unleashed economic, social and political chaos in Germany in the era between 1930 and 1933. With the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933, the Weimar Republic ceased to exist.
Democracy was a foreign concept to the German people, whose authoritarian tradition had deep psychological and social roots. On 9 November 1918, when the Kaiser’s abdication was announced, and Friedrich Ebert the leader of the Social Democratic Party was entrusted with the German Empire, “The old and rotten – the monarchy – has broken down. Long live the new! Long live the German Republic!” was shouted towards the public. However, familiarity of authoritarian rule and therefore the traditional expectation for the government to take control, make strong decisive decisions and stand as a unified front, was not a feature replicated in the new republican government. One of the problems lay in the new republican constitution of 1919, which guaranteed the basic rights of the German people but also contained weaknesses that undermined its functionality as a democratic constitution. The voting system based on proportional representation was one such weakness. With a
The collapse of the Weimar Republic and the subsequent takeover by Adolf Hitler in 1933 was influenced by a wide range of factors. Although the revolution of 1918 resulted in a drastic shift within the German political system, the same could not be said for the social structure, culture and old institutes of Germany. Famously acknowledged as a “republic born with a hole in its heart” the overturn of the Hohenzollern monarchy in replacement for the Republic, was fraught with difficulties from its onset, including the failure of the conservative elites to support democracy, the perceived injustice of the Treaty of Versailles, economic and political instability, and the rise to power of the Nazis. A catalyst for the collapse was the Great Depression which unleashed economic, social and political chaos in Germany in the era between 1930 and 1933. With the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933, the Weimar Republic ceased to exist.
Democracy was a foreign concept to the German people, whose authoritarian tradition had deep psychological and social roots. On 9 November 1918, when the Kaiser’s abdication was announced, and Friedrich Ebert the leader of the Social Democratic Party was entrusted with the German Empire, “The old and rotten – the monarchy – has broken down. Long live the new! Long live the German Republic!” was shouted towards the public. However, familiarity of authoritarian rule and therefore the traditional expectation for the government to take control, make strong decisive decisions and stand as a unified front, was not a feature replicated in the new republican government. One of the problems lay in the new republican constitution of 1919, which guaranteed the basic rights of the German people but also contained weaknesses that undermined its functionality as a democratic constitution. The voting system based on proportional representation was one such weakness. With a