What problems did the Weimar Republic face between 1919 and 1923?

The Weimar Republic was formed in the town of Weimar in February 1919 when a new German National Assembly was formed after the war. It was a democracy where everybody could vote. The parliament was called the Reichstag.

The Weimar Republic had some enemies from both the left and the right. The opposition from the left came from the Spartakus, a group of communists that hoped to take over the Government, and were representing the workers of Germany. The Spartakus were led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. The leaders of the Spartakus received help from the Russian Basheuiks, the revolution that turned Russia in to a communist country. The Spartakus wanted to take over the capitalists so that the workers would not be exploited in factories. The Spartakus started their uprising in Berlin in January 1919. Friedrich Ebert saw his power under threat, and took action to stop the Spartakus from taking power. He tried to call the army, but as most of them had been fighting on the border with Russia in WW1, they had received Communist propaganda, and so were sympathetic to their cause. Friedrich Ebert had to call in help from the Freikorps, a group of soldiers who were angry at the defeat of the Germans, and wanted to fight more. They hated the founders of the Weimar Republic, but they hated communists even more. By the 13th January 1919, the Spartakus uprising had been crushed by the Freikorps, and its leaders, including Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were captured and executed.

The Freikorps were a group of soldiers who were angry at the defeat of Germany, and wanted to fight more and did not want to go back to their boring normal lives. They were the opposition from the right. On March 13th 1920, Wolfgang Kapp started a Putsch - an attempt to take power by force. He hated the German Government for signing the Treaty of Versailles. He aimed to make Germany stronger, and to take back the land given to Poland in the Treaty of Versailles. He had the support of the Freikorps, the Berlin Police, and some of the Army. He did not have the workers on his side, as they went on strike, and Kapp fled to Sweden.

The Treaty of Versailles included a "War Guilt Clause", in which Germany accepted full responsibility for their actions, and so would have to pay reparations, or compensation for starting the war, of the then huge sum of £6.6 billion. This was very unpopular with the German people, who had always been told that Germany was winning, and so could not believe that this was accepted, as there were no Allied soldiers on German soil. This undermined the German monarchy.

In conclusion, the Weimar Republic was not a very good democracy as it was not in control of their people and had many uprisings against it.