Weimar Democracy Collapse

The collapse of the Weimar democracy in 1933 could not be attributed to one event, but more referred to in a monocausal manner. A multiplicity of factors were involved to upset the republics equilibrium and made it vulnerable to sudden shock. The complexity of contributing factors to the democratic collapse can be partially blamed on the shaky foundations and inherent flaws within the constitution, making the republic susceptible to future problems and the Nazi take over. The economic situation which swamped the republic can often be blamed as a key factor or trigger in the disintegration of social and political systems. It can be said that it was the political intrigues of the conservative elites that allowed Hitler and his Nazi party to gain
power and further amount to the last of the German democratic government which was once fought so hard to support.
The shaky foundations of the Weimar republic was one of many significant contributions to its collapse during 1933. During the year of 1918, the harsh realities of the failing attempt to win the war of attrition led socialist Scheidemann, in fear of allied pressure, to announce the new German republic on November 9th. With Ebert as president, the new inexperienced government, lacking in tradition was hit with a ‘dictated peace' in the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty signed on the 28th of June 1919, was used by the allies to control and weaken German ability in becoming a further threat in future wars, without Germany's input (hence the diktat). Germany under the impression of a fair resolution under Wilson's 14 points, but was later proven wrong. The humiliation associated with the new treaty lead the new republic government to be nicknamed the ‘November criminals' and this is verified with the reparation bill 231, or the ‘war guilt clause', being told that the army was incapable of advance in the lost war, leaving military and civilians to blame the republic as what was described as a "shameful" peace by Hindenburg, and was later described by Hitler as the ‘stab in the back legend', to gain support from civilian's for the Nazi party and as stated by historian A,J.Nicholls "all officials were hostile to the republic."
The new perfect on paper treaty of Versailles would soon enough be put to practice. The constitution provided by the new government as a resolution would soon destroy itself, due to flaws within. This is easily shown with the system of proportional representation. On paper the ideal was that each party would have an equal chance in parliament, in practice it was this that lead to the parties of the new government breaking into ‘splinter' politics, leaving no majority votes, resulting in malfunctions to form a government. This resulted in 25 separate governments in the period from 1918-1923. The parliamentary government with its deadlocks, bickering and frequent elections disgusted the German people whose traditions were of authority and discipline. It can however be said that this (proportional representation) was not a main flaw within the system, but only a contributing factor. The system of proportional representation was also introduced in Europe and was used successfully and due to this the inexperience of the new German government can be to blame. As stated by historian A.J.Nicholls, "the proportional system helped those parties dedicated to the destruction of the republic".
‘Article 48', a second significant flaw in the constitution and contributing factor in Weimar's eventual collapse. It (article 48) allowed the government, in times of crisis, to let the president rule by a state of emergence, nicknamed the ‘suicide clause'. It was this flaw that later contributed in allowing Hitler to turn the democracy into a totalitarian state, to change the laws of the democratic system and take control of Germany. As historian S.J.Lee has stated, "the existence of article 48 was always potential for the translation of conservatism into dictatorship"
Economic instabilities were also a major contribution to the failures of the German democracy in 1933.
The heavy reparation payments Germany was forced to pay as a result of the diktat treaty of Versailles, was put in place as a future weakening of the German economy in a revenge of the allied losses. These reparations, to be payed to the allies caused a severe economic dislocation in the early years; an obvious example of this is during the French ‘occupation of the Ruhr'. During 1921 German payments of $50 million put enormous strain on the economy, Germany's request to suspend payments until her economy recovered was rejected, as a result of this the French gained German's main industrial area in January 1923, the Ruhr in an attempt to seize goods from factories and mines. Passive resistance, ordered by the government meant that the German industry of the Ruhr was paralysed, making French attempts a failure, also having catastrophic effects on the German economy. By July 1923 a standstill dollar would buy 160,000 marks, by November the value of the mark was completely worthless, at 4,200,000 million to the
dollar.
By the end of 1933 the republic had been brought on the verge of collapse. The financial disaster had profound effects on German society. Hyperinflation became a significant factor in the collapse of the republic in 1933, with wages for the working class becoming valueless, trade union funds wiped out, and middle classes and small capitalists losing their savings, society began to turn to extreme anti-republican groups. The replacement of the devalued currency with the ‘rentenmark', in 1923 and was given equal value to pre-war gold Reichsmark in an attempt to save the economy. The turn to extreme parties due to economic issues is demonstrated with the 1932 elections. Anti-republican parties gaining majority, the Nazis gained 230 seats, and the KPD, 89 seats. By march 1933 elections the Nazis gained 44% of the vote. These figures demonstrate the strain in which the economy had on the republic, the action civilians took in turning to other extreme parties for a resolution and the loss for support of the democracy leading to its eventual failure. As stated by S.J.Lee, "it was the economic disasters…which lead to political ramifications".
The fragile Weimar republic was held up by a ‘period of stability' during the Stressmann era, a time of recovery and consolidation, of no violence, political opposition or economic problems, and social freedoms at a high. Economic stability improved dramatically after the year of 1924, due to the ‘Dawes Plan', giving time for stabilisation by altering reparation payments, and allowing Germany to take on American loans. Germany's acceptance of 20 billion marks from 1924-1929 of ‘short term loans' would later become a fault in the new recovery, by investing in long-term projects, and depending completely on the stabilisation of the American economy, it's loans and Germany's growing debts, living in borrowed time as well as borrowed money. And as historian S.J.Lee has said, "short term loans which had unwisely been committed to long term projects immediately wakened the industrial welfare infrastructure", " making it highly vulnerable to external pressures". The ‘young plan' of 1928 later refined Germany's reparation payments to allow them to pay off their debt by 1988. Hitler, taking advantage of his association with Hudenburg, proclaimed his great opposition to both the Dawes, and Young plan were later used as a tactic of patriotism, gaining support for his Nazi party.
Under Stressmann power, German foreign relations began to improve significantly, implementing a ‘policy of fulfilment' towards the Versailles provisions in the belief that "the victors should be acknowledged and that over time, positive changes would flow".
The ‘Locarno treaty' in October 1925 was signed to settle issues between France and Germany and the post border between the two, it was significant in an ending to the idea of European winners and losers of WW1. It was this that the anti-republican extremists parties later used to criticise the democracy and gave the army motive to be discontented with the republic government. The positive impact of German national status due to Stressmann's cooperation and his policy of fulfilment is demonstrated in their admission into the ‘League of Nations' in September 1926. It was not long however until the building resentment would contribute to the republics collapse and the end of the Stressmann era, S.J.Lee, expresses that "successful though it appeared on the surface, it was fundamentally
unsound".
As said by J.W.Hidden "grave difficulties were bound to arise in Weimar Germany when the economic crisis of 1929 interacted with a political and social crisis, capitalising the growing resentment against the republican leaders", the trigger of the eruption of the opposition of the republic was the depression of 1929, after the collapse of the Wall Street stock market in New York (black Thursday). Depression of disastrous proportions overwhelmed the republic, with figures of the unemployed rising from 3.5 million in 1930 and exceeding 6 million in 1932. The depression alone was not enough to cause such a collapse. "The depression did not start this process of decline; it acted as a turning point. It was not an initiator; it was a catalyst"(S.J.Lee).
The financing of unemployment relief caused bitter wrangling amongst the parties, thus the depression wedged the parties apart, and revealed the ineffective nature of what the parliamentary system consisted. "The depression created a situation in which the parliamentary system broke down, opening way to presidential government by decree" (W.M.Simon). The shift towards radical anti-republican parties became more prominent the lack of charismic leaders lead to the decline of support to the political system, having a significant impact towards the later collapse of the German republic in 1933.
The fragile Republic had survived all of its ups and downs of the 1919-1923 period. Attempts to overthrow had failed, hyperinflation overcome by introduction of a new currency, and modifications of reparations payments were made. A major contributing factor to the survival of all the pressures and threats towards the democracy's existence was the sufficient amount of support, which was later lacked, making a further contribution to the collapse of the democracy in 1933.
It was the role of such as the conservatives/elites, retained in key positions of power due to the lack of changes made to the constitution, who's anti-republican views influenced political decisions, and the social attitudes in the acceptance of the Weimar republic. The army itself was a key influence to and essential for the survival of the republic. The army's strong anti-republican lead by General Von Schliecher lead to the manipulated political scene of 1930-1933, and became largely responsible for conditions which enabled Hitler to come to power. The importance of the army is demonstrated with the ‘Ebert Groener deal' of 1918, in an attempt to save the republic, it was up until 1929 when Goener withdrew his support from the Muller SPD government, forcing their resignation. The army were a strong force, without their support the democracy was more susceptible to failure. The right wing Kapp putsch movement illustrates this reliance of the army within the republic and the relationship with Friekrops, "reichswehr does not fight reichswehr".
The early instability of the Weimar relied on the army to hold back violent attacks against the republic, during the spartcist revolt of 1918, it was the army that ensured their defeat and the survival of the republic. In the later years of 1923 during the Munich Putsch it was the reichswehr units that fired upon Hitler and his extremist party.
It was the lenient sentences that the unchanged judiciary had put in place towards right-winged Convicties, industrialists, Junkers etc. as historian A.J.Nicholls stated, " majority of the judges had been appointed by imperial authorities before the November revolution", it was because of this that their hostility to the republic influenced their decisions, which severely weakened democracy and contributed to the failure of the German democracy in 1933.
As the Weimar republic became weaker and the appeal of Hitler and Nazism became greater. Hitler's new approach and the reconstruction after the ‘period of prosperity', of the nazi party's 25-point programme, lead to a greater popularity. Propaganda in 1928 became extremely effective, by exploiting the Weimar and the ‘stab in the back' legend. As expressed by Hitler, ‘ in every really world shaking movement, propaganda will first have to spread the idea' (Mein Kampf, p.531). Nazi Ideologies gained the interest of right-winged groups, such as the army and industrialists, by promises of economic change encouraged middle classes to follow, the preservation of the rural community, ‘blut and boden' (blood and soil) soon followed gaining a wider support of the rural Germany. Hitler using his support of hugenburg and his status with 700 newspapers to promote himself. It was not however purely the nazi policies which these groups were drawn to, it was the growing hostility towards the democracy and the fear of growing communism which turned heads towards Fascism.
Hitler, being underestimated by conservatives was lead into parliament as chancellor in 1933, and soon, using the Weimar legislation he so boldly criticised, to gain further power and turn the German democracy into what can be argued as a totalitarian state controlled by Hitler and his nazi party. However it must be known that Hitler and his Nazi party was a beneficiary of the republic collapse rather than a catalyst. As stated by S.J.Lee, "The collapse of the Weimar republic was not due solely to the assault by Hitler and his Nazi party", the republic had already proved highly vulnerable due to a multiplicity of anti-democratic, social, political and economical factors. It was the collaboration of these forces, which lead to the collapse of the German parliamentary democratic system in 1933.