Weimar Stability by 1929
As historian Eric Weitz says: “The Weimar Republic was marked on the one hand by hyperinflation, mass unemployment and political instability; on the other, by dazzling creativity in the arts and sciences and a legendary nightlife in Berlin.” Good afternoon Mr. Angelatos, Mr. Newman and students.
The political, economic, social and cultural scene of the Weimar republic by 1929 had in many ways achieved notable stability while, in other key areas, this stability was not achieved at all. A holistic and objective view is necessary to provide a thorough understanding of the topic. On the surface, Weimar looked to have achieved a strong stability and was politically, economically, socially and culturally thriving by 1929. However it must be recognised and argued that there were fundamental flaws in all these areas and the proof of this is its collapse and Hitler’s rise to power only 4 years later.
On the political scene, the fundamental instabilities tend to outweigh the superficial stabilities. From a purely statistical point of view, Weimar did indeed achieve political stability by 1929. As the election results during the 1920’s show, extremist parties on either wing only managed to achieve a combined grand total of 30% of all votes, while in 1928, the coalition of the SPD, DVP, DDP and Centre Party achieved 60% of votes on their own. Furthermore, between the 1924 and 1928 elections, these extremist parties actually decreased by 38 seats while the moderate parties increased by the same amount. Political violence had been nearly completely suppressed and from 1924, there were no extremist Putches. Additionally, a broad range of parties in the Reichstag and each coalition ensured all political groups had equal influence. When Hindenburg was elected as president in 1925, although he was fundamentally right wing and anti-democracy, he was able to tolerate it and not interfere until after 1929. He was sometimes seen by the right as an “Ersatzkaiser” or substitute Kaiser
The political, economic, social and cultural scene of the Weimar republic by 1929 had in many ways achieved notable stability while, in other key areas, this stability was not achieved at all. A holistic and objective view is necessary to provide a thorough understanding of the topic. On the surface, Weimar looked to have achieved a strong stability and was politically, economically, socially and culturally thriving by 1929. However it must be recognised and argued that there were fundamental flaws in all these areas and the proof of this is its collapse and Hitler’s rise to power only 4 years later.
On the political scene, the fundamental instabilities tend to outweigh the superficial stabilities. From a purely statistical point of view, Weimar did indeed achieve political stability by 1929. As the election results during the 1920’s show, extremist parties on either wing only managed to achieve a combined grand total of 30% of all votes, while in 1928, the coalition of the SPD, DVP, DDP and Centre Party achieved 60% of votes on their own. Furthermore, between the 1924 and 1928 elections, these extremist parties actually decreased by 38 seats while the moderate parties increased by the same amount. Political violence had been nearly completely suppressed and from 1924, there were no extremist Putches. Additionally, a broad range of parties in the Reichstag and each coalition ensured all political groups had equal influence. When Hindenburg was elected as president in 1925, although he was fundamentally right wing and anti-democracy, he was able to tolerate it and not interfere until after 1929. He was sometimes seen by the right as an “Ersatzkaiser” or substitute Kaiser