Weaknesses of the Weimar Government

Weaknesses of the Weimar Government

Constitution and proportional representation

Proportional representation

• Germany had been controlled by authoritarian rulers for a very long time
• After the German surrender in World War 1,a new constitution was drawn up which established a democratic government
• The democratic Weimar government had a President who was chosen by the people  
• Then,the President will chose the Chancellor and the cabinet ministers
• However,the system did not last long.
• it is because of the instability of coalition governments,example decisions must be agreeable with each other but they do not,this cause disagreement
• Keep on changing government will cause the stability of the country to be weak    
• The ruling parties were coalition parties that lacked unity between each other
• As a result,people lost trust in the new government

Coalition government  

• All the parties came together to form a coalition government
• They have a lot of nice ideas but they do not wish to agree with each other
• This reason in the regular breaking up and change of the coalition government
• There were 20 different coalition governments from 1919-1933
• difficult to pass laws,thus seen as weak by the Germans people

Article 48 of Weimar Constitution

• Allowed the President to make decision of himself during the time when the government feel dangerous and needed them to control the situation
• Make use by Hitler to grab hold of the power legally and to remain in power

Weak Support

• Lacked strong support from the people
• Kapp Putsch happened in 1920 control by Wolfgang Kapp and General Walther von Luettwitz led the soldiers to overthrow the Weimar Republic
• Wolfgang Kapp was a right-wing politician who opposed Friedrich Ebert and the Weimar Government because of the humiliation that they sign the Treaty of Versailles
• General Walther von Luettwitz lead the soldiers to overthrow the Government
• On 31 March 1920,the soldiers take control of Berlin and announced Kapp as the Prime Minister.However people or German Army did not support Kapp Putsch

Opposition from the right and the left  

• Opposed by the right comprised mainly of the German Army which objected to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
• They felt that had been stacked in the back and could have continued fighting
• Full of hate,they then decided to not support the work of the Weimar Government
• However,their claims are wrong,Germany’s allies,Turkey and Bulgaria,wanted to stop the fighting and wanted to find peace,leaving German’s south open to attack.
• Since 1915,the British do not allow any food and raw materials to reach
• Due to this reasons,the Weimar Government have no choice to sign the Treaty of Versailles
• Opposed by the left refers to the Communists,one of the communists groups was known as the Spartacists.
• This group wanted to bring down the Weimar Government in order for them to set up a Communists government that was about the same as the Soviet Union
• Spartacist rebellion started on 5 January 1919 when they attack the Weimar Government
• They formed a revolutionary committee  and control of the public buildings and put up red flag represent communism
• President Ebert convinced them by make use of the Freikorps.
• The Germans Army  ended the rebellion on 10 January 1919
• Many of the Spartacists and the leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht,were being killed.                                                     
  •    Myth of the "Stab in the Back"
  • Citation for copyright acknowledgement:
  https://fc.gsacrd.ab.ca/~al_meunier/FOV2-00075DC2/FOV2-00076183/?OpenItemURL=S02273638-02273638   
  This picture show that the person holding the knife is the Weimar government and the person is going to be stabbed is the Germans Army.It show that the Weimar government stabbed the Germans Army behind their back.The German Army think that they could continued without the sign of Treaty of Versailles.But they don’t know that actually the Weimar government do not have the choice to sign the Treaty of Versailles,they do this because there are starved of food and basic goods.The Germans Army have been feel that doing this is very unfair to them so they decided to stop the Weimar govrnment from working.
  
  
  
  
  Citation for copyright acknowledgement:
  http://www.kingsacademy.com/mhodges/03_The-World-since-1900/04_The-Roaring-20s/04a_Post-War-Europe-r.htm
  
  
  This picture show a converted British tank put to German service in Berlin helping to crush the Communist uprising there in January 1919.There were lots of soldiers who had quit the German Army joined the Free Corps(Freikorps) and the Communists(Spartacists) having frequent battle in Berlin so to stop the battle the German service uses the British tank.Then president Ebert allowed the Freikorps and what remained of the regular army to bring back peace and stability back to Berlin.They show no mercy to the Spartacists whose leaders were murdered after being arrested.President Ebert allowed the Freikorps to help him to bring back Berlin’s peace and stability because the Spartacists is a groups of communists that wanted to bring the Weimar government down which the Weimar government president is him.     
      Citation for copyright acknowledgement:      
  http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/history/bl_parliament_politics_problems.htm
  
  
  This graph show the percentage of the vote of different groups of people have vote in the proportional representation voting system.The proportional representation system of voting was intended to reduce political conflicts; resulting in many parties gaining seats in the Reichstag.As there was no single party in overall control parties had to join together to form a government. However, each party had different aims which made it difficult for the Reichstag to govern. Consequently, there were many changes of government which led to political instability. This was reflected in 376 political assassinations up to 1923.Despite being from the democratic left, during the early 1920s, Friedrich Ebert relied heavily on the traditionally right-wing army and Freikorps in order to keep control of the country.Conservative attitudes tended to overemphasise the threat from the left, whilst the threat from the right was severely under-estimated.