The Main Problems for the Weimar Republic 1918-23
In the period of 1918-23 the Weimar Republic was facing many problemsthese were, Spartacist week, The Kapp Putch, The Constitution, Thetreaty of Versailles, The occupation of the Ruhr, Hyper Inflation, TheMunich Beer Hall Putch.
Best services for writing your paper according to Trustpilot
In order to answer this question we must first establish whetherin-fact the problems that Weimar faced were un-defeat able and howmuch of a threat they posed to the survival of the republic. The yearsof 1918 to 1923 are deemed by many as the “crisis years” as they werea period of much unrest and annoyance, to add to this there weresocial, economic and political breakdowns and much opposition fromseveral quarters.
Before the arise of any additional problems there was alreadyinstability in the government, with the abandonment of the KaiserReich, three parties made up the broadly based Weimar Coalition.Although democratic, the coalition operated on a system ofproportional representation – in other words if party A, for example,gets 10% of the votes then they would get 10% of seats in theReichstag. The introduction of proportional representation became acontroversial issue and was the subject of much criticism at the time.By having several parties running the country, all with different aimsand ideas, it was difficult to agree on policies. It can also beargued that this system may have assisted in the rise of Nazism andCommunism.
There was also tension in the government due to the ambiguousrelationship between the President and the Reichstag. The presidentacted as a counter-balance to the Reichstag as a result of fears ofpar…
…t for survival.Perhaps it is true that Weimar could have survived without him, butpersonally I think it would have been more of a case of struggling onuntil its demise. Stresemann exerted such an intense influence andinitiated vital economic developments.
It can be argued that the Weimar Republic never actually had a realchance of survival from the start. In my opinion it had a particularlyunfortunate amount of problems but nevertheless it triumphed inovercoming them. It was pure bad luck that in 1929 not only was Weimarconfronted with more economic adversity but also Stresemann died atthis crucial time. The Nazis were in the right place at the right timein order to exploit this misfortune. If it had not been for thesefateful circumstances, I believe that the Weimar Republic would havesurvived longer.
