Was The Treaty Of Versailles The Greatest Problem The Weimer Republic Faced In The Years 1918-1923? Essay, Research Paper

The new government of Germany, the Weimer Republic, was set up in 1918. From the very beginning it faced a range of problems, including several rebellions, economic problems, and deep divisions between different groups in society. Although the government survived the first problems, more appeared afterwards so that the first few years, until 1923, consisted of one crisis after another.

I have decided to answer the question by splitting up all the problems into three sections political problems, economic problems and social problems.

The first political problem was the Treaty of Versailles. Many Germans hated the Treaty and the Weimer Republic was blamed for signing it and was used by the German people who hated the new democracy and preferred the autocratic rule of the Kaiser as an excuse to hate the entire republic. Many Germans thought that things were much better in the days of the Kaiser. The reason why the treaty and so the republic was hated so much was because it was so harsh. 10% of Germanys land was lost, all oversee colonies, 12.5% of its population, 16% of its coal, 48% of its iron industry, the army of a once very proud nation was reduced to 100,000 and finally a bitter blow was that Germany and the German people had to accept full blame for starting the war. As damaging as the treaty was by itself to Germany and her pride it also in turn crated problems for the Republic. The Treaty of Versailles was created because the Allies would only gave peace if the Kaiser abdicated he did and the new government was set up but it was weak, it was weak due to the Allies who wanted to get rid of the Kaiser and wanted a democratic government, and the Weimer Republic was probably the most democratic government in the world this led to many coalitions being formed which led to a very weak government. This democratic government which many parts of Germany society saw as too democratic since so many of them were used to an autocracy began to side with either the left or the right in Germany. This led to uprisings from these two sections of society. For example the Sparticast uprising was due to communists who wanted to overthrow the Weimer regime and set up a communist state. When the Weimer republic did so strength like when it crushed the Sparticist Rebellion by suing the Freikorps, it was forced to disband the Freikops by the orders of the Treaty of Versailles because it was seen as braking the limit if 100,000 soldiers. From the Right came rebellions too like the one called the Kapp putsch which was an attempt to seize power in Berlin in 1920.The army refused to act against Kapp´s supporters who were often ex-soldiers, and the official government actually left Berlin, but a general strike by the trade unions meant that Kapp could not control the situation and the rebellion failed. This still showed hoe weak the government was due to not being able to control the army, which was due to being to democratic and due to having such a reduced army and many of the rebels were former soldiers, preset soldiers would not fire on there former friends and they were former soldiers due to the Treaty of Versailles. These rebellions were dangerous because the government had very little support form the ordinary support this is because they had suffered the most when trading and the economy were suffered due to the war and they used the republic as their scapegoat. The new government seemed unable to cope with the political challenges it faced, but its failure to deal with the economic problems made the situation even worse. The Weimer constitution was yet another problem the republic faced there were so many parties that no one single party got a majority ands under the constitution a coalition of parties to govern had to be formed and this made the government weak because problems could not be solved in times of crisis due to disagreement in the government. This was not due o the Treaty of Versailles, yes the allies demanded a democracy but the Weimer republic went beyond that is created one of the most democratic nations in the world. For example the percentage of the vote that had to be gained for a party was far beyond that in Britain. The Treaty also caused many economic problems not only because it had took away 48% of Germanys iron industry but because the Allies demanded reparations of £6,600,000, this caused great train on the German economy which had already suffered fu to losing so many important industrial resources. But reparations only cost Germany 2% of her national out put per year. This suggests that the annual payments were not too harsh and the reason why Germany became so poor was because of the vast sums of money spent on the war and the world recessions. Indirectly the Treaty of Versailles caused the German government to print paper money even when it didn´t have sufficient resources to support it, which was due to the treaty, which had taken so many resources. This in turn led to constantly rising inflation. By 1923 prices had become ridiculous, although people who had taken out large loans (such as industrialists who were mostly against the Weimar Republic and on the side of the right since they feared the communist and their anti-capitalism) benefited, and German goods were cheap for other countries to buy which did stimulate trade and employment. But the problem became even worse when in 1923 French and Belgian troops invaded the Ruhr which was a heavy industrial area for Germany, the French and Belgians were perfectly within the law to do this under the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles since Germany had been late in making a payment. The government´s inability to defend their terroity demonstrated their weakness. The government of Germany encouraged the workers in the Ruhr to strike but they were supported by the German treasury, so this was costly and this led to many people becoming unemployed and many small businesses going bankrupt who than swore allegiance to parties like the Nazis. And also the standard of living went down as well, this simply backed up many Germans ideas that life was better in the time of the Kaiser and they wanted a more autocratic way of government as before the republic and the democratic government was created due to the Treaty. At this point many people agreed with Hitler in a speech he said in 1924: ‘ Believe me, our misery will increase. The state has become the biggest swindler….Horrified people noticed that they can starve on millions…we will no longer submit…. we want a dictatorship!´. These economic problems caused social problems for the German people and as I have explained the economic problem was due to the government printing more money and they printed more money because of hyperinflation and the invasion of the Ruhr, which was legally acceptable under the Treaty of Versailles. Money being almost worthless and this meant that many people could not keep up the standard of living they had enjoyed before the war under the authority almost autocratic rule of the Kaiser. The middle classes were possibly the hardest hit because they were more likely to have savings which were wiped out, and they tended to be professional who depended on cash payments, and, in a crisis like this, there was less demand for their services, e.g. doctors, lawyers. Unemployment was rising and there was a high level of discontent within German society. The German people than began to blame the Weimer Republic and began to support political parties which under the Weimer Constitution parties which wanted to destroy the Weimer Republic which was becoming a very popular view, were allowed to stand for election and the reason why they were was because the Weimer Republic was a very democratic country and it was a democratic country because the Allies demanded it to be democratic country at Versailles, that was a condition of peace. The opposition to the Weimer Republic also help caused the downfall of the Republic. Things were bad in the Republic because of the economy; the people used the government as a scapegoat as well as the political parties. Many people believed that these were the ‘November Criminals´ and that they had stabbed Germany in the back, parties like the Nazis promised to destroy the treaty and they than said that this would solve all of Germanys problems. The Treaty of Versailles created problems as well as being a problem itself, nearly all the problems faced by the Weimer Republic were connected with the Treaty of Versailles. Political problems created economic problems and than economic problems created social problems, which than fuelled political problems by supporting parties which, were against the Weimer Republic.

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