Weimar Republic
- Submitted by: elizav
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- Category: History: European
- Date Submitted: 05/24/2013 11:31 PM
- Pages: 5
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eEvaluate the view that the Weimar Republic was doomed to fail
It can be argued that since its very beginnings the Weimar Republic was destined to fail. The republic itself has serious structural weaknesses. With democracy unable to really hold legitimacy in Germany so when political and economical crises happened the Republic was unable to keep any public support, ultimately leading to its failure.
Germany was a nation of power and strength bound together by a great sense of nationalism. Germany’s tradition was of dominant rulers, a strong military and conservative ruling elite, not one democracy. When democracy was forced onto Germany, the Germans interested in it and liked the way they had been previously ruled. Democracy became the peoples scapegoats, a way for them to blame the hardship that burdened them.
When democracy came to power the first few things it had to do was sign the armistice and the Treaty of Versailles (TofV). For the people this was seen as a betrayal for they had believed that they were winning the war and for Germany, a proud nation, to lose a war and accept defeat was an ultimate betrayal. This lead to great hatred and distrust of the republic with people referring to the betrayal as “The Stab in the Back Legend”.
Many flaws were put into the constitution when it was created. The first of these flaws was Article 48. Article 48 gave the president emergency powers allowing for the president to rule by decree, completely bypassing the Reichstag. This power was able to be easily abused and in later years of the Weimar Republic article 48 was abused to a point where it can be argued that democracy did not even exist. The second flaw was the method of voting, proportional representation. This was an issue as it allowed for smaller, extremist parties to get into the Reichstag which caused instability within the Reichstag. Proportional representation also meant that it became much harder for just one party to hold majority power in the...
It can be argued that since its very beginnings the Weimar Republic was destined to fail. The republic itself has serious structural weaknesses. With democracy unable to really hold legitimacy in Germany so when political and economical crises happened the Republic was unable to keep any public support, ultimately leading to its failure.
Germany was a nation of power and strength bound together by a great sense of nationalism. Germany’s tradition was of dominant rulers, a strong military and conservative ruling elite, not one democracy. When democracy was forced onto Germany, the Germans interested in it and liked the way they had been previously ruled. Democracy became the peoples scapegoats, a way for them to blame the hardship that burdened them.
When democracy came to power the first few things it had to do was sign the armistice and the Treaty of Versailles (TofV). For the people this was seen as a betrayal for they had believed that they were winning the war and for Germany, a proud nation, to lose a war and accept defeat was an ultimate betrayal. This lead to great hatred and distrust of the republic with people referring to the betrayal as “The Stab in the Back Legend”.
Many flaws were put into the constitution when it was created. The first of these flaws was Article 48. Article 48 gave the president emergency powers allowing for the president to rule by decree, completely bypassing the Reichstag. This power was able to be easily abused and in later years of the Weimar Republic article 48 was abused to a point where it can be argued that democracy did not even exist. The second flaw was the method of voting, proportional representation. This was an issue as it allowed for smaller, extremist parties to get into the Reichstag which caused instability within the Reichstag. Proportional representation also meant that it became much harder for just one party to hold majority power in the...