記‧憶

歷史作業     9.27

              How successful was the Weimar Republic 
                           from 1919 to 1923?

                                     Chen Huai-Yu

   In the early years of the Weimar Republic, people enjoyed the new rights they owned. The new-drawn constitution ensured people’s right to vote (for those who were over 20) and the freedom to speech, and also some welfare. The rights that German people gained led to the establishment of many political parties, because people were no longer afraid of giving speeches and to share their own opinions with others. And that was also why the Communist Party and the Nazi never were able to gain the majority in elections to the Reichstag, which would definitely not lead to the overthrow of the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Republic was highly democratic that it was considered to be the most democratic country in Europe.    

   Although most of the people thought that the Treaty of Versailles only brought Germany into a misery, but actually, the land loss of Germany had abled the government to pay no  additional fees on the soldiers, police, and transportation in the lost areas, which was a financial advantage to the slowly weakening Weimar Republic.

   The main success of the Weimar Republic was about the defeating of those uprisings. There were so many revolts and rebellions during the early years of the Republic, but the government defeated all of them successfully, using Freikorps to suppressed communists, trade unions’ strike in Berlin to stop the Kapp Putsch, and the help from police to oppose Adolf Hitler’s Munich Putsch. It’s showed that although the Weimar Republic faced many serious problems during 1919 to 1923, they still had considerable strengths to solve the problems caused by those extremists from both ends.

    The most important person to the Republic must be Gustav Stresemann. He made the right decision to call off the strike after the occupation of Ruhr, and he also changed the old Mark to Rentenmark and, the Dawes Plan also helped the Republic to reduce the payment of the huge reparations. This was the main reason why the Republic could survive through those unstable years.

    However, the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic were far more than its strengths. First, although the new constitution declared the Republic a democratic country, it also decided the PR (Proportional Representation) system for voting. It meant that there would be many political parties ruling the country together and it was very difficult to come up with a final decision in emergency times and, that was also the reason why when France and Belgium occupied Ruhr, the coalition government didn’t do anything but just ordered the people in Ruhr to rise a passive resistance which was not a smart decision at all. The PR system also led to the frequent change of government which made it an unstable society. Besides, the Article 48 allowed the government to rule the country by decree when an emergency occur, this made many German people think that it was not truly democratic, and they were also afraid if the president abuse this special power, which might turn Germany back into an autocratic empire.

    Treaty of Versailles could be the major reason to weaken Germany and the popularity of the Weimar Republic. The huge reparation led to inflation, the land loss made paying the reparation much more difficult, and the German people living in lost lands such as Poland, felt humiliated and were like to be abandoned. The most important of all, to sign the diktat itself, was also considered by the German people to betray the country, which was also called the “Stab in the Back”. Besides, the army restrictions weakened the Weimar Republic’s defence and Germany was also forbidden to join the League of Nations which isolated the Republic and made it the poorest country of Europe. German people used to be quite proud of their previous success before the War, but now from 1919 to 1923, German people no longer felt proud but humiliated by the Allies’ “unfair” Treaty of Versailles. The Weimar Republic was also affected by the Treaty, which undermined it and made it even more unpopular.

    Under this unstable society, people couldn’t tolerate it anymore. The rises of many rebellions had shown the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic although none of them was successful. The Weimar Republic was hated by both right and left wings, and even the German people themselves. The right wings hated it because the Weimar Republic was set mostly of left wing members (led to the Kapp and Munich Putsch); the left wing hated it because they thought that the new government should rule on behalf of the poor and took away the wealth from those rich people (led to the Spartacists Revolt and Munich 1919). The Weimar Republic was also hated by most of the German people because it was considered to “Stab Germany in the Back” twice, by signing the Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles.

    At the end of 1921, Germany couldn’t pay the reparation so France and Belgium occupied Ruhr. The passive resistance just didn’t work; it only led to more civilian deaths. To make things worse, the government made the wrong decision again to print more money, which led to the terrible hyper-inflation. German people were starving, and they just couldn’t find a job. The economic condition could easily highlight the weakness of the Weimar Republic. However, it was not until Gustav Stresemann’s 100 days had the economic condition become better.

    Looking through all the strengths and weaknesses of the Weimar Republic, I think that the Republic was not ruling Germany successfully during the period of 1919 to 1923. Although the Republic did have some successes, the weaknesses were not easy to count in numbers! The Republic was not overthrown because those extremists were not well prepared . In fact, the resentment had grown deeply in German people’s hearts, and the humiliation had already been created, it was not easy for German people to ignore those things and, they could not afford another hyper-inflation again (1929-1933 depression). To sum up, I think, if the Republic wanted to rule Germany well, they shouldn’t make the decision of the PR voting system at the very beginning. Once the PR was decided, the government could never make an agreement, which only led Germany into a misery that could not be totally healed.