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Was the Weimar Rebublic Doomed To Fail
In January 1919 Spartacist members staged an attempted revolution in Berlin. The Freikorps crushed it. Ebert dealt with the situation but had to put the Government into the hands of the Army and Freikorps. In March 1920, the Freikorps took over Berlin. The government had to leave the city. The Freikorps were lead by Wolfgang Kapp - a right wing nationalist who hated the government for signing the Versailles Treaty. This incident is called the Kapp Putsch. In 1923 Hitler staged an uprising, in which he was imprisoned for. The harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles angered Germans everywhere and many directed their resentment at the Weimar government who signed the Treaty. This was actually quite unfair, because they really had very little choice but to sign. The new Government was blamed for accepting the humiliating Treaty. The Treaty also meant that there was territorial loss. Those that lived in the selected parts were angry to become part of Germany again. It became more unpopular as it tried to deal with reparations, which came to a staggering 660 billion Marks. This was much too adventurous for Germany. The reparation repayments caused much distress to Germany and her citizens. One solution was to print more money; this lead to hyperinflation where money was virtually worthless. Millions of Germans saw their savings disappear. Things became even worse in 1923 when Germany stopped paying reparations. The French army occupied the Ruhr and seized Germanys coalfields-this lead to even more unemployment. The Germans put Passive resistance into practise. The majority of Germany had no savings, no money for food and were unemployed-the Country was in chaos.
The new constituation, tried to create a fair and democratic society for Germnany, and its democracy would be advantageous. The fact that the constitution was a new start for Germany acted as a strength. This was a chance to put a democratic Germany into practise and it could’ve been provided as useful. The Weimar Republic was intended [next page]