Why did the Weimar republic fail?
Uploaded by rmulder on Nov 04, 2002
After World War One ended and Germany was defeated, they returned to their country with heavy losses, a 6.6 billion pound reparation cost and a feeling of being let down. The country suffered huge economical losses and the country fell into poverty and starvation. Any government ruling a country like this already would have a very hard time keeping alive. At this point the Emergency Weimar Republic constitution was adopted by three parties, the Social Democratic Party, the Catholic Center and the German Democratic Party, in early 1919 they won 76 percent of the vote and began to govern Germany. The Weimar Republic was modelled around the imperial constitution and was written in Weimar. People had to blame someone and they blamed the republic for everything, for loosing the war, to the situation they were in now. One of the main reasons the Weimar republic fell from power was the treaty of Versailles, the German people thought all the bad things that had happened to them and their country were a result of it. In addition to this there were parties from the left and right challenging them. A bi product of the treaty of Versailles was the huge economic lose in their country; this gave the German people more reason to blame and loathe the Weimar republic. The third and final main reason was Hitler’s raise to power, he offered the countries people freedom from the Weimar rule and they gradually accepted it.
After world war one ended and the treaty of Versailles was signed, German troops returned home feeling angry. They felt that there was no need to call an end to the war, as it didn’t seem as though they had the lower hand and Germany had not been invaded. They were bitter because they couldn’t fight on and knew it had all been for nothing and they hadn’t gained anything. In fact they lost a lot; during the peace conference they were forced to, most importantly; redefine their Western borders and give over a lot of land (13%), pay for damages amounting to $33 billion us dollars, hugely diminish their army and navy and destroy their air-force, donate some of their coal mines (26%) to France as compensation for destroying theirs and accept full responsibility for the war. The German people found the treaty hugely unfair and unjust. They felt as though they had been pushed into...