What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution?

Key strengths
PR – is very democratic; leads to lots of choice; every vote counts.
Key weaknesses:
• Article 48 – makes Germany vulnerable to dictatorship
• Proportional Representation – leads to a proliferation of splinter parties and the need for coalition (rather than single-party) government.
• Coalition government is weak – ends up taking ‘easy way out’ –e.g. printing more money.

• Whilst the Constitution removed the kaiser and installed an elected President and gave power of legislation to the legislature it left a number of things in place (JACUB):
– Judiciary -
– Army
– Civil Service
– University/education
– Business
• The Junker class provided personnel for army and judiciary and upper sections of civil service. So this was a Republic dominated by people who did not like the Republican system.

• Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Leibknecht never even get to court
(murdered whilst in police custody).
•
• Hitler sentenced to minimum sentence for Putsch of 1923 but only serves 9 months in Landsberg prison (when he writes
Mein Kampf).
Murders by left Murders by the right
Number of murders 22 354
38 24 Number of murderers sentenced by the courts
Average length of prison sentence
Numbered of murderers executed
15 years
10
4 months
0

• Group tasks – groups of 3
A. Why was there a revolution in 1918?
(pp. 10-11)
B. Why was the survival of the Weimar republic under threat 1919-23? (12-15
& 20)
C. Why did the Weimar Republic survive
1919-23? (pp. 21-23)

• Military defeat
– Germany had imposed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk upon
Russia in March 1918, which gave Germany a third of its best land and 3/4 of its iron ore;
– But the allied blockade over the last 3 years had its effects upon Germany – soldiers were poorly supplied and civilians faced starvation;
– Entrance of USA into the war in 1917 and every month was sending fresh soldiers and equipment;
– The Ludendorff Offensive ground to a halt in June 1918 and in August 1918 the Allies counter-attacked, recapturing all the land ceded until German territory was threatened.
– Ludendorff realised that Germany could not win the war and thought that political change may take the blame away from the army and place it upon the politicians.

• Conditions within Germany
– Starvation and disease partly as a result of the blockade;
– Political problems that pre-date the war – the Reichstag was weak, could not propose laws, Germany was ruled by Kaiser, his appointed chancellor and cabinet.
– The biggest parties – Zentrum and SPD had no control over this government; many in the middle and working classes wanted government to reflect their influence.
– The War had intensified the polarisation between the government and the Reichstag – e.g. the Zentrum minister
Matthias Erzberg had called for a peace vote which was affirmed by the Reichstag but ignored by the government which was from 1917 increasingly under the influence of
Ludendorff and Hindenburg.
– Kaiser Wilhelm’s departure leaves a power vacuum.
– Sailors at Kiel began to mutiny and this spread to other military bases.

• Opposition to Versailles Treaty
• Many were convinced by the ‘stab in the back’ myth – afterall, the army had not been defeated and yet the polticians had signed the armistice and then the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.
• Existence of extremist groups:
– On the left (Spartacists, Communists) leading revolts in 1919 and
(Bavarian People’s Republic) 1920;
– On the right (Kapp putsch 1920; Munich Putsch, 1923), Freikorps failed to support the government against Wolfgang Kapp but was broken up after the Kapp Putsch; Organisation Consul and other right wing extremists carried out hundreds of assassinations (most prominent being Mathias
Erzberger (Zentrum politician who had led the peace vote in July 1917) and Walter Ratheneau (1922)– Jewish foreign minister who had just signed the Treaty of Rapallo);
• Invasion of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops seeking to take control of industry and production for defaulting on reparation payments.
• Inflation…

• There were winners as well as losers from the
Hyperinflation crisis;
• Hyperinflation did not lead to mass unemployment;
• The government’s call for a general strike in the face of the
French-Belgian occupation was supported by the German people so effectively it won support for the government;
• Most people were not extremists;
• Stresemann was able to stabilise the situation by calling off the strike and then introduced a new currency.
• The balance of right and left wing forces probably created a bit of a stalemate.

• Survived NOT because of the strength of the government but in spite of its weakness…
– Spartacists (Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Leibknecht) were dealt with by the Freikorps who disliked bolshevism
– Kapp Putsch Workers in Berlin dealt with the Kapp Putsch
(military elite), not the army; failure of army; led to disbanding of
– Munich Putsch 1923 – Nazis a fringe group, in their infancy so not supported by police/army.
– Invasion of the Ruhr by French and Belgians – government survived because people hated the foreign occupation more.

• Appeasement essay (10 pars)
• Appeasement END essay (3 pars)
• Diary of Munich (7 key dates)
• D question – given out last term).