Jonas, Una, Lara, Monika, Kevin, Paulina, Sebastian
The Weimar Republic 1924-1929:
Years of recovery and achievement?
In 1923 the Weimar Republic had faced severe crises and had survived.
Weimar Republic lasted longer than Third Reich.
Weimar Republic mainly failed due to Great Depression in 1929.
Republic without Republicans: One of the most important aspects of a republic is democracy.
From 1930 onwards the right wing parties which did not support democracy got more votes than
parties which supported democracy. The term republic without republicans means that the
German Republic was not supported by its people. (G: Demokratie ohne Demokraten)
The political parties in Weimar Germany
SPD: - founded in 1875
- main creator/supporter of Weimar Republic
- support from the working class
DDP: - liberal middle-class party
- played major role in drawing up the constitution
- failed to attract voters
KPD: - formed from the Spartacists
- wanted to spread Marxist ideology / soviet system
- hostile to republic and SPD
- attempted many revolts against the government -> they all failed
Z:
- founded in 1870
- main goal was to protect the interests of the Catholic church in the government
-broad support across the classes (therefore Centre Party)
DVP: - moderate conservative party
- main support from the protestant middle-class and industrialists (free trade)
- the party moved continuously to the right
DNVP: - was the main conservative party
- was hostile to the republic but joined later in 1925 the government
- wanted to protect the interests of industrialists and big landowners
NSDAP: - like the KPD it tried to get power by revolts -> failed (Munich Putsch under Hitler)
- afterwards they tried it with legal electoral methods
- main support in regional elections, especially in farming areas
The elite and the parliamentary system
Elite supported Republic due to lack of better option
Industrialists: more control of wages
Landed aristocracy: more influence
Generals: army as “a state within the state”/ more authoritarian system
Many employers against democracy
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Jonas, Una, Lara, Monika, Kevin, Paulina, Sebastian
Economic recovery
Allies wanted Germany to be able to pay
USA: had lent money to GB and F
Dawes Plan 1924: American loans to Germany
Prospects for economic recovery: Germany, spot for foreign investment until 1929
Some historians say: still significant problems
Rentenmark--> Reichsmark, 1924
Politics after 1923:
More peaceful but still frequent fights
Nazis (SA) vs. KPD (paramilitary Red Fighting League)
1924: economic situation stabilized
> main democratic parties were voted again
> DDP lost ground
Political weaknesses:
proportional representation electoral system
voting system: voters in 35 vast electoral regions voted for a party list, not for a certain
representative
political disenchantment
parties divided among themselves
no symbol appealing to popular emotions
> (only ’Constitution Day’ in 1928)
lack of charismatic leader > people attracted by ’totalitarian temptation’
so-called political stability (1924-1928) was only stable in comparison to turmoil of 1918-1923
Elections of 1925:
Hindenburg wins, both a positive and an ominous sign for Weimar democracy (as he did not
represent democracy; was the one who also put forward the stab-in-the-back myth)
WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PROBLEMS IN THE WEIMAR
ECONOMY?
Conservative View:
Critical of Weimar’s economic performance in 1920’s:
State was living beyond its means
wages increased unrelated to productivity (due to strength of trade unions and state arbitration)
low internal investment
persistence of high unemployment
“sick economy, which could not possibly have gone on in the same way” (Borchhardt)
Alternative View
-rather left-wing
main reasons for limited economic performance lay with a lack of entrepreneurial attitude
inadequate investment from industrial elite
low productivity caused by government subsidies
industrialists’ formation of cartels reduced entrepreneurial spirit
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Jonas, Una, Lara, Monika, Kevin, Paulina, Sebastian
A Synthesis
- recent research after collapse of east German state
workers and employers contributed to economic weakness because:
both groups sought to defend their position
wages did rise due to local shortages
low investment caused by savers’ lack of confidence
government’s priority of trying to balance budget
WEIMAR WELFARE STATE
STRENGTHS:
Nov.1918: - 8-hour working day for workers + system of industrial tribunals
Advances in social services:- improved hospitals, schools, housing, roads, electricity supplies 40% of federal government expenditure went on war-related pensions
1927:- social insurance scheme extended to protect over 17million workers in event of
unemployment
WEAKNESSES:
growing tensions between employers and workers:
unemployment insurance lost financial basis by mass unemployment
elite reinforced its suspicions of new democratic system (e.g. due to high taxation)
before slump 8-hour limit extended to 10-hour limit to help employers
WELFARE STATE PROTECTED WORKERS BUT IT AROUSED RESENTMENT OF
EMPLOYERS (=> cf. urban Mittelstand who later supported the Nazi Party)
Germany’s economic performance
revaluation and compensation (for money lost during hyperinflation)
Debts were reassessed at 15 % of their original value
was not a good idea, led to a so called
“long-running saga of revaluation”
- weakened the Weimar republic and kept bitterness over hyperinflation alive
After 1923 the economy improved but it’s rate was erratic
Already in 1926 there was a downturn and unemployment grew
agriculture was far worse: world surplus of grain
indebtedness and bankruptcies
the outbreak of peasant violence against eviction
“the farmer’s revenge” in 1928
The crucial gap between the middle-class and the proletariat began to disappear
the middle-class too was soon to express their resentments politically
economic performance was mixed
crucially, economic recovery was fuelled by foreign, short-term loans
“if the short-term credits are called in, a large
section of our economy would collapse”
(Stresemann, 1928)
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