B-Period Weimar Review by Jason Leong

Fear of the Communists gaining power in government

jleong9 — 2024-04-17 13:47:34 UTC

The bureaucracy of the Weimar Republic frequently went after communists and leftists while allowing right-wing seditionists to escape with light punishments. Judges in Weimar were often sympathetic to the right-wing parties and issued them light sentences, emboldening and legitimizing their attempts to overthrow the government. This allowed right-wing parties such as the Nazis to survive and infiltrate the democratic system.

Parties in Support of Versailles Central and Socialist Party

2024-04-17 14:13:19 UTC

The Treaty of Versailles was extremely unpopular among the German population. The blame was put on the parties that signed this treaty or were not against this treaty such as the Central Party and the Socialist Party. These parties were pro-democracy and the people did not like this fact. So more and more people started to move to the extreme sides of politics, where those parties promised to go against this unjust Treaty

Targeting Jewish Communities

2024-04-17 14:13:29 UTC

The government relied on terror to target jewish communities. They laid off many Jewish workers and also attempted to boycott jewish owned business. However, it didn't work because there were many exceptions to this rule. The government also created Jewish conspiracies blaming Jews for their misfortunes. This created a deep hatred in Germany for Jews and when civilians attacked them the punishment was not as intense as other crimes. This answers the question because it created a common enemy appointed by the government.

Great Depression

2024-04-17 14:15:57 UTC

In 1929, the Great Depression hit the U.S. which then caused an economic depression in Germany. The U.S held money in German banks which they then withdrew to support themselves. Therefore, the economy crashed overnight and over 3,000,000 people lost their jobs. Because of this, people in Germany were very unhappy because they lost a large percentage of their money and they still had reparations to pay on top of that.

Article 48

2024-04-17 14:16:42 UTC

This law allowed the German president to declare a state of emergency in Germany in times of national danger and to rule as a dictator for short periods of time. Though some German presidents didn't abuse this law, Hitler used this law to eventually pass the Enabling act, giving him truly unlimited dictatorial powers. This law also allowed the President to suspend civil liberties if needed. Hindenburg continously used Article 48 to achieve his aims which weakened the power of the Reichstag as well as the public's confidence in the Weimar system.

Enabling Act

2024-04-17 14:16:59 UTC

Allowed the Reich government to issue laws without the consent of Germany's parliament. No more democracy if the people do not get a say

Hitler used intimidation and persecution to pass the law. Government is allowed to pass any laws.

Government can now pass any laws without running them by the people.

Proportional representation: small right-wing political parties have a voice in government. Coalitions

Hyperinflation

2024-04-17 14:17:57 UTC

In response to WW1 taking a heavy toll on Germany's economy, the government printed a lot of money. All of the extra money introduced to the system caused stacks of currency to become virtually worthless in 1923.

Paramilitary Uprisings

2024-04-17 14:18:11 UTC

Hitlers followers created paramilitary groups (SA) that attacked any one that was not in agreement with the position of the government. They attacked the jewish communities, those that were far-left, and were under Hitler's leadership. this helps answer the question because it shows how every other group was being suppressed by the Nazi government and also how this group was gaining more popularity

Fear of communism

2024-04-17 14:18:26 UTC

Germans feared that Germany could end up like their Russian counterparts. They believed that civil unrest and suppression characterized communism. In addition, the middle and upper-class Germans strongly disapproved of the fundamental principle of communism (a "classless society").

Treaty of Versailles

2024-04-17 14:20:20 UTC

The Treaty of Versailles demanded that Germany pay reparations to all the Allied countries, which later amounted to around $33 billion, after lengthy negotiations with the Allies. With the economy damaged by the aftermath of the war, Germany had a difficult time keeping up with the scheduled reparation payments, later causing an economic crisis.

The Reichstag Fire Decree

2024-04-17 14:20:36 UTC

The Reichstag Fire Decree was issued after the German parliament building was set on fire. By way of Article 48, the decree suspended civil liberties, such as freedom of press, freedom to hold political meetings/marches, among other individual rights. By giving the government this much control over its people, including their power to arrest people without a trial, the decree undermined democracy and was a key step in setting up Hitler's path for the authoritarian/dictatorial regime. Effectively, the constitutional weaknesses of violating people's rights by abusing article 48, contributed to the failure of democracy in Weimar Germany.

Proportional Representation

2024-04-17 14:22:06 UTC

The Weimar Republic was already weakened because every political party was allowed to have a vote, determined by the amount of people that voted for each party. This allowed small right-wing parties like how the Nazi's were initially, to gain power and have a platform, even though they wanted to destroy the current government. This further allowd them to rise the power as Hitler broke through the ranks even though they only got the max percent of 37% of votes in Germany.

Couldn't get loans

2024-04-17 14:26:47 UTC

"U.S. bankers responded by classifying Germany as a bad

risk and blocked new loans to the government." This means that Germany couldn't get help from the US so it was increasingly difficult for them to get money to pay reparations