To what extent was the Great Depression responsible for the collapse of the Weimar Republic? While the Great Depression had a huge impact on Germany, it is too simplistic to say that the Depression alone led to the collapse of the Weimar Republic. The Depression had a great impact both economically, socially, politically and psychologically, but its main significance was the opportunity it provided radical politicians such as Hitler. The collapse of the Republic itself can almost be described as inevitable, having being built on unstable and weak foundations. As well as the Depression, the collapse of the Republic can be linked to a large number of factors, including the influence of the army, political instability and constitutional weaknesses.
However, the unjust system of Three Estates- First Estates being clergy, Second Estate the nobility and Third Estate the rest of population- and unreasonable taxation was a more significant cause than the American Revolution. Although it did accelerate the happening of it, American war of Independence was not the most significant long-term cause of the French Revolution; in reality, at the basis of it was the long rooted system of Three Estates. American revolution is widely regarded as one of the main causes of the French Revolution. There are two key reasons why it had such impact on France; one is the financial impact and two is the intellectual impact. The ministers and the king of France gave full support to the American rebels, both financially and militarily.
Even though Hindenburg was in Hitler’s way of gaining the Chancellorship, there were many other factors that lead to Hitler becoming Chancellor in January 1933 and not just because he was leader of the most popular Party in Germany. For example, the Weimar Republic was suffering from the political polarisation between nationalist and communist’s parties and the economic crisis caused by the Great Depression. These two issues put pressure on the governing coalition and it was beginning to break up. Furthermore political intrigue and the self interest of political parties, along with the inherent flaws of the Weimar constitution and the weakness of government by coalition, all played into Hitler’s hands. These factors caused the loss of public support for the grand coalition of the Weimar Republic and the German people subsequently looked for a new style of leadership.
Additionally there were developments that occurred without war, which illustrates that involvement in war was not the only cause for change. Therefore war was an important catalyst and factor to significant changes but was not the sole cause of change. The war that caused most change was Word War One due to its role in the February revolution in 1917 and the fall of the provisional government in the October revolution. The defeats of the war dwindled support from liberals and Octobrists for the Tsarist regime, which was further worsened by criticism from organisations including the Central War Industries committee and the union of Zemstva. This formed support and reason for the Progressive Bloc.
The Weimar Republic was able to solve some of the problems it faced, but however, a significant number of problems it faced remained unsolved which overall hindered many problems it faced as Weimar Republic created more problem for themselves. Some of the problem it faced included: Harsh treatment by the allies, the hyperinflation of 1923, economic prosperity and political threat from the extremist. In this essay, I will be trying to examine to what extent Weimer Republic in 1920s overcame the problems it faced. Harsh treatment by the allies towards Germany, during the signing of 'Treaty of Versailles' in 1919 was one of the crucial problems Germany faced and overcame very slowly with the help from Dawes's and Young's plan. Dawes's plan in 1924 did not reduce the final total reparation but however it agreed that reparation payment would start gradually and rise to their maximum within 5 years.
The Berlin blockade and airlift was more to blame than the Marshall plan for increasing cold war tension In this essay I shall explain why Berlin blockade contributed most to the changed relations, but also how the Marshall plan was important. The Marshall plan was created by George Marshall so that Trueman would keep his promise to contain communism. The Marshall plan gave 17 billion dollars to countries who were still recovering from WW1. This created tension because Western Europe could become more prosperous. This angered Stalin as he did not want West Germany to recover and be given Marshall Aid.
France got affected economically which made the people of France lose hope on monarch. The enlightenment was a more important cause because without that the people would have not thought the American Revolution as a big turning point. The critical thinking that the enlightenment bought about caused the people to look at it from another
The Nazis represented the return of traditional German values which went down well with the middle class people. The first two points are linked because the person are losing money already and if the country becomes a communist country then the businesses and land owners will lose more money therefore a big aspect in the great depression was that Germany was losing a lot of money. Hitler and the Nazi party gained a lot of supporters who voted for them at the elections. This was because Hitler appealed to them and was meeting their needs. I believe that Germany becoming a communist country was more of a big problem than families losing because once Germany became a communist country they were most likely going to stay like that for a long time however with the money lost the families could always find new jobs.
As the U.S was trying to make more jobs to regulate the economy, Germany had to still pay all the money they owed before even thinking about making new job. The debt Germany owed was so much, that they were never able to pay it back. This was the major cause on why Hitler rose to power as smoothly as he did. He gradually got most of the countries
The number of Lords Spiritual was further restricted by the Bishopric of Manchester Act 1847, and by later acts. The Lords Spiritual can now number no more than 26; these are the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of Durham, the Bishop of Winchester and the 21 longest-serving bishops from other dioceses in the Church of England[35] (excluding the dioceses of Sodor and Man and Gibraltar in Europe, as these lie entirely outside the United Kingdom). [36] The current Lords Spiritual represent only the Church of England. Bishops of the Church of Scotland traditionally sat in the Parliament of Scotland but were excluded in 1638 following the Scottish Reformation. There are no longer bishops in the Church of Scotland in the traditional sense of the word, and that Church has never sent members to sit in the Westminster House of Lords.