Indeed, Hitler did not act unconstitutionally by declaring himself Fuhrer as the enabling act gave him dictatorial power via democratic means. Moreover, the emergency decree given after the Reichstag fire “for the protection of people and state” gave the police the power to detain without charge, a tool which was used to great effect by Hitler to quell any political opposition that arose after the Nazi seizure of power. The total legislative power afforded to the Nazis as a result of the enabling act allowed for the Communist Party to be banned, as well as the SPD, whilst the remaining parties faded away in fear of the same fate. By manipulating the constitution Hitler had eliminated all opposition to the Nazi regime and therefore organised and democratic insurrection in Nazi Germany was effectively impossible, thus consolidating Nazi power. Whilst the danger of any organised political opposition to the Nazis had been successfully crushed by the enabling act and subsequent legislation, there was still the chance that a populist uprising of the people could take down the regime if it had enough support.
Did Germany face a bigger threat from the Left or Right wing between 1919-1923? From its start, the Weimar Republic experienced problems from both the Left and Right wing. The hatred for the government of those on the Left was encouraged by the successful Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 whilst the Right wing felt betrayed by a government who had allegedly stabbed them in the back by agreeing to the armistice and signing the Treaty of Versailles. However both threats from the Left and the Right had underlying problems, which made them easier to put down by the government. After the unsuccessful attempt at a revolution, which was easily repressed, the Left never fully recovered its momentum and did not have enough support to overthrow the government whereas although the Right attempts quickly fell short, the threat from the Right wing continued to grow.
However as the war progressed and more issues became apparent, the divide between the rich and the poor and the left and the right wing became vaster. Before the war had commenced liberals and socialists were aggravated with German democracy. Germany portrayed itself as a democratic state, however all the power belonged to the elite. Kaiser Wilhelm II even boasted that he had never read the constitution. Therefore Liberals wanted constitutional reform and more power to be given to the Reichstag.
William Carr states ‘ A revolutionary situation did exist in 1918 as long as the people were no longer prepared to obey the old rulers’ This highlights the disruption amongst the people, an awareness that there was a shift of power but whether this new awareness constitutes a revolution can be questioned. The end of the Kaiser rule was significant as the lifelong belief the German people once had in their Kaiser and his Authoritarian rule was shattered; a significant change in mentality that allowed the possibility of a new democratic republic. This was such drastic change and for the first time meant Germans in theory
The reason why so many people joined these extremists was that in the Treaty of Versailles the Germans would have to accept ‘the War guilt clause’. Everyone found this an outrage as the Germans eventually signed the Treaty. The Govterment system that was put in through the Weimar was democracy. This new system was new to Germany and looked to be crumbling after the first few years. The country had a militaristic past as which had gave the President some concerns that the old elite may try and overturn the Weimar with much support.
One of the ways how Stalin defeated the left side of the party was to make an alliance with Bukharin. This ended with Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev losing their power bases. This gave Stalin a lot more power and meant there was no real threat left. I know from my own knowledge that Trotsky formed the alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev because Stalin was a big threat. Stalin was more popular because of Trotsky’s “political paralysis” he couldn’t be a good public speaker.
To a large extent the main threat to the stability of the Weimar Republic came from the political violence of the extreme right in the period 1919 to 1923 with incidents such as The Kapp Putsch in 1920 and the numerous assassinations. However, although the violence from the extreme right was a huge factor in creating instability, there were many other factors including threats from the Elites, economic threats, the Treaty of Versailles, threats from the Left and finally the weakness of the Weimar Constitution. This proves that the threats from the Right were some of many threats to the Weimar Republic but there is not enough evidence to suggest that they were overall the main threat. The aim of the political violence from the Right was to overthrow the new Weimar Republic in order to return it back to an autocracy and secondly to reject the Treaty of Versailles. They planned to do this through the event of the Kapp Putsch in March 1920 where General Luttwitz led his Freikorps brigade into Berlin, seized the government district of the city and Wolfgang Kapp was declared chancellor by Luttwitz.
The election for the coalition results in 76% supporting pro-Weimar parties, showing that the opposition and threats to the government had settled. People in Germany were no longer looking for extremist parties which was proved by the failure of the right-wing coalition. In theory the coalitions should have worked well with the cooperation from all parties. However, the SPD were reluctant to work with other parties subsequently weakening the democracy. This proves the political instability of Germany in this period as they were the largest party in the Reichstag but still refused to cooperate.
This meant that Trotsky no longer controlled the Red Army, and he could not use them to gain control. In 1926, Stalin joined forces with Bukharin, going against his previous allies. Stalin’s new supporters packed the congress and, again, won the votes. Zinoviev and Kamenev lost their jobs in the Politburo, and were later expelled from the party, along with Leon Trotsky. Lastly, Stalin went against Bukharin, attacking the NEP which he supported.
This is shown by one main foe to the tsar the social democrats being split between the Bolsheviks led by the Lenin and the Mensheviks. Lenin wanted to limit party membership to a smaller core of active members, whilst the Menshevik’s wanted to grow awareness of the organisation by letting more people into it. Due to this split in the social democrats they able to weren’t united was a major advantage for the Tsar because the opposition were unable to effectively attack and sustain any power, thus resulting in Tsarism surviving. Also due to the split between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks there was effectively no leader of the social democrats, which meant a lack organisation, and unity at the time the revolution took place. By ensuring that the army remained loyal to Nicholas, much needed support was confirmed to allow the Tsar to survive.