They put restrictions on the German military, to make Germany weak and a second-rate power. Germany had huge financial losses, which brought the rise of the ultra-nationalist Nazis. They had to take acceptance of responsibility for the damage in the war even though they weren’t the only ones in the war. Germany had absolutely no say in the requirements and matters of the treaty. The Treaty of Versailles would prove to be one of the most disastrous mistakes in history.
The Weimar Republic looked to be collapsing from the beginning. All the events that finally led to the ending of democracy in Germany were seemed to be caused by the Treaty of Versailles. The loss of the war for the Germans was a huge turning point as it was seem that the Allies wanted to crush Germany. They were unable to pay the reparations, as extremists from both the right and left wing found the war guilt clause unacceptable. When the Germans had lost World War I, had a huge impact back in Germany.
“It is more accurate to talk of a potential revolution which ran away into the sand than the genuine article” Before we can assess whether a ‘genuine’ revolution took place in 1918, or if held many promises and yet failed to deliver, we must look at the term ‘Revolution’. This often refers to a substantial change in power/structure that takes place within a short time span. Germany was in a vulnerable position, susceptible to change as the defeat in the war had shaken people’s faith in the government. There was undoubtedly political changes undergone in Germany but whether they fundamentally shook the German foundations of society can be seriously questioned. It can be argued that the ’Weimar Republic’ , the outcome of the revolution was a facade of the old authoritarian regime, carrying out change under false pretences of a democratic institution, with the Right Wing Conservatives still in control.
The injustice of the settlement unintentionally gave birth to long term problems, including key events for the lead up to the Second World War. The peace treaties were poorly established due to the restless state of Europe after the war. It was not a reasonable time to try and create peace amongst countries that are still feeling hatred towards each other after the war. The aim of the treaties was to avoid another war. The German people resented the fact that they alone were blamed for the war.
However, the Prussian army managed to defeat the liberals who were then arrested throughout the whole of Germany. This weakened Austria’s influence in Germany for two reasons. Firstly, the fact that Prussia’s army defeated the liberals and stopped the revolutions showed that they were willing to take action and that they were actually quite powerful – strong enough to stop revolutions and uprisings throughout Germany. Secondly, the revolutions affected Austria’s political dominance in Germany because Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor had resigned and the new Emperor was more focused on revolutions outside of Germany, particularly in Italy. This showed that Austria wasn’t stable and was prepared to do as much as Prussia.
German defeat in the Great War was largely down to the incompetence and mistakes of the German Military Elite. The failure of the Schlieffen plan in 1914 can be accredited to these German leaders and also more importantly blamed for the failure in the First World War. Schlieffen, Chief of the German General Staff (1891-1906) devised what is known as the ‘Schlieffen plan’ in 1905 in response to the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale and the further negations this alliance began to have with the huge empire that was Russia. These new relations began to worry Germany and create fears of a combined attack on the country. Schlieffen’s plan aimed to counter a joint attack and then later in the Great War the Schlieffen Plan was used as a strategy to ensure a swift victory and avoid fighting two-fronted war.
To what extent did the failings of Nazi economic policy contribute to the defeat of Germany in the Second World War? There were several different factors that all had an impact on the defeat of Germany during the Second World War and the extent of which the failings of the Nazi economic policy contributed can be argued. The meagre state of the economy, through insufficient planning, did put strains on the government and this limited the full potential of the army, the production of weapons and high demand for labour. No doubt, the economy did hinder the progression of the war however I believe that there were more significant factors that contributed to the defeat of Germany. Hitler’s strategy incompetence, the Allied bombings and losing the Battle of The Atlantic were all also important factors in the defeat of Germany.
Was the Weimar Republic Fatally Flawed? To understand the above question posed we must consider what caused the new republic to be declared, and also what foundations remained intact for the eventual collapse of this cotemporary government. Before discussing the Weimar Republic we must go back to the end of World War one to understand what brought about this new Republic. Towards the end of World War one, the morale within the army and in Germany collapsed. A series of small defeats prompted strikes throughout Germany.
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 need for the parties to agree cause germanys politics to become unstable yet again because they were unable to agree of unemployment benefits and foreign policy. This led the voter moving to more extremist parties like the KPD who had 10.6% of the vote in 1923. The election of president Hindenburg did not have a positive effect as he was very anti socialists, resulting in him excluding the SPD from the coalition despite their majority and including the DNVP to limit the coverage of the political spectrum in the hope his policies would pass quicker. In terms of economic development, the Dawes and the Young plan definitely helped develop and rebuild Germany’s economy, however there are other factors which counteracted them, making them less effective.
The failure of the Weimar Republic, as well as the subsequent rise of the Nazi Party, was the end result of a series of difficult political events that the Weimar Republic simply did not have the tools to defend against. The democratic government faced a significant uphill battle as it came into the unenviable job of attempting to the best by a nation angry about the war, and looking for an easy scapegoat, which the Republic provided them with, partly of their own making. Circumstantially, the Weimar Republic also had to deal with the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles. As well a this basic difficulty, in it’s time of rule the Weimar Republic had to negotiate with issues such as the Great Depression, which brought with it the economically cruelling protectionism policies of many foreign nations, compounding Germany’s financial struggles. All of these factors will be spoken about in this essay, as well as the intrinsically linked rise of the Nazi party, which put the final nail in the Weimar Republic’s metaphorical coffin.