During the early years of the Weimar Republic they encountered many difficulties. One of the major difficulties that they faced was signing the peace treaty after World War One known as the treaty of Versailles, this treaty lead to resentment from the army, economic hardship as well as the introduction of political extremists from the right and the left. The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty drawn up after the war had finished at the Versailles peace conference although Germans were not allowed participation. The loss of territory, war guilt and reparations were some of the major issues Germans found hard to accept. Despite protest by majority of the country the German government agreed to sign the treaty on 28 June 1919.
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 deprived Germany of wealth-earning areas, such as the coalfields in Silesia. As well as this the treaty also imposed harsh reparations on Germany (£6,600 billion). Germany asked for reductions however the victors, especially France were not forgiving and needed money to pay debts to the US. With no gold reserves and a failing income Germany could no longer afford to pay and declared itself bankrupt. Why was the Ruhr occupied and what were the consequences?
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.
From the start there was economic instability because of the cost of World War One and there was widespread disillusion within the German people. The public did not support the Weimar, and the administrative branch of the government, including the Judiciary, also teachers did not back it up either. Mass unemployment, damages to the infrastructure also from World War One, and the demand for reparation payments put lots of pressure on the inexperienced democracy. Not only in Germany, but all over Europe, fundamental and anti-democratic movements gained support. 2.
In addition, the berlin Wall was in the construction process, increasing the cultural divide between eastern and western Europe along the Iron Curtain. When the Berlin wall was completed, people were shocked and could not fathom the wall disappear. A significant number of intellectuals fled from the east to the west to escape the communist laws of equality, as opposed to a more merit based system. The loss of these influential individuals severely damaged the economy of East Germany. When a significant population of East Germans migrated to the west, the economy was harmed to a greater extent.
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.
Hitler used propaganda, elimination of the opposition, and a cult of personality to gain the support and trust of the German people in a time of economic crisis to his benefit and the rest of the world's loss. Single party states arise from a crisis, and Germany was suffering from a very large one at that time. The end of World War I in 1918 had left the economic state in shambles, and the loss struck the German people hard. Furthermore, the Treaty of Versailles the following year resulted in the demilitarisation and many cuts from German land and territory. Hitler criticized the carving up of Europe by the "Big Four" (the US, UK, France and Italy), stating that the Germans were the "master race".
What were the problems facing Germany in late 1918 and 1919? Germany faced numerous problems, every one varying in extremity. The loss of the war was naturally a large problem which created many spin-off issues, such as an unpleasant living environment, a worsening economy and naturally the deflation of the German peoples pride and spirit, due to propaganda they were fed with news that their army was excelling in the war, when in reality the exact opposite was occurring. Germany also was managing many other problems such as economic and socialist problems, unemployment was growing and many were living in poverty, not enough healthcare was being supplied, the country was divided and could not collectively manage a way to move forward, they had fought for 4 years and now needed something else to believe in. Germanys list of problems at this time was only growing.
These problems progressively mounted so high that they obscured Lloyd George's successes and toppled him from power, ultimately helping the Conservatives engineer his downfall. This essay will assess both internal factors, such as problems as home, centred on unemployment, coupled with external factors, including the Chanak Crisis. It will be argued that the Conservatives reaped power as a result of the combined internal and external problems, all of which amounted to a loss of confidence at home, and thereby created negative public perceptions of the Liberals. Lloyd George's post as Prime Minister was in a way doomed from the beginning. He came to power at the head of a coalition party making enemies along the way.