To the winner all, and the loser, humiliation. When the Allies handed the peace down at Versailles, they felt that they were ensuring an end to war. The harsh treatment of Versailles through a need for security, and a desire for revenge merely reset the iron dice for the next player. Woodrow Wilson was an idealist before his time and one that only America
The Chancellor was the chief executive member of the Reichstag, and commander in chief of armed forces, and was appointed by the President on the basis of party numbers, the ability of the individual, and the wishes of other members. The Chancellor could be removed by the President for misconduct or for breaching the terms of the constitution. The Chancellor and ministers were obliged to resign also in the event the Reichstag passed a vote of no confidence. The Chancellor was, in principle, the leading political and administrative civil servant but, in practice, became only a committee chairman during the early days of the Weimar constitution. Only with the rise of Adolf Hitler from 1933 did the Chancellor begin to employ the full powers contained within
The German Emperor has considerable powers, he had personal control over the armed forces and he could appoint and dismiss all ministers including the Chancellor. Secondly, the Federal Council (Bundesrat) represented the different states of the Empire. It had 58 members. It had the powers to change the constitution however no change could be made if the 14 delegated from Prussia did not approve. Thirdly, the parliament was elected by universal male suffrage and secret ballot.
The leaders of Britain, France and US agreed to bring peace to Europe and created a list of terms that ended WW1. These terms were known as the treaty of Versailles. The terms of the treaty mostly only applied to Germany and were really harsh on them. The treaty deprived 13% of Germany's land and demilitarized Germany's mainland, Rhineland. It also required Germany to pay 6,600 million Euros to countries that faced damages due to the war.
Napoleon centralized the governmental systems and settled the French relationship with the Catholic Church. When Napoleon continued to take over countries, people began to realize that Napoleon was self-obsessed and was not in favor for the people. There were many things that contributed to Napoleon earning the title of a tyrant. Napoleon would do almost anything for power and control. He was overconfident with himself and took conquering too far, such as trying the Continental System to defeat Great Britain.
The limited nature of the revolution was one of the main factors which weakened prospects for democracy, when Ebert was trying to form a government he still had a problem that the radical communists were still looking to turn Germany into a communist state similar to the Soviet Union and thus to put down this rebellion and get support of the army he made an agreement with Groener. The agreement was that the army would support the government if the army and civil service were left unchanged. This was the main reason that democracy was irreversibly weakened, because the civil service and army generals were all right-wing conservatives providing a powerbase for the radical right. This limited democracy because the radical right thought that democracy was weak and indecisive, the radical right though was weakened because the radical left was way more powerful initially in post war Germany, but the radical right would help democracy until the radical left was no longer a threat and would act as ticking time bomb of support. This could have acted as a powerbase for the Kapp Putsch and the eventual rise of the Nazis.
The Treaty caused humiliation and shock amongst the citizens of the country, much of the political backlash was due to the fact that the Allies were dictating to Germany the harsh terms of the war reparations, which was seen as absurd by many citizens as they did not feel as if they were responsible for starting the war nor did they feel as though they had lost. As Germany had to pay reparations, they were told to issue a blank cheque which allies would cash when it suited them; the figure that was demanded was well
How important was the Duke of Buckingham to the breakdown in relations between Crown and Parliament in the years of 1625-1629? Charles’ main advisor and partner in foreign policy was the Duke of Buckingham. Due to Buckingham being a wicked advisor led Charles to a disastrous foreign policy. This propelled him into confrontation with parliament. Buckingham had too much influence with the King; this meant he was seen as one of the main causes to the break down in parliament.
The president was still a very powerful figure; he could block new laws by calling a referendum and could rule without the Reichstag in times of emergency (Article 48). In the right hands, Article 48 could work to Germany’s advantage by ensuring a swift response to a crisis like a war. The president, like before, could still appoint his ministers and chancellor. The Reich cabinet and chancellor, were under Article 54 of the constitution accountable to the Reichstag and had to resign if they lost the Reichstag’s confidence. The New parliament set up was to be made up of 2 houses; The Reichsrat and the Reichstag.
The Nazi party now forced to think tactically and with the burning of the Reichstag building through a communist Hitler was able to blame the extremist party for the beginning of a revolution and with President Hindenburg's approval he arrested the ‘enemies of the state’. With this fortunate accident, the ‘missing’ SPD party and the agreement with Zentrum Hitler was able to get his two thirds majority to pass the Enabling Act which entitled him to pass laws without parliamentary approval. Although on the surface Hitler seemed to have a lot of control, this was not complete, due to the fact that President Hindenburg could over rule him and perhaps even terminate him as chancellor. This power, however, led to multiple sudden adjustments to Germany, after becoming a one party state by July 1933, through making the SPD party and all other competitors illegal, he continued to set loose on Germany’s very powerful and threatening trade unions. Trade unions posed a strong threat to the NSDAP due to their power in Germany, considering their support for the SPD and even KPD.