Gareth Parker. A Written Report Of A Discussion On The Rise Of Hitler and the Nazi Party 1918-1933. Identify and comment upon the key weaknesses of the Weimar system of government. The Weimar Republic was born in a time of great turmoil and struggle, encountering many problems throughout its sixteen year history. Possibly the greatest vulnerability was 'the weakness within' - the constitution gave the President, the states and the military too much control, whilst proportional voting meant that the Reichstag was separated and weak.
Luck played a big part into how Stalin defeated the left side of the party. Because of Trotsky’s illness he often missed political conventions meaning the he couldn’t get his view across to the general public. This meant that Stalin was a lot more popular than Trotsky. Also the fact that Lenin’s testament wasn’t published played a part in Stalin’s success. In his testament he heavily criticized Stalin; if it was published then it would have damaged Stalin’s popularity.
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.
Von Papen had no support in the Reichstag but he hoped that he could ‘get in’ with the Nazis and other right-wing parties. Hitler said no, and so Hindenburg called another election. But then General von Schleicher turned against von Papen and stopped supporting him. Schleicher decided that he should be Chancellor. This triggered of a huge power struggle between von Papen and von Schleicher.
This clearly presents pre 1929 the Nazi party was not sufficient enough, as a foundation for the party was non-existent. Compared to other groups in Germany at the time, the SPD gained 26% in the December 1924 election, compared to, the Nazi which gained just 3%. This was mainly due to the lack of organisational structure, where the SPD geographical distribution and social structure was organised the Nazis were complete differing, this was shown in the 1924 electoral. Due to lack of organisation it could be argued to say the Nazis were weak before 1929. Historian use the failure of the putsch to prove Nazi party as weak before 1929.
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.
During this time, East Germans became fed up with the oppressive policies of the Stazi, the antics of Honecker’s government, and the hated symbol of the Berlin Wall. They reacted against the only thing they could change and tore down the wall. Poland was another major country that disintegrated from communism. Under the lead of Lech Walesa, Poland was growing a rebellious strength. With Gorbachev as Russia’s leader, reforms were putin place as well as removing many USSR restrictions of satellite countries.
Homework Past Question Explain how the Nazis increased their control over Germany from 1933-4. Hitler had become Chancellor of the Weimar Republic on 30th January 1933 but this was still a weak position and was under threat from the Reichstag, President Hindenburg and the army. All of them could prevent his rise to power. Each of these would have to be dealt with in turn if he was to set up a successful dictatorship. He was also under threat from other groups especially the Communist Party.
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.
The main threat to the stability of the Weimar Republic in the period 1919-1923 came from violence of extreme right” How far do you agree with this judgement? During the period of 1919-23, the Weimar Republic faced many problems affecting its stability such as the weakness of the Weimar Constitution itself, opposition from the Left and the Right but it’s important to understand that the Republic was created out of defeat and it was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. This arguably posed a bigger threat than political violence from the extreme right as it unleashed a wave of humiliation from the public and the German army felt they had been ‘stabbed in the back’. However, there are other factors to consider when discussing threats to the stability of the Weimar Republic such as economic and social instability . The threats to the Republic from the right and left forces were apparent almost immediately after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles as the reduction in army size was too much for a number of right wing nationalists who demanded the rejection of the Treaty and the Weimar state to be overthrown.