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.
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 presentation of the allied reparation demands cause political crisis and the fall of the government. A new coalition government was quickly formed and newly appointed foreign minister Walter Rathenau, believed for the good of the nation, it was necessary that Germany should seek to fulfill the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles in order to attempt to reach a situation where renegotiation would be viable. However this did not happen. After the Germans failed to pay the second reparation, they declared default and due to this 600,000 French soldiers occupied the Ruhr, the most important industrial area of Germany. The French invaded, as
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.
They were also in a country plagued by a financial crisis with the majority of the population automatically having hatred for the government. The treaty of Versailles also posed a serious threat to the government with the country left embarrassed by its ruling and the war guilt that Germany faced. The extreme right in particular were a threat to the republic. The actions of the Spartacists in particular concerned the leaders of the SPD as they knew that they could not rely on the support of the army in the face of a revolt. Thus a deal was done with the right wing (the pre 1918 military, judiciary and civil service).
Whilst Lenin was perhaps the key reason for the fall of the Provisional Government in October 1917, it was already in a major state of weakness. The primary reason for this was due to its composition. It consisted of mainly liberal politicians and had one major disadvantage in that its leaders, especially Kerensky, were associated with the middle classes. This distanced the Provisional Government from the working classes as they were seen as having nothing in common with the people and therefore were unfit to represent them. This allowed the Soviet to dominate as unlike the Provisional Government it had the vital support of the workers and soldiers.
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.
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.
When a significant population of East Germans migrated to the west, the economy was harmed to a greater extent. When the wall was finally completed and employed by the East German Government, it was hated. This led to more censorship and authoritarian methods from Honecker and the East German government. This continued until the Berlin Wall Fell in 1989. 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.
The months before and during the Bolshevik revolution, as well as the signing of the peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk cause turmoil among the socialists and brought Russia into civil war. The Provisional Government of Russia treated the middle and lower class citizens of Russia very poorly, ignoring their needs, as well as dragging them into World War I and two civil wars in a little over two decades. The workers of Russia wanted a democratic republic, or any government that would have allowed them to make a difference, and one that would help them as much as their current government was against them (Wade 27). In 1917, Russia was at war in World War I and was suffering economically because of it, as well as loosing the lives of many of their young men in battle. The people of Russia desired to leave World War I as smoothly and as quickly as possible (Wade 29).