Early Problems of the Weimar Republic, 1918-33

Early Problems of the Weimar Republic, 1918-33

The German Revolution began when the sailors mutinied at Kiel. This quickly spread to all cities and ports and also to the Western front. This caused councils to be setup that mimicked the Soviets in Russia. In November 1918 the Kaiser abdicated and Ebert (the leader of the Social Democrat Party) took charge as President.

The Treaty of Versailles

The German people hated the Treaty and blamed the politicians of the republic for signing it. They saw it as a stab in the back (to the army).

Secondly, the Germans hated the fact that they were blamed for the war in the war guilt clause in the treaty. They were made to pay £6600m of reparations in 1921.

 Furthermore, many other harsh terms were imposed on them at Versailles: Germany lost 1/10 of it's land. The army and Navy was scaled back to 100,000 men and only six ships.

Political Challenges

Left-Wing Uprisings

• Berlin 1919: The Spartacists (Communists) were defeated by the Friekorps.
• Bavaria 1919: A Socialist republic was set-up, but it was crushed by the government.

Right-Wing Rebellions

• Berlin 1920: The Kapp Putsch uprising was lead by Wolfgang Kapp, however they were defeated by a general strike by the workers.
• Munich Putsch (1923): A Nazi Putsch was defeated by the authorities. 

Weimar Constitution

Despite the Constitution being democratic, it had a large weakness from within. The constitution gave the President, the states and the army too much power, whilst a voting system of proportional representation meant that lots of small parties got seats in the Reichstag.  This lead to a lot of coalitions who could not make any agreements in the Reichstag. The republic survived through the crises of 1919-23 by using the right-wing army and Freikorps units to crush the Communists, and getting the help of the left-wing unions to crush the Kapp Putsch.