Samuel Atwood

Year 12, Modern History

Explain the problems that

undermine the Weimar Government
in the period from 1919-1923.
Throughout the period between the end of World War One in 1919
and the year 1923, the Weimar Government was undermined by
several problems. The Treaty of Versailles and its conditions were
unrealistic and caused Germanys political and economic position
to be worsened. Germanys new constitution was also unsuccessful
in its implementation and it had the effect of causing further
political instability amongst the extremist groups. Additionally,
there was opposition from both sides of the political spectrum,
causing uprisings and political assassinations which proved that
the government had little authority over the country and other
political powers. All of these factors contributed to undermining
Germans faith in the democracy and the success of the Weimar
Government.
Although perhaps not quite as obviously as some other factors,
the Treaty of Versailles took some part in undermining the Weimar
Government. In retaliation and retribution, of sorts, on the allies
part, the treaty was heavily skewed against the Germans. It placed
upon them unrealistic reparation demands which were impossible
for Germany to make and stirred up much political tension and
controversy, thus contributing largely to the post-war political and
economic hardships that Germany faced. It can indeed be said that
the rejection of the Treaty of Versailles was the most agreed upon
political issue within Germany at that time. The treaty made many
demands, many of which were seen as unfair and unreasonable. By
the Germans, it was seen as a Dikat or dictated peace in which
they were forced to lose all their colonies, reduce their army and
pay back unrealistic reparations for World War One. From this
came the dolchstosslegende, or stab in the back legend which
was a myth that claimed that socialists, pacifists, Jews and the like
had betrayed the German army who were supposedly winning the
war. This became a convenient way for Germans to accept defeat
and it caused many Germans to be very much discontented when
the Treaty was eventually endorsed by the Weimar Government.
Consequently, many Germans lost faith in the government and
despised them for taking on such an unreasonable dictated peace
agreement. The German people were further angered as it seemed
to them unfair to accept, as a country, responsibility for the war as
they were virtually all unaware of the nature of their involvement in
the war. Many were under the impression that it was a defensive
war. Shortly into the period following the signing of the treaty,
Germany failed to make its second reparations payment, and
France thus took the opportunity to occupy the area of the Ruhr. In
-1-

Samuel Atwood

Year 12, Modern History

response, the German government ordered the people of the area

the following:
The action of the French government in the Ruhr area[is] a
gross violation of international law and of the Treaty of
Versailles. As a consequence all orders given to German
officials in the course of this action are legally invalid. The
German government therefore orders all its officials not to
obey the instructions of the occupying forces.
This passive resistance caused the French to retaliate by killing
and expelling large numbers of Germans. It also had other
undesirable side effects. As the Ruhr was the richest area in
resources and workers were no longer producing, Germanys
economy further waned and as a result, in 1923, Germany
underwent hyperinflation.
This combination of events and actions contributed to Germanys
political and economical hardships and eroded the support, faith
and credibility in and of the Weimar Republic.
The constitution was also a contributor to undermining the
Weimar Government.
Firstly, the change in the parliament to having proportional
representation caused several. This had led to smaller and more
numerous political parties emerging, and thus creating a harder
process to actually form a government and maintain thereafter.
Smaller parties were being forced into joining in coalition with
other parties, and thus, agreements must be formed between them
as well as agreements on particular policies. The effect this had
was that the parliament was weak and divided with no strong
driving force to rule the struggling country by and many people lost
faith in a democratic system.
Secondly, there was a large degree of uncertainty as to how
much power was invested in the people via the Reichstag and the
President. The right feared absolute power being placed in the
hands of the parliament and thus, a president was put into place to
act as a counter-balance. As a result, there was particular
uncertainty and distrust in the constitution from very early on as it
was unclear as to who was ruling Germany, the people or the
president. This was further heightened by the existence on Article
48 which stated that the in an emergency, the president could
invoke it and hold special powers which suspended civil rights and
liberties of citizens whilst order was restored. This conflicted
directly with articles 1 and 114 which state that Political authority
derives from the people and Personal liberty is inviolable. While
Article 48 was made in good faith as a way of providing a basis for
the government to function during temporary crises, in reality it
allowed the president to cast aside the power and say of the
parliament which was the vehicle for the people to rule themselves.
Thirdly, the Weimar constitution attempted to unite traditional
conventions with new and unfamiliar civil liberties. This kept the

-2-

Samuel Atwood

Year 12, Modern History

old judicial, civil service and educational systems as they were,

however, as many bureaucrats, judges and professors were rightwing and despised the new reforms of the Weimar Republic, they
were able to readily oppose the republic in everyday life. This
caused a tension between holding on to the old customs and
traditions and what they stood for and trying to introduce new and
different policies. As shown in the constitution, the republic was
seeking to unite the new and old systems in order to try and please
all parties.
However, even though many of the main features of the
Constitution were rejected the extreme ends of the political
spectrum, the Constitution itself was acceptable in its motivation, it
was rather the execution and misuse of it that led to it undermining
the Weimar Republic.
These factors once again, caused the Weimar Government to be
undermined as faith in the new democratic system waned, the
parliament was weakened and putschs furthered the political
instability.
Also undermining the Weimar government was rebellion from
the left-wing.
The Spartacist revolt in January 1919 was a large factor in
undermining the Weimar Government. Leading up to it, the
extreme left-wing parties had rejected having any form of
democratic parliament, and thus sparked a revolution. Being led by
extremists and revolutionists, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl
Liebknecht who were one part of the USPD (Independent Social
Democrats) but broke away to for the Sparticist union, they first
attempted to rally support within the parliament. Finding little or
no support there, the small number of Spartacists took to the
streets in demonstration. This unsettled the current government
led by the SPD (Socialist Democratic Party) at the time who turned
to the army to restore order.
Also in 1919, there was an uprising in Bavaria by the Communist
Workers Council and later in 1920, after the Kapp Putsch had
failed, the group called the Red Army rebelled in the Ruhr.
The Kapp Putsch and other right-wing actions similarly
contributed to undermining the Weimar Republic. As the Kapp
Putsch was an attempt to seize power by the Freikorps from the
right wing, it highlighted a lot of weaknesses in the current policy
and government who, at the time, were relying on the army (from
the right) to put down uprisings from the left. It showed that the
current government could not even maintain authority within its
own capital, it was unable to counter a challenge to its authority
and that it took a general strike for authority to be re-established.
This further damaged the credibility of the government and showed
that the army and the right wing cared only for their own policies

-3-

Samuel Atwood

Year 12, Modern History

and interests and were thus looking to undermine the Weimar

Republic.
Additionally, in the period between 1919 and 1924, 356 politicians
were assassinated by nationalistic terrorist groups. These
assassinations included Walter Rathenau and Matthias Erzberger
because of their role in the new government and treaties. This
further disrupted the political status in Germany and increasingly
undermined the Weimar Governments efforts to reform Germany.
In the period from 1919-1923, the Weimar Government faced
many problems and issues which affected its success and
undermined it. These included lack of support from the right or left
wings and subsequent political tensions, a struggling economy, an
ineffective constitution, several putschs, and a range of other
political uprisings from both ends of the political spectrum. All of
these undermined the Weimar Government by destroying
credibility in the government, furthering political and economical
instability and hindering the governments powers to move
forward. Thus, during its short time, the Weimar Government faced
man problems and much opposition, and thus, struggled to succeed
in its goal.

-4-