‘Fortunate to survive so many enemies for so long’ – discuss this verdict of the Weimar, 1919-24

In November 1918, fol number oneing the chance of World War One, the authoritarian German Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate. Two months after the Weimar was established. This vernal authority promised to rule often liber eachy, and brought hope of freedom and prosperity to the German people. However, from its birth in 1919 to its collapse, the Weimar state was to spirit galore(postnominal) problems. Thus, the verdict that the Weimar was fortunate to bear would seem correct. The Weimar began its rule over a untaught in unfavourable dower with considerable deep-routed problems. These dated back to olympian Germany, and were obvious even before the war.Germany had plainly been united since 1871. Social tensions had been created by rapid industrialisation that guide to changes within the sept ashes, as agriculturists were suspicious of industrial workers fetching their place. Also, Germanys economy was behind Britain had a larger navy, and colonial policy in Afri ca was not masteryful. This direct to doubt concerning national efficiency. To commit matters worse, Germany was run by a specialize elite who was unsympathetic to the hardships his people faced. slight that half a century later, the early World War move on de capaciousated Germany.The country encountered continual military defeats, army mutiny, low morale, poor living and working conditions, regimen shortages, a lack of consumer goods, inflation and overmuch more. As a result of these imperativeness problems, the Weimar had little choice but to pass judgment the terms of the accord of Versailles. This had devastating consequences for Germany. weaken the country economically, Germany was compelled to give up much of its land including industrial regions much(prenominal) as Alsace Lorraine, surrender all of its colonies, dematerialise the Rhineland, unarm its army and eliminate its airforce, and pay reparations of i??6,600 million.These things brought further hardship for the German people, as the country was continually drained of its riches and resources. Socially stunting, Germany was forced to accept all responsibility for starting the war, and to accept denomination 231 the War Guilt Clause. This led to an irresistibly low morale. Politically, Germany was to piddle an Ally-friendly liberal government. This was a main cause of the introduction of a crude constitution, and heavily influenced the style of the Weimar. The set-up of this new democratic government itself brought problems for Germany.The Weimar adopted a policy of proportional representation. This system worked efficaciously as long as the politicians were hustling to support the constitution. However, the president was given powers down the stairs article 48 which could, in generation of national emergency, be used to weaken the democratic constitution. This was often abused, and led to dictator-like rulers. Also, the new constitution meant that the Republic consisted o f many depleted parties that had to work together in coalescence governments with a proportional representation system.This did not work as the parties had very polar policy-making views, and so often couldnt nurse on issues. As salubrious as this, many parties within the Weimar actually disagreed with its existence. leading of the army, civil service and legal system disliked the new constitution. This lead to plastered figures deliberately working against the Republic and turned on(p) trouble in hope that it competency fail. The most significant threat came from the President of the Republic from 1925, Field Marshall capital of Minnesota von Hindenburg.Thus, the Weimar itself led to further weakness in Germany. As well as intrinsic enemies, the Weimar in like manner faced a vast number of outer opposition groups. On the left of German politics, communists such as the Spartacists in 1919, attempted to overthrow the government. On the different extreme, monarchists like Wolfgang Kapp in 1920, or extreme nationalists attempted to destroy nation in Germany. These revolutions undermined the Weimar, and rallied much opposition from the German people. The opposition also led to other flaws in the Weimar.For illustration, the Spartacist revolution resulted in the Eber-Groner engagement, which was designed to protect Germany from Communism. However, this agreement represented a huge mistake made by Ebert and his SPD colleges in believing that the threat to the Republic came primarily from the left, when later the army wouldnt facilitate protect the government against Hitler as he was right wing. Also, the very fact that the pact was needed showed that the Weimar was weak. The sum of these factors led to an boilers suit weakness in the Weimar, though round are much more full of life that others.Perhaps the most important was Treaty of Versailles, which led to social, economic, and most crucially political unrest as it also contributed to the succes s of the Weimars opponents i. e. the slogan of the November criminals, or the War criminality clause gave the Nazis a useful source of propaganda. some other vital weakness was constitution itself, which allowed two internal and external opponents to attack its weaknesses, such as proportional representation, or oblige 48 which Field Marshall capital of Minnesota von Hindenburg used to undermine the Constituency.Also, many of the factors that led to the Weimars weaknesses inter-link with one another, for example the lack of German unity partly resulted due to preliminary deep-routed problems of Imperial Germany, or the Spartacist revolt that resulted in the unsuccessful Eber-Groner pact. Yet, despite all of these vary problems, the Weimar remained, supporting the statement that it was Fortunate to move so many enemies for so long. Yet, there were some factors that worked in favour of the Weimar i. e. many people were simply relieved to have change, and pleased that the soldi ers were able to return home. other helpful act is that in 1926 reparations were reduced, and financial aid was given to Germany to help with re-building. Therefore, as well as simply withstanding defeat, the Weimar managed several accomplishments which led to an improvement the German people way of life, for example the Constitution solved hyperinflation in 1923, and also improved foreign relations. Plus, after 1924 further improvements were made i. e. Dawes plan by Stresseman. Yet, boilers suit the Weimars weaknesses seem to out-weigh its strengths, and hence the statement seems to be an accurate interpretation.