Immediate problems facing the Weimar Republic

The Weimar republic was a democratic government in Germany created shortly after the first Great War (1919). It was named after the city in which the constitution was first created. This new government was meant to be the best solution for the Germans, but it was a failure because of the inefficiency of the constitution, various rebellions and the invasion- Inflation crisis in 1923.

The first problem faced by the Weimar republic was its inefficient constitution. First of all, the Article 48 of the constitution stated that the President had the power to appoint members of the Reichstag for only the sake of emergency. Frederic Ebert, the first president rarely used the power of this article, but his successor, Paul Von Hindenburg, abused this power and constantly changed the members of the Reichstag. This made the whole point of democracy useless, because it made the President look like a dictator. Another problem with the constitution was the fact that State leaders had too much power, making them ignore the Government; the Right- wing army too wasn't controlled by the government, and all this proved how weak the governmental system was.

Another major problem is the various rebellions occurring in Germany at the time. In 1919, two communist leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Leibknecht, with a communist rebel group, The Spartacists, attempted an army revolution in Berlin, known as the Spartacist Revolt (left wing). This rebellion was no success because of the intervention of the Freikorps; the ex- soldiers form the First World War. The two leaders were murdered. Communist Workers councils took over Bavaria with the intention of making it an independent nation. Then came the Kapp Putsh ("putsh", attempt on taking power illegally) which aimed in creating a military dictatorship (right wing), but because of a general strike by the trade unions, it was called off.The main the reason the Right wing detested the Weimar republic was because they hated the fact that they signed the Treaty of Versailles on June 1919, which they believed was the treaty that put their country to shame. This all showed the disorganization in the country.

Finally, a major problem would come from the Invasion- inflation crisis of 1923. This was caused by the payment of reparations (6.6 billion pounds). The government began to print more money in order to pay, leading to inflation. There was a terrible economic instability because of this, but it was only the beginning. On January 1923, Germany was unable to pay reparations and France attacked the Ruhr without hesitation. This lead to desperate measures, including a general strike and more money was printed and "Hyper Inflation" was born, Germany was disgraced by this. The communists took over in Saxony and Thuringia and the Rhineland declared independence (21-22 October).

Germany had gone haywire from all these problems. A country once known as the greatest had then been reduced to nothing and this raised a lot of tension. This tension fed the hate of one man, Adolf Hitler, who also hated the Treaty of Versailles. As a matter of fact, this whole mess was begun because of the hatred people had for the treaty of Versailles; after all, the Weimar Republic was created by this treaty.