From Kaiser To Fuhrer: How Did The Weimar Republic Collapse?
Introduction
This paper will focus on explaining how The Weimar Republic Collapsed, through cultural, economic, and institutional theories. The core idea of this paper is as follows: The outbreak of the Great Depression was arguably the most significant reason for the Weimar Republic’s collapse. The cultural and political institutions approaches might be influential, but not significant factors in contributing to the failure of the Weimar republic.
In this paper, I will start briefly with the rise of the Weimar Republic. Subsequently, I will analyse what made The Weimar Republic fall down through culture, institution, and economics approaches. Lastly, I will conclude this paper by presenting my core argument and outlining what can we learn from this case so that there are no democratic in trouble.
The Origin of the Weimar Republic
The German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm II was in chaos after the defeat on the battlefields of World War I. The rebellion led by some military groups erupted in several places. The parties then formed the Provisional People’s Representative Council under the leadership of SPD Chairman Friedrich Ebert. His duties: prepare for general elections and prepare for the transition of government from a monarchy to a parliamentary system.
On January 19, 1919, elections for the Constituent Assembly were held. These were the first free and secret democratic elections held on German soil. And for the first time, women were given the right to vote and be elected. Two months after the elections, on February 6, 1919, the Constituent Assembly of the Nationalversammlung convened for the first time, not in chaos-plagued Berlin, but in the city of Weimar.
That is why the new republic came to be known as the Weimar Republic. At the end of July 1919, the Nationalversammlung approved a new constitution and entered into force on August 14, 1919 (Layton, 2009).
Although constitutionally, the Weimar Republic declared itself a democratic country and held direct elections, it did not guarantee political and economic stability. Weimar’s political situation was still heating up, there were three political factions arguing with each other. The right faction, represented by the German-National People’s Party, which wanted imperial supremacy, the centre faction, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) which was quite satisfied with the existing constitution, while the left faction, represented by The Communist Party of Germany, which wanted a total revolution (Layton, 2009).
On the economic side, Weimar Republic faced difficulty, the Treaty of Versailles signed June 28, 1919 required to pay war reparations worth 20 billion Goldmark — at that time equivalent to the price of 7,000 tons. The amount was to be paid in instalments from 1919 to 1921.
What Made Weimar Republic Weimar Fail?
Unstable political and economic conditions leave fragility in the democratic body in the Weimar Republic and made its fall down. This section, analyse why the Weimar Republic collapsed. I will use three approaches to explain this political phenomenon: cultural, institution, and economic theory.
To begin with, cultural theory of politics. There are cultural pre-conditions to democratic success. According to Huntington (1996), democracy requires adherence to liberal norms and values. While Putnam (1993) argues that democracy thrives in civic cultures, where social capital enables citizens to act collectively. When Weimar was established, democracy was still a new thing. German society still associates the 1918 revolution with defeat.
However, not everyone was pleased with the changes occurring in Weimar culture. Conservatives and reactionaries feared that Germany would abandon its traditional values in favour of foreign popular styles. Furthermore, xenophobia and anti-Semitism existed in some German citizens.
Not to mention the active leftist post-revolution made the upper middle class thought that democracy is only driven by the left-wing. So, culturally, the civic culture and liberal character of German citizens are still not fully formed[1]. That’s what made Adolf Hilter able to exploit the emotions of the German people and convince them to choose the Nazi party.
Secondly, the institution approach, that refers to the capacity of state institutions as the main focus of the study. Institutionalism implies the quality of a democracy performance is determined by the quality of its state institutions (Schmidt, 2008).
Weimar Republic government system was semi-presidential, the major political institutions of the Reich consisted of the Reichstag. It was widely believed that the 1919 constitution had several weaknesses, The Constitution’s Article 48 empowered the President to “take all necessary steps” if “public order and security are seriously disturbed or endangered” (Layton, 2009).
Although it was intended as an emergency clause, it was frequently used prior to issue decrees without Parliament’s approval and also simplified regulation. Due to the proportional representation system’s lack of high thresholds, a party with a minor vote of support could gain admission to the Reichstag.
This resulted in the formation of numerous small parties, some of them extremist, within the system, and made it difficult to form and maintain a stable coalition government, contributing to the system’s instability[2].
Also, if Weimar had good political and legal institutions, the Weimar government should have severely punished Hitler for his attempted coup in Munich, then banned his party from participating in elections. So, a polarized electorate combined with inadequately designed institutions is a formula for conflict.
Lastly, the economics approach. Many political scholars believe that economic crises generate political crises, and result in regime collapse. In October 1929 the Wall Street Crash on the US stock exchange brought about a global economic depression. In Europe, Weimar was worst affected because American banks called in all foreign loans at very short notice.
These loans, agreed under the Dawes Plan in 1924, had been the basis for Weimar’s economic recovery from the disaster of hyperinflation. The loans funded German industry and helped to pay reparations. Without these loans, the German industry collapsed and depression began (BBC, 2020).
Along with the economic crisis, people are increasingly losing confidence in the democratic system. More and more people were joining extremist groups.[3] There are two opposing extreme groups, the right is represented by the Nazis, while the left is represented by the communists.
In 1930 Germany almost experienced civil war. The Nazis and communists attacked each other openly. The situation became even worse due to the world economic crisis in 1929. In 1932, there were 5.6 million people who were unemployed (Clingan, 2001).
Hitler, who fought in obscurity for years, suddenly became an attractive option. With his charisma and populist promise, he succeeded to capitalize on the frustration of the German people (Bullet, 2005). On January 30, 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. The Weimar Republic was transformed into the German Reich with the official ideology of Nazism.
His power became more absolute after German President Paul von Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934. The post of president was quickly abolished, and Hitler proclaimed himself Fuhrer of Germany.
The history of the rise of Adolf Hitler is closely related to the history of the collapse of the Weimar Republic. Since the formation of the Weimar Republic in 1918, the country has continued to suffer from the grave mistake of its birth: It is a democracy without democrats.
Then the economic crisis was the main ingredient in the downfall of Weimar, creating fear and anxiety, and increasing the appeal of the extreme solutions of the German people to the figure of the Fuhrer.
Referencess
Bullock, A. (2005). Hitler: A study in tyranny. Penguin Books.
BBC. (n.d.). The impact of the depression on germany — end of the weimar republic — wjec — gcse history revision — wjec — bbc bitesize. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zp34srd/revision/1. Accessed 07 Aug 2021
Clingan, C. E. (2001). Finance from Kaiser To Führer: Budget politics in Germany, 1912–1934. Greenwood Press.
Huntington, S. P. (1998). The clash of civilizations and remaking of world order. Touchstone Books.
Layton, G. (2009). From Kaiser To Führer: Germany 1900–45 For Edexcel. Hodder Education.
PUTNAM, R. (1992). Making democracy Work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton Univ. Press.
Schmidt, V. A. (2008). Discursive institutionalism: The explanatory power of ideas and discourse. Annual Review of Political Science, 11, 303–326.
[1] Class Lecture 20
[2] Class Lecture 20
[3] Class Lecture 20
