Was the Weimar Republic a success in 1920?
The Weimar Republic (WR) was name after Weimar, the city in Germany. It was formed after the First World War (FWW). The first chancellor was Ebert. WR was faced with many problems in its early years.
Weimar Republic was a failure for many reasons. One of those reasons was the fact that Germany used Proportional Representation (PR) instead of First Past the Post (F.P.T.P) to decide their government (Gov.). This gave Germany a fair but not safe vote. That was because after the war there was too many extremists party’s that wanted to get power and this idea helped them get easy and without any problems. They didn’t even need many supporters to achieve that. Another weakness of the constitutions was ‘’Article 48’’ which stated that the President could take full control of the country in case of an emergency, however the choice of emergency laid in the hands of the president.
The Weimar republic was faced with the thread from the left. The Weimar republic was faced with the thread from the left. The communists in Germany known as Spartacists wanted a revolution similar to that one in Russia in 1917. They were led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. In January 1919 they seized the power in Berlin. However within few weeks all the revolts had been crushed by the regular troops and ex-soldiers (Freikrops). Karl Liebknecht was arrested and on his way to prison was thrown from moving car. Rosa Luxemburg on the other hand went missing. After a while someone found her body in a canal- she was dead. People who killed communists never had a trail.
The Weimar republic was also faced with the thread from the right. That was because many people believed in ‘stab in the back’ myth which was created shortly after Ebert signed the Treaty of Versailles (TOV). This myth stated that the politics had betrayed the army and the people of Germany. Many people believed in it because it was the easiest way for them to admit the loss...