To what extent had the WR solved its political and economic problems by 1929?
Following the defeat a number of fundamental political, social and economical issues existed that were left unresolved during the period of relative stability in the mid 1920’s (golden years) unquestionably harmed and caused destruction to the weimar republic by 1929. The fundamental issues that plagued weimar from the outset and were exacerbated by instability of early dissention action contributed to the demise of the republic by 1929. The mid 1920’s political stability can be seen as fundamentally superficial and was brought apart by an event of disaster evidenced in the great depression of 1929.
Topic sentence: It can be argued that from its inception the WR was plagued by numerous underlying political and economic flaws that were ultimately responsible for its demise, thus demonstrating its inability to resolve its issues by 1929.
The end of world war one came as a shocking defeat for the german public who were told that the war was nearly won. With the defeat came enforced democracy, born into a chaotic atmosphere with opposition and resentment coming from both sides of the political spectrum. The lack of democratic tradition in germany prior to the Weimar Republic also made for a unstable political landscape it was never able to develop organically and many of the people in power were opposed to democracy and stood for ‘old’ germany, people such as the conservative elites. As a result of the defeat, germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty included a ‘war guilt clause’ which angered the german people the most as it blamed germany for the war and all the damage that the war had brought.The treaty also sought to break germany’s economic strength. The main economic provisions of the treaty included the following; paying $40b in reparations to the allies, all machinery, locomotives and ships to be given the allies and large annual coal shipments to be made to allied nations .This very clearly crippled the German economy. louis Snyder argues the line that the main influences of the hyperinflation were germany’s middle classes who had been driven into the ranks of the working class as a result of the republics financial irresponsibility and willingness to accept reparations. With germany’s inability to pay the french began occupying the Ruhr, germany's major industrial area. With occupation of the ruhr by the french, Chancellor Cuno called upon German workers to refuse to cooperate with occupying forces.
Consequently occupation and passive resistance reduced industrial output to a trickle. Further as Germany was already suffering high inflation rates due to the war, the impact of the reparations, passive resistance, government having the continue to pay workers wages and no limits being placed on printing presses during 1923; hyperinflation became the new phenomenon. As a result unemployment rose dramatically, the middle class was pushed down to working class and the exchange rate collapsed meaning no nation was willing to buy German marks and put an end to German international trade.
Due to all of the political instability and economic issues, there were many early attempts to overthrow the government. One being the, Kapp Putsch where the conservative elites were able to demonstrated the political power they had. However a failed attempt, proves significant as it proved that the Army could not be relied upon to support the democratic republic as they were not loyal and thus becoming ‘a state within a state’. Additionally the Weimar Constitution had three main fundamental flaws. Article 22 which allowed a party to gain one seat in the reichstag for every 60k votes (proportional representation) and Article 25 which allowed the president to appoint/dismiss the chancellor and close the reichstag and call elections. Lastly article 48, the most undemocratic element which, if misunderstood, could undermine the democracy.
