1919-24 Weimar Republic Political Extremists Threats

Question 1

Spartacist Revolt facts and relevance

Answer 1

Jan 1919
Aimed at triggering Communist revolution
Took over buildings and announced government overthrown
However Ebert-Groener pact with army stopped them
Freikorps quashed, leaders Liebknecht and Luxemburg killed
Not very threatening

Question 2

General public support in favour of the Republic (so less support for political extremists)

Answer 2

1919 National Assembly showed 80% of votes in favour of pro-Weimar parties
Extremist parties didn’t get many - DNVP average share of vote in 1920s only around 10%

Question 3

Fear anti-republican right support

Answer 3

Had support of many officer corps in the army as well as many paramilitary organisations such as Stahlhelm.
Used myths of the November Criminals and the ‘stab in the back’ to sympathise with voters.

Question 4

Far right threats

Answer 4

Kapp Putsch 1920
Freikorps take gov by force, army refused to step in, only stopped by left-wing strike.
Organisational Consul 1920-2
Assassinations, killed Matthias Erzberger (Centre party leader) and Walter Rathenau (foreign minister)
Beer Hall Putsch 1923

Question 5

Other threats to the Weimar 1919-24 - weaknesses of the constitution

Answer 5

Proportional representation - difficult to find a majority vote that represents the people, plus parties were full of self-interest and so unwilling to work with each other
No parties ever got more than 40% of the vote
Resulted in 16 coalitions bet 1919-30
Extremist parties could more easily win seats

Question 6

Other threats to the Weimar - Treaty of Versailles

Answer 6

Unrest caused by:
Territorial losses (eg Alsace-Lorraine)
Army reduced to
100,000 resulting in creation of the Freikorps
Article 231 the ‘guilt clause’
November Criminals and stab in the back myth
Reparations in 1921 132 million marks - contributed to inflation etc. Caused strikes, hunger riots and looting in 1923