Chapter 5: The Weaknesses of Weimar Flashcards
Following the postwar reformation of the German government, this man who was leader of the Social Democrats became the first President of the German Reich…
Friedrich Ebert
The elections of the First Constituent Assembly took place in 1919 and saw these parties form a coalition majority government…
Social Democrats, Democrats and Catholic Centre Party
Where did the First Constituent Assembly hold their inaugural meeting….
Weimar
Weimar had long been associated with the life and work of eighteenth and early 19th century German poet, novelist and dramatist …
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This problematic issue with the Weimar constitution ultimately played a significant role in its downfall…
Weimar constitution gave President emergency powers granted under Article 48. In times of trouble, he could rule by decree and use the army to restore law and order in any federated state he thought to be threatened.
During the 1920 uprising in the Ruhr, Ebert utilized his Presidential emergency powers to do this showing his obvious bias against Communists compared to conservatives…
Issued a backdated decree which applied the death penalty to public order offences and retrospectively legitimized the summary executions that had been carried out on Red Army members by the Freikorps.
In addition to emergency powers in Article 48, the President also had the power to do this if one of his decrees were rejected…
He could dissolve the Reichstag and force elections.
Friedrich Ebert died on February 28th 1925 due to an untreated ruptured appendix. Ebert dying due to this cause which was easily treatable at the time was likely due to…
His failure to suppress influence of military caste and ultra-conservative officer corps. As a result, they mercilessly targeted him in the media causing him significant stress which likely exacerbated his situation.
It was for this reason that Paul von Hindenburg won the 1925 Presidential elections over Wilhelm Marx…
Either the Communists or the Bavarian wing of the Catholic Centre Party would have pushed Marx into the majority of the vote; however, toxic political fragmentation meant Hindenburg was elected with a majority.
Hindenburg’s election as President was seen as a defeat for Weimar for this reason…
Hindenburg was a symbol of the old military and Imperial order and his election was greeted by the right as a symbol of restoration.
This rumour gained traction following the election of Hindenburg…
That he had asked ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II for permission to take up the office of President.
Weimar parliament utilized this form of representation throughout its history…
Proportional Representation
What was the main issue with the proportional representation system used in Weimar…
Parties were allotted a number of seats in the Reichstag corresponding to the proportion of votes it received in the election.
Therefore, a party that received 1% of the votes received 1% of the seats.
As a result, small fringe parties were able to have their voices heard in the parliament.
Due to the political instability within the Reichstag and lack of bipartisanship, this was a frequent occurrence in the Weimar republic…
Elections.
Between February 13th 1919 and January 30th 1933 there were 20 different cabinets which lasted on average, 239 days.
Widespread politicization in Weimar often resulted in situations like these for average citizens…
If they wanted to join a group/club they had to consider whether it was Catholic/Protestant or Socialist/Naturalist in support.
