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.
Following the February 1919 election, this never occurred again in the Weimar Republic…
Majority Coalition Government.
All subsequent elections saw the Coalition take less than 50% of the vote.
After their poor performance in the 1928 elections, the German Democratic Party (Liberals) joined with the Young German Order and several other groups to form this party…
State Party
Throughout the duration of the Weimar Republic, this was the only party to maintain its support of approximately 5 million voters…
Catholic Centre Party
Due to the influence of Pope Pius XI, this gradually occurred within the Catholic Centre Party through the late 1920s…
They gradually began adopting more authoritarian views as the primary way of maintaining the Church’s interests from the threat of socialists.
This party was initially the largest challenge to the Conservatives on the right; however, in the 1924 elections they earned 103 seats and thus became the second largest party in the Reichstag…
Nationalist Party
WHO SAID IT: ‘We resist the subversive, un-German spirits in all forms, whether it stems from Jewish or other circles. We are emphatically opposed to the prevalence of Jewdom in the government and in public life, a prevalence that has emerged over more continuously since the revolution,’
Alfred Hugenberg
The former pro-Bismarckian Liberals became this party in the postwar years…
People’s Party
This leader of the People’s Party was able to hide the widespread views of distaste of the Republic within the party; however, his death in 1929 resulted in the party’s drift to the far-fight…
Gustav Streseman
The failed Communist uprisings in 1919 and 1923 resulted in this…
Political parties on the centre and right becoming emboldened to not work with the Social Democrats and Communists.
During March 1923, this incident occurred which jeopardized the continuance of the Weimar Republic…
Kapp-Luttwitz Putsch
This man was ordered by the Reichstag to suppress the Kapp-Luttwitz Putsch and Freikorps however upon meeting them he famously stated…
General Hans von Seeckt
‘Reichswehr do not fire upon Reichswehr.’ (due to Freikorps being comprised of former Army personnel)
This was the main reason the Kapp-Luttwitz Putsch was suppressed…
Reichstag called for population to go on strike, which they did en masse. Result was communication services becoming unavailable and Putchists not being able to organize their effort.
Immediately following the Kapp-Luttwitz Putsch, this event occurred in western Germany…
Communist Ruhr Uprising
Following the suppression of the Kapp-Luttwitz Putsch, the Reichstag ordered strikers in the Ruhr to stand down. They refused and this followed…
Freikorps and Reichswehr were ordered to suppress the uprising.
Violent clashes ensued and some Red Army soldiers were followed into the Rhineland territory to seek French Amnesty.
The responses to the Ruhr and Kapp-Luttwitz revolts highlighted this reality within the Reichstag…
Leftists held limited power over the military caste and were at their mercy in regards to preservation of the republic.
