The Weimar Constitution

Question 1

Who had the job of devising the constitution and what was it influenced by

Answer 1

-Ebert gave the job of devising the constitution to the Liberal Lawyer, Hugo Preuss

-Constitution was influenced by governments of Britain and the USA but it retained elements influenced by Germanys own history

Question 2

What is Federal structure

Answer 2

Where power and responsibilities are shared between central and regional governments

Question 3

What did the presidents powers include

Answer 3

-the right to dissolve the reichstag
-the appointment of chancellor
-the position of supreme commander of the armed forces
-capacity to rule by decree at time of national emergency and to oversee Reichstag

Question 4

What is Proportional Representation

Answer 4

-This system allocated members to parliament from the official list of political party candidates

-They were distributed on the basis of one member for every 60,000 votes in an electoral district

Question 5

What was the Reichsrat and who made up the electorate

Answer 5

-Less important house made up of representation from all 17 state regional governments. It could only initiate or delay proposals

-made up of all people over 20

Question 6

What were problems within the constitution?

Answer 6

-PR voting system:every election led to coalition government. Problems of this were finding parties prepeared to work in coalition and trying to stop coalition parties from disagreeing

German voters were left unimpressed by signs of disagreement which suggested government was incompetent

-Article 48: President could abuse these powers by retaining them after emergency had ended (Dictatorship)
RW President more likely to abuse as they are only concerned about protection of the elite