The Weimar constitution Flashcards
How was the Weimar set up?
As a representative democracy. however, it had major flaws which contributed to its downfall in 1933-34
The Kiel Mutiny
On 3 November at the main German naval base in Kiel frustrated German sailors mutinied instead of following orders to attack the British Royal Navy. This led to the collapse of the German government. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on 9th November. Friedrich Ebert (Social Democrats) was now chancellor. He became president shortly afterwards and established the Weimar Republic in August 1919
Article 48
1) Within the new Weimar Constitution an clause was installed which stated that in the event of an ‘emergency’ the President of the government could take sole power of authority and ignore the Reichstag
2) The definition of ‘emergency’ was open to interpretation and the power was abused numerous timed between 1919-1933 including when Hitler seized control of the German state
German State ‘Particularism’
1) Germany under the Weimar government was a ‘federal’ structure, meaning that the Weimar Government oversaw numerous smaller German states, the major ones being Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria and Wurttemberg
2) The problem with this was that these states had a great degree of self-governance and wished to protect their own autonomy and disliked the Weimar government’s involvement in their affairs
The German Army (Reichswehr)
1) The army, under the leadership of General Hans von Seeckt, was not fully under the control of the Weimar government and couldn’t be counted on to defend the government from internal threats
2) It failed to support and protect the government during the Kapp Putsch (1920) and to a degree during the Munich Putsch (1923)
Right-wing Judges
1) The German judiciary was heavily conservative and held great animosity for socialists and communists
2) When thousands of communists were killed during the Spartacist revolt (1919) none of the Freikorp were arrested or charged with murder, of the 700 right-wing rebel Freikorp arrested for attempting to overthrow the state only 1 went to prison and in 1923 for the Munich Putsch which killed several Bavarian police officers and soldiers Hitler was only imprisoned for 9 months
Proportional Representation
The government’s electoral system was based upon proportional representation which is a fair system correlating votes to seats but leads to weak governments formed around coalitions due to the broad spectrum of political parties. The 421 seats of the Reichstag were to be fought over by more than 28 political parties in 1919
