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Weimar Republic: Social Democrats
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Weimar Republic is the unofficial name of the German government from 1918-1933. Because Berlin was in utter ruin following WWI, leaders met in the town of Weimar to set up a new democratic government, hence the name later used by historians.
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The Weimar Republic was not successful for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most formidable reason was that the fledgling republic was a political experiment for a country that had only known the reign of Kaisers for much of its recent history. While the end of WWI brought a hunger for freedom and peace, Germany was fractioned into sometimes warring, sometimes disinterested parties with varying agendas. A Republic form of government was a noble concept, but not one with a viable paradigm. The weak republic wavered between reversions to former military sovereignty and emerging concepts of democracy. The times were not conducive to an emerging republic: economic problems, threatening national bankruptcy, unemployment and social unrest all lead to the failure.
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The Weimar Republic, proclaimed on November 9, 1918, was born in the throes of military defeat and social revolution (see fig. 5). On November 3, mutiny had broken out among naval squadrons stationed at Kiel. Workers had joined the revolt, which had quickly spread to other ports and to cities in northern, central, and southern Germany, finally reaching Berlin on November 9. Largely as a result of the November Revolution, Prince Max von Baden, the German chancellor, announced the abdication of the emperor. Following the abdication, the Social Democrats in the Reichstag gained control of the government; they proclaimed the republic, formed a provisional cabinet, and organized the National Assembly.
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The Weimar Republic has been described by many historians as the crucible in which the roots of National Socialism were forged. Although characterized by economic depression, political factionism and social decline, Weimar Germany ... experienced a profound cultural growth. At the heart of this cultural growth was technology, both as mode of artistic production in the form of film and photography, and as object of critical response from liberal and conservative commentators alike.
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Weimar's failure was... not inevitable, for the republic survived a period of severe political and economic crisis in its early years. The first threat came from the left, disappointed with the results of the revolution. They wanted a thorough-going transformation of society, as in Russia, based on the workers' and soldiers' councils which had spontaneously sprung up during the German revolution. Such a system had little chance of being realised in an advanced industrial country like Germany, where, unlike Russia, the workers had long had the vote. The first elections after the fall of the monarchy did not produce a socialist majority and the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) had to govern in coalition with middle-class parties. Some historians have blamed the Social Democrats led by Friedrich Ebert for being too obsessed with the threat from the left and too reliant on the old imperial officials, particularly the officer corps and the general staff.
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Named after the National Assembly that convened in Weimar and drew up a new constitution, in the early years the young republic was formed and influenced by a parliamentary majority of Social Democrats, the German Democratic Party and the Catholic Center. Democracy was working. The Social Democrats had relinquished their revolutionary ideas of the early years and attempts to drive the revolution in a socialist direction were quelled. Private ownership of industry and agriculture remained untouched and the mostly anti-republican civil servants and judges retained their positions.
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