LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Weimar Republic
built 644 days ago
A widespread nostalgia for the literature of the Weimar Republic is among the more surprising phenomena encountered by the visitor to the present Bundesrepublik: the literature, not the politics. No one in West Germany... enamored of the roaring Twenties, desires a return to the age of Ebert, Hindenburg, and Stresemann. The Berlin of those days has acquired a legendary aura for the sake of its hectic and undeniably brilliant intellectual life. Nobody wants the politicians back, not even those Germans (a dwindling number) who go on believing in the reunification of their country. No myth attaches to the first German democracy, which perished so ingloriously in the flames of the 1933 Reichstag fire. It is as though its memory had been swallowed up in the cataclysm of 1945, when the fire spread to engulf the whole city, and much besides.
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The Weimar Republic was announced following the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in November 1918. The removal of the Emperor left an apparent power vacuum, with no Head of State the political structure of the Second Reich was obsolete, and an alternative form of government would have to be established. In fact the move towards a different form of Government had begun prior to the Kaisers abdication. As it became apparent to the German High Command that the war was lost moves were made to not only sue for peace but to amend the way in which the decision making process was conducted in Germany.
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The Weimar Republic had a lot of problems. The Treaty of Versailles made things very difficult for the economy. Inflation got completely out of hand. There were political problems because governments ruled only for a very short time, not long enough to be able to make important decisions. There were a lot of radical right and left extremists, for example monarchists (people who wanted back the monarchy) and communists, who believed that all things should be shared.
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When assessing the reasons for the failure of the Weimar Republic and the ascent of the NSDAP to power, one has to make various considerations for these events occurred as a result of a plurality of factors. Perhaps the most important factor was the economic crises that befell the Republic in 1923 and again in 1929. However to neglect considerations like the possibility that the revolution of 1918 failed to create institutions loyal to the new regime, that perhaps the constitution of the Republic was too idealistic and lacking in practicality, causing certain structural weaknesses and finally, that the desertion of the Republic by the masses and more powerful interests made the failure of Weimar and the rise of Hitler to power a mere matter of time would give a distorted view of the issue. Moreover, several political and social issues arose with the creation of the Republic, one of which was the influence of Imperial Germany. The Republic failed to resolve these issues and these issues created the context that made the failure of the Republic and the rise of a dictatorial leader to power possible.
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Leaders of the new Weimar Republic feared the turmoil in the streets which was reminiscent of the Bolshevik Revolution. They called upon the army and the Freikorps (Free Corps, paramilitary groups from the right) to quell disruption and restore the status quo. The leaders of the Spartacists (German Bolsheviks) were Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. It is significant to note that in the opening days of the Republic, the army was called upon to shore up the Republic against left-wing groups.
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The Weimar Republic, proclaimed on November 9, 1918, was born in the throes of military defeat and social revolution. In January 1919, a National Assembly was elected to draft a constitution. The government, composed of members from the assembly, came to be called the Weimar coalition and included the SPD; the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei--DDP), a descendant of the Progressive Party of the prewar period; and the Center Party. The percentage of the vote gained by this coalition of parties in favor of the republic (76.2 percent, with 38 percent for the SPD alone) suggested broad popular support for the republic. The antirepublican, conservative German National People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei--DNVP) and the German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei--DVP) received a combined total of 10.3 percent of the vote. The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, which had split from the SPD during the war, won 8 percent of the vote.
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Weimar Republic