Weimar Republic Series: Germany before and after World War I
Foreword
Before Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, Germany experienced its ‘roaring 20s’ through a parliamentary democratic system—the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Republic article series aims to introduce some of the key themes and debates in the historiography of the Weimar Republic, from its inception in 1918 to its death in 1933. Beginning with Germany before WWI and how the republic's acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles brought about popular resentment towards the nascent government, and then shifting to the republic's economy, art, and women’s statues during the 20s. And, lastly to the republic's eventual demise during the Great Depression. The series focuses in depth the linear progression of a republic's death, and the importance of studying how and why the Weimar Republic did not succeed.
Weimar Republic Series is divided into six chapters:
Weimar Republic Series: Germany before and after World War I
For the fifteen years of the Weimar Republic's existence, it would fight for Germany’s survival in the aftermath of World War I. The armistice, signed on November 11, 1918, legally meant the war was over. However, for Germany, a new battle would begin inside itself. The armistice otherwise known as the Treaty of Versailles was deeply resented by the German people, who perceived it as the reason for Germany’s precarious economic and social position in the 1920s. Understanding these two aspects are important to understand how and why the Weimar Republic emerged: Germany’s political constitution before World War I, and the impact of World War I on German society, particularly how the Treaty of Versailles shaped the German public’s opinion on the new democracy.
The Weimar Republic is important to study because of its potent political symbolism. Storer (2013, p. 1) explains that Germany’s fledgling democracy in the interwar years has now become a “byword for instability”.
The Weimar image is significant today since this political system represents the age of social and economic uncertainty, as well as pronounced political polarization (Storer 2013, p. 1).
Consequently, important questions to consider when studying the Weimar Republic are to what extent the new government itself was responsible for Germany’s instability, and whether it was the case of any new political system being imposed on a fragile economic and social order struggling with the aftermath of war. Moreover, being representative of uncertainty and upheaval, the Weimar image also invokes a representation of a “postwar identity structure” (Simon 2004, p. 302). This explains the prominence of Weimar era cinema in the 1990s and 2000s, following the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. The Wall had separated East and West Germany throughout most of the Cold War. The collapse of the wall, which foreshadowed the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, signified a new, unified Germany. To parallel the date of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was on November 9, 1918 that the Weimar Republic was proclaimed.
The Weimar Republic's name originated from a place in Germany. The constitution for the new parliamentary democracy was drafted in the southern German town of Weimar. At the time, Berlin was considered too dangerous amid the revolution to hold the Assembly. Thus, Weimar became immortalized from the Weimar Republic. Many historians credit the creation of the Weimar Republic to the fact that German military generals thought a civilian, democratic government would attract better armistice terms from the Allies when it became clear that Germany was losing the war. In the last days of WWI, the German High Command alerted the Kaiser that the war was lost in September 1918 (Storer 2013, p. 31). In October, Germany became a constitutional monarchy, and on November 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated the throne; Germany was then declared a republic (Epstein 2015, p. 10). The chancellor and government would be accountable to the Reichstag, which is the German parliament (Storer 2013, p. 32). The Weimar Republic, amongst Germany’s political constitutions illuminates Germany’s political organization before World War I.
Germany, as we recognize it today, was a young country in World War I, having only unified under the Imperial Constitution in 1871 (Storer 2013, p. 14). The constitution consisted of four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free cities, and the Rhineland (Storer 2013, p. 15). An Imperial Chancellor was appointed by the Emperor, who was also the King of Prussia at that time and the the largest of the kingdoms (Storer 2013, p. 14). Prussia had a three-class voting system, where citizens were divided according to their tax brackets (Wegner 2020, p. 340). Before World War I, Germany’s political constitution considered the needs of the wealthy elite, not the average citizen. Perhaps this focus on the wealthy instead of everyone led Henig (1998, p. 2) to assert that Germany after 1871 was merely a façade of unification; instead, the reality was that of deep divisions between the different regions and class groups. The wealthy elites were eager to protect their economic and social status; however, a growing working class created a great challenge for the German Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century (Henig 1998, p. 3).
Germany’s changing economic and social structure required a new political system, but would the Weimar Republic be the right one?
Considering Germany’s political constitution before World War I and the impact of an emerging working class is important when assessing how the Weimar Republic was received by the German people.
In the aftermath of World War I, German politics became increasingly polarized. The political Left was represented by Labour movements inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the far-Right was representative of the old German elite (Storer 2013, pp. 29-30). Storer (2013, p. 27) proposes that the Weimar Republic was the result of “a reaction to events and an attempt to divert the people’s energies from a more radical course.” The German Revolution of 1918 incited fear in the old German elite. They feared that Labour movements would encourage a Bolshevik-style revolution. For instance, in January 1918, one million workers went on strike (Henig 1998, p. 7). Rapid industrialization and a growing working class meant that a new political structure was needed, but the cost of defeat in World War I also meant that Germany in the early 1920s was unfortunately not a suitable economic or political climate for a democracy to flourish (Henig 1998, p. 4). Storer (2013, p. 2) confirms that the Weimar Republic was “unloved by its people”, but why and to what extent is this statement true?
Knowing how the German people interpreted the new republic clarifies Storer's confirmation; nonetheless, to understand in what economic and social climate the democracy was introduced, and how it could be considered a continuation and disruption of existing social and political structures in Germany is key for understanding the Weimar Republic's demise and it's connection with democratic countries today.
Storer (2013, p. 3) reminds us that “history…is not episodic”. Therefore, when assessing the impact of the Weimar Republic on German society, the continuation of the German political constitutions as well as a divergence from them must be considered. Henig’s claim that the façade of German unification post-1871 appears to foreshadow the political fragmentation of Weimar politics. For example, where a change from Germany’s wealthy, authoritarian tradition in the Weimar constitution can be seen there is also the removal of imperial rule with the election of the Chancellor by parliament, and the election of the President by popular vote (Wegner 2020, p. 346). In the 1919 National Assembly, all men and women over twenty were eligible to vote; this change from a privilege few to everyone concretized Germany as one of the first countries to give women the vote (Henig 1998, p. 13).
At the turn of the twentieth century, there was avid support for democratic and socialist parties among the German people. Conservative votes plummeted from a high 60% in the 1880s to a low 38% in 1912 (Henig 1998, p. 3). After the proclamation of the Republic, votes at the National Assembly in 1919 revealed that approximately 84% voted for socialist parties with less than 15% voting for nationalist or monarchist parties (Henig 1998, p. 12). Now, if there was such avid support for socialist parties and a democratic government at the turn of the twentieth century and into the early years of the Weimar Republic, why did support for this new political system decline during the 1920s and ultimately leading to its death in 1933? One answer can be revealed in the economic devastation Germany experienced in the 1920s, resulting from the Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression. The Weimar Republic as well suffered loss of popularity because nationalist movements and the old German elite linked the new democracy with defeat in World War I and the economic consequences of the Treaty of Versailles (Henig 1998, p. 8).
World War I was devastating for Germany. A total war economy meant women and young men were required to fill the working roles of the men who fought in the war (Storer 2013, p. 29). Furthermore, the war took a monumental cost of human life, with 19% of the male population suffering casualties due to the war (Storer 2013, p. 28). Despite a patriotic enthusiasm for the war at the beginning, the fighting spirit of the German people began to weary, and the population was angry at the cost of the war. The Treaty of Versailles was devastatingly harsh on Germany and the new democratic government. Germany lost 13% of its territory, 10% of its population, and the army was reduced to 100, 000 men (Epstein 2015, p. 11). Epstein (2015, p. 11) notes that the Treaty was intended to injure Germany’s economic recovery after the war; this injury was symbolized in the famous “war-guilt clause”, or Article 231. The final reparations bill, decided in 1921, came to 132 billion gold marks (Fischer 2019, p. 402).
Unfortunately, even though the Weimar Republic was not responsible for the terms in the treaty, the government still signed the armistice and reparations bill, thus, incurring the wrath and resentment of the German people. Defeat in World War I and the economic plight heralded by the Treaty of Versailles led Germans to be resentful of this new, emerging democracy (Epstein 2015, p. 13). Evidence of the polarization of German politics and anger towards the Treaty of Versailles is shown through the assassination of the government's minister Matthias Erzberger by a Nationalist death squad in 1921 (Storer 2013, p. 51). Erzberger was hated by the far-right German politics for how he publicized his views concerning Germany’s obligations to fulfill the Treaty of Versailles (Storer 2013, p. 51).
This resentment held by the German people towards the Treaty of Versailles and the government who signed the treaty shaped the German public’s negative opinion towards the inexperienced democracy throughout its short-lived reign.
Consequently, defeat in World War I and the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles caused the German population to resent democracy and in turn the Weimar Republic who represented democracy in Germany. An emerging working class resulting from Germany’s rapid industrialization in the twentieth century meant a new political order needed to be established, but the democracy introduced with the Weimar Republic was not seen by the public as the answer to Germany’s tumultuous economic and social position in the 1920s.
Bibliographical References:
Bain News Service. (1915–1920). Reichstag, Berlin [Image]. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2014708382/. Epstein, C. A. (2015). Nazi Germany [E-book]. Wiley.
Fischer, C. (2019). Germany, Versailles, and the Limits of Nationhood. Diplomacy & Statecraft, 30(2), 398–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2019.1619040. Henig, R. (1998). The Weimar Republic 1919–1933 (Lancaster Pamphlets) (1st ed.) [E-book]. Routledge. Finnemore, J. (n.d.). The Signing of the Treaty of Peace at Versailles, 28 June 1919 [Painting]. National Museum Australia, Sydney , New South Wales, Australia. https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/versailles-treaty. Simon. S. (2004). Weimar Project(ion)s in Post-Unification Cinema [E-book]. In Costabile-Heming, C. A., Halverson, R. J., & Foell, K. A. (Ed.), Berlin: The Symphony Continues: Orchestrating Architectural, Social, and Artistic Change in Germany’s New Capital (Reprint 2013 ed., pp. 301–320). De Gruyter. Storer, C. (2013). A Short History of the Weimar Republic (I.B.Tauris Short Histories) [E-book]. I.B.Tauris. Wegner, G. (2020). Reassessing the dependence of capitalism on democracy – the case of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic. Journal of Institutional Economics, 16, 337–354. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137419000766.
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