Why was the Weimar Republic formed: WW1 began in 1914 and caused Europe to spilt into two- the Allies(consisting of France, Britain, Russia
and America, they only joined in April 1917) and the Central Powers(consisting of Germany, Turkey and Austria-Hungary). by early autumn
1918, the German army was moved further away from the western front in France and the British naval blockade was causing severe food
shortages, the germans were suffering. Early ocotber 1918, a new government was assembled it included some members from the Reichstag
and was led by Prince Max of Baden- this goverments aim was to support the Reichstag not the the Kaiser. When Prince Max met with
president Wilson for the first time to discuss negotiations he ws quickly told that there would be no negotitiations while the Kaiser and all his
advisors still had control over both the army and government. By the end of October 1918, the German sailors refused to attack the British
navy as they thought it was foolish.
This forced the Kaiser to abdicate on the 9th November 1918. two days later the leader of the social democratic
party, Ebert, accepted Wilson's 14 points(which had been constructed in January 1918) which would act as the
base of the peace negotiations. Ebert then announced that the constitution assembly would be decided in the
January 1919 elections. many Germans did not see the end of the war as a good thing as it was a betrayel of the
german army, they had not actually been defeated, they were forced to surrender. DOLCHSTOSS- the stab in
the back theory was developed, the government had gone against the army. the politicans that signed the
armistice became known as the November Criminals.
Germany continued to face tremendous upheavel
and so after the assembley berlin was no longer
the place for politics, they decided to set up in
Weimar. they had two important tasks ahead of
them, one was to formulate the constitution and
the other was to finalise the peace treaty with the
allies. in the January elections there wasn't a
party that one the majority and so a coalition
government had to be formed. Friedrich Ebert
was the new president and he chose
Scheidemann to be his chancellor(both members
of the SPD), they formed a coalition with the
Catholic Centre Party(ZP) and the German
Demoncratic Party(DDP).
proportional representation was a serious issue as it made it very difficult
for the government to ensure political stability. No party could ever reach a
majority and therefore the coalition governments were common and made
the Weimar constitution seem weak.
Weimar constitution was constantly
challenged by the army as their
status had lowered, they wanted
the Kaiser back so their status
would remain high and powerful.
the Weimar
constitution had
very liberal views,
most of which were
opposed by many
judges and senior
civil servants.
Article 48 was another serious problem, the
Weimar Constitution was supposed to be in favour
of democracy and that Germany should not be run
under a dictatorship. however, this bylaw stated
that the president could suspend the constitution
if there was an emergency, this was an ambiguous
article as what was classified as an emergency?