(2) Strenghts and weakness of the Constitution and the consequences of the ToV (Treaty of Versailles

Strenghts of the Weimar Constitution
1. What do the Chancellor and the Cabinet need to stay in power
  1. Riechstag support - System of Check and Balances. Support from the people
2. A Bill of Rights guaranteed individual rights such as freedom of speech and the right to belong to a union
3. Strenghts of Proportional Representation
  1. Reflects the peoples ideals and idelogies
  2. Who does it allow to be represented
    1. Everyone
  3. Why strength
    1. Democratic
  4. Proportional Representation was accepted by most across the Political system, the SPD were committed to do it and their opponents saw it as a way to prevent Socialists having overall control
    1. There is unlikely to be an majority
4. The President was elected by the people
  1. Good as it cuts though the most likely divided Riechstag
  2. Two levels of Representation
  3. What are the benefits of Article 48
    1. Allows the President to deal with a crisi's
Weakness of the Weimar Constitution
1. What are the flaws in Article 48
  1. Potential to go power crazy - put's power in the hand of one person - Abuse
2. The Constitution was the product of a compromise between the parties that were most successful in Jan 1919. Yet they did not poll close to this number of votes again. Thus the constitution's base was un-representative
3. Weakness of Proportional Representation
  1. Absualety everyone's voice get here (even the minorities)
  2. Why will it cause Coalitions
    1. Never a majority government
  3. Will there be a clear Govt established
    1. No - noting big will happen
4. The longest coaltion Govt to stay in power lasted for 18 months
5. Where does the power of the elites lie? it there any change from the Second Reich in their embedded position
  1. The role of the elites are still there and unchanged
Why was Germany so angry at the ToV
1. War guilt and reparations (Political, Social)
  1. Guilt should be shared
  2. The economy is already in tatters - reparations will criple Germnay
2. Disarmament (Political, Economic)
  1. Any army 100,000 strong is far too small for a country Germany's size.
  2. Germany is a great military nation - the army is a source of national pride
3. German territories (Economic/ Social)
  1. Both the Saar and Upper Silesia are important industrial areas - we can't afford to lose them
  2. Whilst Germany is losing land, Britain and France are increasing their empires by taking control of German territories in Africa and the Middle east
  3. Losted 13% of land, 15% of Coal fields, 48% of iron and steel industries, 12% of population, 15% of Agricultural production
4. Fourteen Points and League of Nations (Political)
  1. Germany's treatment goes against the 14 points. Other counties have self determination but not Germnay
  2. It is insulting for a country as powerful as Germany not to be invited to join the League of Nations
consequences of the ToV
1. Reparations - failure to pay
  1. There were huge problems in coming to terms with economic readjustment and debt. Reparations made matters worse. By later 1922 their national debt was 469 million marks. In July 1922 the govt asked for permission to suspend reparation payments. This was refused by the French Prime Minister. Thus the German govt printed more money to cover its debts.
  2. This move was taken as sabotage to 38 reparation payments. At the end of the year the Reparations Commission declared that they had failed to meet their Reparation promises. The German defaulting on Reparations led to the Franco/Belgian occupation of the Ruhr in January 1923 with 60,000 troops. The German govt encouraged the workers to offer passive resistance. This meant that the govt had to pay million of marks to those that lost income and it also led to less income from tax.
  3. Thus the govt printed more money. The German govt collapsed into hyperinflation. The savings of the middle class were destroyed and the working class saw their income drop
2. In 1920
  1. Some right-wing Germans were so angry about the Treaty that they made an armed rebellion against the govt. This became known as the Kapp Putsch. The rebels took control until the workers went on a general strike, then the rebellion failed. The strike added to the sense of chaos in Germany.
    1. The govt actually lose control for a while, does this suggest that they are strong? Is it the govt that gain control again - The govt was shown to weak if a small group could rebel - showed an apertit for a right-wing politics (Nazi party)
3. In 1919
  1. Germany's democratic govt was very weak. When it agreed to sign the Treaty many people believed that Germany had been "stabbed in the back" by weak politicans. This became a popular myth in Germany.
    1. If the German people thought that their govt should't have signed the treaty, would they trust them - No they began to trusted the elites.
Treaty - The Political impact
1. The peopled hoped to gain Austria and Sudentenland from the now defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire - bad blow
2. Wilson's principle of national self-determination seemed to operate against Germans everywhere and in favour of Germans nowhere.
3. The War Gulit Clause - even more resentment - the German delegation was helpless in stoping it
4. The Republic was tarnished with signed the Treaty - unfair as the Republic govt tried everything possible to revise the treaty even military resistance - the treaty had to be accepted
5. The govt even employed historians to prove Germany was not responsible for the war but joint - It did rehabilitate the reputation of the Army
6. Conservative right distrusted the Weimar Republic
  1. This defeat could ben seen as an act of political betrayal by the Republican govt - govt disprove German was gulit, the Republican unintentionally gave the conservative right the opportunity to foster the legand of the "stab in the back"
  2. Campaign for the Presidency in 1925, Hindenburg sought to justify his and Ludendorff "silent dictorship" by rewriting history
7. The Offensive aginast the Republic by the NAZIS end of 1920s and beginging of the 1930's
  1. First popular policy - the use of "stab in the back" and the "Versallies diktat"
  2. Second the party would offer economic salvation to the middle classes suffering under the impact if the depression after 1929 - enormously increased the NSDAP's electoral support in the elections of 1930 and 1932
Treaty - The economic impact
1. The reperations were set at 132,000 million gold marks - 12,000 million in advance - 2,000 million per annum and 26 % of the value of Germany's exports
  1. The reparations must have been a considerable factor in the hyper-inflation of 1921 and 1923
    1. Could have increased taxes instead of printing money - Would have antagonied a population frustrated by "War guilt"
2. The Dawes Plan of 1924
  1. Germany would provide reparation payments to Britain, France and Italy who, in turn, were enabled to pay off their war debt to the United States. These returned as loans to Germany.
3. Great damage was done to the Germany economy - The loans upon which Germany depenced in order to sustain an economy capable of paying reparations
  1. Initially good (1924) Germany received some 16,000 million marks. This helped:
    1. Replenish the home market - outstripped by inflaction
    2. Industrial production expanded
    3. Public sector salary increase
    4. full employment was achieved
  2. Problem expansion highly vulnerable
    1. Didn't affect the large-scale consumer industries at home, such as motor vehicles
    2. Didn't have the full infrastructure of export sale
4. The Wall Street Crash in October 1929
  1. German economy spiralled into depression - decreased production, foreclosures, 6 million unemployed
  2. Speed - American loans were short term and subject to repayments on demand
    1. Difficult for the repayment to be extensively rescheduled by the Young Plan in 1929 or virtually cancelled at Lausanne in 1932

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(2) Strenghts and weakness of the Constitution and the consequences of the ToV (Treaty of Versailles

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	Created by Marcus Danvers almost 10 years ago