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The Weimar Constitution |
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| The Weimar Republic
faced two immediate challenges in 1919:
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The second began as the results
for the first German Constituent Assembly arrived. The moderate
Socialists, the SPD, hoped to a gain a majority in the new
assembly but gained just 38% of the vote.
78% of all voters chose pro-democracy parties and so
forming a coalition was not the ordeal it could have been. The
first elections had also revealed how weak the extreme right and
radical left were in Germany.
Issues to Consider
- Was Ebert right to worry so
much about challenges from the left and the fear of Bolshevism
in Germany?
- What reasons are there for
why there was such a reaction for far-left and far-right
parties?
Writing the Constitution
A committee was soon set up
around the liberal lawyer, Hugo Preuss, who drew up a
constitution which was accepted in August 1919 by 262 to 75
votes. The constitution has been described, ironically, as both
the most democratic in the world and as a major reason why
democracy failed in Germany.It was no surprise that hostility
between the Left (SPD, Communist, KPD) and the Right
(Nationalist, DVP) could only have been detrimental to the cause
and course of democracy in Weimar Germany.
Issues
The January 1919 elections
brought the same six parties into power who had dominated the
Imperial Wilhemine Reichstag. These six main political parties
dominated until the entry of the NSADP (Nazi) party in 1929.
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Left |
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Right |
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KPD |
USPD |
SPD |
Z |
DVP |
DNVP |
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(Communist) |
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(Soc Democ) |
Cental (Cath) |
(Nationalists) |
(Future Nazi) |
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DDP |
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(Germ Democ) |
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Constitution
Notes |
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- PR secured the place of the
6 major Wilhemine political groups in the new Republic.
- PR gave power to all parties
and was inherently unstable.
- The new constitution
attempted to give an voice to all and was no barrier to the
rise, fall and regeneration of political parties.
- Article 48, the emergency
laws, were there to support the state through hardship and a
potentially dangerous method for abusing power (see Hitler
Jan, 1933).
- The W.Constitution was a
true blue-print for the advancement of German society with a
real social conscience and programme. Unfortunately there were
too many difficult expectations for a war ravaged economy to
tackle.
- For Weimar social and
economic politics to achieve its vision, coalitions, political
bargaining and concessions had to be made. A further
instability in the system that can be used to explain how
Weimar was unstable from its roots.
- The coalitions and
governments that were formed were too short and (at times)
ill-conceived. Parties were more concerned with ideology than
forging a strong basis for the Weimar Republic. Some even
wanted to move back to the old imperial system.
- In 1919 the SPD alliance
with mainly middle-class parties (Z,DDP,BVP,DVP) ensured that
questions were left to question its socialist roots. Such
political partition from USPD and KPD made sure that future
division and lack of support was inevitable. By 1930, as the
stinging attacks of the right-wing increased upon the left,
there was no unified and united left to fight back.
- The weakness of the WR was
all too often overstated, exaggerated and inflated by
opponents of change, democracy and the ill-fated Republic.
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for exam boards |
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Edexcel |
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