New Republic's Politicians example essay topic

385 words
The name "Weimar Republic" is used by historians to describe the German Federal Republic from November 1918 until January 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor. Following the revolution in Germany at the end of the First World War that resulted from the abdication Kaiser Wilhelm II, the new republic's politicians met at the town of Weimar to draw up the republic's new constitution. It was hoped that by holding their meetings in Weimar, the politicians would reduce the influence of Berlin's political extremists on the new constitution. In fact the National Assembly remained at Weimar until 1920 when the republic's politicians returned to Berlin. In German history, the Weimar Republic is remembered for the political and economic crises that led to the collapse of democratic government, providing extremists such as Hitler and the Nazis with the opportunity to move into positions of power. This was due to two factors working together: .

The radical left opposed Weimar because of the government's ruthless suppression of the Spartacism Revolt in 1919 [7]. The outcome of this was that the SPD could never be relied on to support the SPD against any offensive from the conservative right... The right opposed Weimar from its very inception. The 'stab in the back' myth [8] had been started by Hindenburg in 1919, and was a vital factor in explaining right-wing opposition. Another factor is criticism of the Versailles Treaty. Together, these two factors combined to mount an offensive by the right on the very legitimacy of Weimar.

The centre of politics [9] was occupied by supporters of moderate liberal parties - DVP, DDP and SPD. However, large numbers of these eventually abandoned their normal party allegiances because of the impact of the economic crisis after 1929 and the apparent inability of the coalition governments to deal with it. Many of these supporters began to vote for the Nazis even before the Depression of 1929 occurred. 1928 was actually the decisive date for Nazi Party fortunes. In that year these was an agricultural depression, which led to growing support of the Nazis in rural areas. From 1928 onwards, the political parties of the centre lost influence.

The right-wing D NVP also began to lose votes.