WAS THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC DOOMED FROM THE START?

By Laurence Hicks, Unity High School, Sudan.

Tasks and Exercises

1. Some of the following paragraphs say that the Weimar Republic was doomed from the start, and other say that it could have survived the crises of 1930-1933.

2. Your task is to sort the paragraphs into two groups, and to write a balanced answer to the question ‘Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start?’

3. Start your essay with the introduction that has been provided. However, you will need to use your own connecting words to link the paragraphs together, and you will also need to write your own conclusion.

4. To make your task a little more challenging, you will need to check for three spelling mistakes and six factual errors, and to include the corrections when you write your answer. In addition, one of the seven paragraphs is a red herring, so make sure you don’t use it!

The Wiemar constitution contained two fatal flaws. Firstly, the voting system of proportional representation produced weak coalition governments which were unable to provide Germany with strong central government. Secondly, Article 49 gave President Hindenburg the power to destroy democracy.

Proportional Representation is a voting system used in many countries today without problems; the same can be said of coalition governments. Furthermore, Article 48 was used successfully by President Hindenburg in dealing with the crises which arose in 1922-1923.

The Weimar Republic weathered all the crises between 1924 and 1929 and survived the taunts over its part in the Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles. If great German statesmen like Stresemann had still been alive, they could have rescued the Republic between 1930 and 1933.

The Weimar Republic had a new parliament (the Reichstag) with members elected by Germans over the age of 20. Voting took place in secret and the number of seats a political party won in the Reichstag was dependent upon the proportion of votes cast.

What destroyed the Weimar Republic was the crisis between 1930 and 1933. If the Deppression had not hit Germany so severely, and if the constitution had not been undermined, then the dictatorship established in 1918 could still be alive today.

Although the 1918 Revolution had swept the President away, much stayed the same. Many Germans in the army, the civil service, the police, the judiciary and the universities and schools did not like what the revolution had done and opposed democracy and the Republic.

Many Germans blamed the Weimar Republic for ‘stabbing the army in the back’ by signing the surrender in November 1918; for the Treaty of Versailles and the ongoing reperations; for the hyperinflation of 1923; and for dependence on US loans through the Dawes Plan (1924) and the Young Plan (1929).

Introduction

It’s difficult to decide if the Weimar Republic was doomed from the start because there is evidence to support both points of view.

Connecting Words

For example, For instance, One reason is, Another reason is, Firstly, Secondly, Thirdly, Finally, In addition, Additionally, Furthermore, Also, Moreover, What is more, Above all, On the one hand, On the other hand, Based on what I’ve written, In conclusion, To sum up.