How Strong Was Weimar Germany By The Beginning Of 1924?.
When it was clear that the First World War was well and truly lost, the military elite of the Second Reich decided that the victorious allies would be much more sympathetic to a democratic government when writing what would be the Treaty Of Versailles. This new government was set up by the writing of a completely new democratic constitution. It was written in the German city of Weimar, which gave the new republic it's name. This republic was one born out of defeat and humiliation as the Kaiser abdicated and fled to Holland and the problems did not stop there. In fact, the entire period of 1919 to 1923 is known as a crisis period for Germany and indeed, the republic only lasted until 1933. .
However, there are strengths in the Weimar republic and it's constitution. This must have been true as all the attempted revolutions and coups were eventually suppressed and Hitler only eventually toppled the regime through legal methods. As well as this, the opposition to Weimar was not as well organised as the government. This was particularly true of opposition from the left wing. Only in Bavaria did the communists gain control, setting up a republic in March 1919 which was ruthlessly crushed by the Freikorps in May of the same year. The main communist group in Germany at the time, the KPD, failed to make any huge differences in the country as they did not act quickly and when they did, it was to support poorly organised attempts to take power. This is shown most in the opposition to the Kapp Putsch where the revolutionaries were divided over offers from the government which allowed the army to prevent a communist state being set up.
A greater political strength was the constitution. It was revolutionary in it's values of equality and was a very democratic document for the time. All German people over twenty were allowed to vote regardless of sex, something that did not arise in other countries for some years.
