Why did the Weimar Republic Fail?

the essay

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All facts in this essay is true and well researched and is purely for educational purposes. i'll appreciacte comments and critisms. thank you, Anne xx

WHY DID THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC FAIL?

The Weimar Republic, was a federal republic and semi-presidential Representative democracy, established in 1918, in Germany to replace the imperial form of Government governed by the Kaiser.The Weimar Republic (WR)  is the name of the new government that was set up in 1918 to rule Germany and was announced the new government in the small town called Weimar. Before 1918, Germany had been a monarchy;the ruling monarch was called the Kaiser - Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1918, there was a revolution in Germany, and the Kaiser abdicated and fled to Holland in exile. During the end of the war, in 1917, the USA had joined the Allies. By the early autumn of 1918, the German army was being pushed back on the Western Front in France. After four years of warfare, it was clear that Germany had to surrender.

The Allies said that they would not accept Germany's surrender unless the Kaiser (who they blamed for starting the war) abdicated. Chaos ensued. Armed soldiers and factory workers took control of many German cities. They wanted  the Kaiser to go. Reluctantly, the Kaiser was 'persuaded' by his military advisers to abdicate. Overnight, Germany went from being a monarchy to a republic.

Like most Republic countries, the WR has a constitution. The constitution consisted of; the President. he was elected every 7 years by the people; the chancellor who was chosen by the President but has to have the majority of the support of the politician's in the Reichsteg (over 51%) to be chosen; The Reichsteg which is the German government and passes laws. these are voted for by the German public in the elections.The Reichsteg is formed through Proportional Representation which means parties get the same number percentage as the national vote percentage. unfortunately the WR had a few flaws that weakened the WR, there was an law that allowed the president to pass laws without the support of the Reichsteg this was called Article 48. Article 48 was a rule which said that in a national   emergency, the President could make any law he wanted without having to go through the Reichstag.however, Article 48 wasn't't very democratic.A weak president could be pressured into using it to often by a strong chancellor, this weakened the constitution as it allowed dictator-style leaderships into the WR and in-turn could change anything in both how the country is governed or Germany itself. Another weakness was the Proportional Representation. This allowed lots of little parties getting seats in the Reichsteg. this meant that no party could obtain a clear majority which made law making difficult. this weakened the constitution as not one party could run Germany and every government was a coalition. this forced parties with different political idea's such as the SDP and the conservatives. it made law passing difficult as one law goes against the other coalition's values  meaning they could never get on. the WR was constantly being challenged by the army as the leaders of the army didn't like democracy. they wanted the kaiser back as it would bring back their status that was preserved under him. this weakened democracy as it split the WR from the army and therefor the army wasn't loyal to the government as they should be. the final major flaw in the WR constitution was the challenges faced by the civil services and judiciary. many judges and people working for the government did not like the government. they were payed more with the Kaiser and therefore preferred autocracy. this made enforcing the law more difficult and if they couldn't enforce the law the country would go into anarchy.