Weimar Republic (finalised in august 1919):

Why was the Weimar Republic formed: WW1 began in 1914 and caused Europe to spilt into two- the Allies(consisting of France, Britain, Russia and America, they only joined in April 1917) and the Central Powers(consisting of Germany, Turkey and Austria-Hungary). by early autumn 1918, the German army was moved further away from the western front in France and the British naval blockade was causing severe food shortages, the germans were suffering. Early ocotber 1918, a new government was assembled it included some members from the Reichstag and was led by Prince Max of Baden- this goverments aim was to support the Reichstag not the the Kaiser. When Prince Max met with president Wilson for the first time to discuss negotiations he ws quickly told that there would be no negotitiations while the Kaiser and all his advisors still had control over both the army and government. By the end of October 1918, the German sailors refused to attack the British navy as they thought it was foolish.
1. This forced the Kaiser to abdicate on the 9th November 1918. two days later the leader of the social democratic party, Ebert, accepted Wilson's 14 points(which had been constructed in January 1918) which would act as the base of the peace negotiations. Ebert then announced that the constitution assembly would be decided in the January 1919 elections. many Germans did not see the end of the war as a good thing as it was a betrayel of the german army, they had not actually been defeated, they were forced to surrender. DOLCHSTOSS- the stab in the back theory was developed, the government had gone against the army. the politicans that signed the armistice became known as the November Criminals.
2. Germany continued to face tremendous upheavel and so after the assembley berlin was no longer the place for politics, they decided to set up in Weimar. they had two important tasks ahead of them, one was to formulate the constitution and the other was to finalise the peace treaty with the allies. in the January elections there wasn't a party that one the majority and so a coalition government had to be formed. Friedrich Ebert was the new president and he chose Scheidemann to be his chancellor(both members of the SPD), they formed a coalition with the Catholic Centre Party(ZP) and the German Demoncratic Party(DDP).
proportional representation was a serious issue as it made it very difficult for the government to ensure political stability. No party could ever reach a majority and therefore the coalition governments were common and made the Weimar constitution seem weak.
Weimar constitution was constantly challenged by the army as their status had lowered, they wanted the Kaiser back so their status would remain high and powerful.
the Weimar constitution had very liberal views, most of which were opposed by many judges and senior civil servants.
Article 48 was another serious problem, the Weimar Constitution was supposed to be in favour of democracy and that Germany should not be run under a dictatorship. however, this bylaw stated that the president could suspend the constitution if there was an emergency, this was an ambiguous article as what was classified as an emergency?

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Weimar Republic (finalised in august 1919):

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	Created by libi sears almost 7 years ago