Weimar Republic
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The period of German history from 1919 to 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic (IPA /ˈvaɪmar/, German Weimarer Republik). It is named after the city of Weimar where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after the German Monarchy and German Empire were abolished following the nation's defeat in World War I.
This first attempt to establish a liberal democracy in Germany happened during a time of civil conflict, and failed with the ascent of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1933. Although technically the 1919 constitution was not invalidated until after World War II, the legal measures taken by the Nazi government in 1933 (commonly known as Gleichschaltung) destroyed the mechanisms of a typical democratic system, so 1933 is cited as the end of the Weimar Republic.
The phrase Weimar Republic is an invention of historians, and was not used during its existence. Germany's legal name was still the "German Empire" (Deutsches Reich), the same name used by the German monarchy before 1919. The use of the English word empire and its adjective imperial may be confusing because the Weimar Republic was a republic; empire is an imprecise translation of the German word Reich (which does not have a specific monarchic connotation) and is increasingly translated as commonwealth or realm.
This article outlines political events from 1918 until the collapse of the Republic in 1933. The Nazi Germany article describes what came after (see also Gleichschaltung for details on how the Nazi dictatorship was installed). For discussion of the cultural climate in Germany between the wars see Weimar culture
Controlled revolution: the establishment of the Republic (1918-1919)
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From 1916 onwards, the 1871 German Empire had effectively been governed by the military, led by the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL, Supreme Army Command) with the Chief of Staff Paul von Hindenburg. When it became apparent that World War I was lost, the OHL demanded that a civil government be installed in order to meet a key peace talk condition from United States President Woodrow Wilson. Any attempt to continue the war after Bulgaria had left the Central Powers would only have caused German territories to be occupied. The new Reichskanzler Prince Max von Baden thus offered a cease-fire to President Wilson on October 3, 1918. On October 28, 1918, the 1871 constitution was finally amended to make the Reich a parliamentary democracy, which the government had refused for half a century: the Chancellor was henceforth responsible to Parliament, the Reichstag, and no longer to the Kaiser.
The plan to transform Germany into a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain quickly became obsolete as the country slid into a state of near-total chaos. Germany was flooded with soldiers returning from the front, many of whom were wounded physically, psychologically, or both. Violence was rampant, with fights breaking out even between rival leftist groups at funerals for leaders assassinated by right-wing adversaries.
Rebellion broke out when, on October 29, the military command, without consultation with the government, ordered the German High Seas Fleet to sortie. This was not only entirely hopeless from a military standpoint, but was also certain to bring the peace negotiations to a halt. The crews of two ships in Wilhelmshaven mutinied. When the military arrested about 1,000 seamen and had them transported to Kiel, the local revolt turned into a general rebellion that quickly swept over most of Germany. Other seamen, soldiers and workers, in solidarity with the arrested, began electing worker and soldier councils modelled after the soviets of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and took over military and civil powers in many cities. On November 7, the revolution had reached Munich, causing Ludwig III of Bavaria to flee.
Initially, the demands of the councils were modest: they wanted the arrested seamen to be freed. In contrast to Russia one year earlier, the councils were not controlled by a communist party. Still, with the emergence of the Soviet Union, the rebellion caused great fear in the establishment down to the middle classes. The country was on the verge of becoming a socialist republic.
From November 1918 though to January 1919, Germany was governed dictatorially by the Council of People's Representatives composed of three representatives each from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and of the "Independent Social Democrats" (USPD, for Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands), until withdawal of the USPD left the SPD to rule alone. In these three months, the government was extraordinarily active, and issued a large number of decrees. At the same time, its main activities were confined to certain spheres: the 8 hour day, domestic labour reform, agricultural labour reform, right of civil-service associations, local municipality social welfare relief (split between Reich and individual states) and important national health insurance, re-instatement of demobilised workers, protection arbitrary dismissal with appeal as right, regulated wage agreement, and Universal suffrage from 20 years of age in all classes of elections - local and national. Occasionally one will find the name "Die Deutsche sozialdemokratische Republik" (The German Social-Democratic Republic) in leaflets and on posters from this era.
At the time, the political representation of the working class was divided: a faction had separated from the Social Democratic Party, calling themselves "Independent Social Democrats" (USPD) and leaning towards a socialist system. In order not to lose their influence, the remaining "Majority Social Democrats" (MSPD, who supported a parliamentary system) decided to put themselves at the front of the movement, and on November 7, demanded that Emperor Wilhelm II abdicate. On November 9, 1918, the Republic was proclaimed by Philipp Scheidemann at the Reichstag building in Berlin, two hours after a socialist republic was proclaimed around the corner at the Berlin Castle by Karl Liebknecht.
On November 9, in a legally questionable act, Reichskanzler Prince Max von Baden transferred his powers to Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the MSPD. It was apparent that this act would not be sufficient to satisfy the masses, so a day later, a revolutionary government called "Council of People's Deputies" (Rat der Volksbeauftragten) was created, consisting of three MSPD and three USPD members, led by Ebert for the MSPD and Hugo Haase for the USPD. Although the new government was confirmed by the Berlin worker and soldier council, it was opposed by the Spartacist League led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Ebert called for a National Congress of Councils, which took place from December 16 to 20, 1918, and in which the MSPD had the majority. Ebert thus managed to enforce quick elections for a National Assembly to produce a constitution for a parliamentary system, marginalizing the movement that called for a socialist republic (see below).
The Reichswehr and the Revolution
To ensure that his fledgling government was able to maintain control over the country, Ebert made a pact with the OHL, now led by Ludendorff's successor General Wilhelm Groener. This Ebert-Groener pact stipulated that the government would not attempt to reform the Army so long as the army swore to protect the government. On the one hand, this agreement symbolised the acceptance of the new government by the military, assuaging concern among the middle classes; on the other hand, it was considered a betrayal of worker interests by the left wing. The new model Reichswehr army, limited by the Treaty of Versailles to 100,000 men, remained fully under the control of the Imperial military caste despite its nominal re-organisation. As an independent and conservative group in Weimar, it wielded a large amount of influence over the fate of the republic. Unlike all other revolutions, the men of the German Revolution, asked the High Command how to bring the army home.
This pact also marked one of several steps that caused the permanent split in the working class's political representation into the SPD and communists. The eventual fate of the Weimar Republic in no small part derives from the general political backwardness of the German labour movement. The several strands within the central mass of the socialist movement adhered more to sentimental loyalty to alliances arising from chance than to any recognition of political necessity. Combined action on the part of the socialists was impossible without action from the millions of workers who stood midway between the parliamentarians and the ultra-leftists who supported the workers councils. Confusion through Weimar as a whole made acute the danger of extreme right and extreme left engaging in virulent conflict.
The split became final after Ebert called upon the OHL for troops to put down another Berlin soldier mutiny on November 23, 1918, in which soldiers had captured the city commandant and closed off the Reichskanzlei where the Council of People's Deputies was situated. The suppression was brutal with several dead and injured. This caused the left wing to call for a split with the MSPD, which, in their view, had joined with the counter-revolutionary military to suppress the Revolution. The USPD thus left the Council of People's Deputies after only seven weeks. The split deepened when, in December, the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) was formed out of a number of left-wing groups, including the left wing of the USPD and the Spartakus group.
In January, more bloody attempts at establishing council communism by workers in the streets of Berlin were put down by paramilitary Freikorps units consisting of volunteer soldiers, culminating in the beating to death of Rosa Luxemburg and Liebknecht on January 15. With the affirmation of Ebert, the murderers were tried not before a civil court, but a military court, leading to very lenient sentences, which did not exactly lead to more acceptance for Ebert on the left wing either.
The National Assembly elections took place January 19, 1919. In this time, the new left-wing parties, including the USPD and KPD, were barely able to get themselves organized, leading to a solid majority of seats for the moderate forces. To avoid the ongoing fights in Berlin, the National Assembly convened in the city of Weimar, giving the future Republic its unofficial name. The Weimar Constitution created a republic under a semi-presidential system with the Reichstag elected by proportional representation. The Socialist and Democratic parties obtained a solid 80 per cent of the vote.
During the debates in Weimar, fights continued. A Soviet republic was declared in Munich, but was quickly put down by Freikorps and regular army units. Sporadic fighting continued to flare up around the country. In eastern territories, forces loyal to the Kaiser fought the republic, while the Polish population fought for independence: Great Poland Uprising in Provinz Posen and three Silesian Uprisings in Upper Silesia.
The socialist roots of Weimar
The carefully thought-out social and political legislation introduced during the revolution was generally unappreciated by the German working-class. The two goals sought by the government, democratisation and social protection of the working class, were never achieved. This has been attributed to a lack of pre-war political experience on the part of the Social Democrats. The government had little success in confronting the twin economic crises following the war.
The permanent economic crisis was a result of lost pre-war industrial exports, the loss of supplies in raw materials and food stuffs from Alsace-Lorraine, Polish districts and the colonies along with worsening debt balances and reparations payments. Military-industrial activity had almost ceased, although controlled demobilisation kept unemployment at around one million.
The Entente permitted only low import levels of goods that most Germans could not afford. After four years of war and famine, many German workers were exhausted, physically impaired and discouraged. Millions were disenchanted with capitalism and hoping for a new era. Meanwhile the currency devalued.
The German peace delegation in France signed the Treaty of Versailles, accepting mass reductions of the German military, heavy reparations payments and the controversial "War Guilt Clause". Adolf Hitler later blamed the republic and its democracy for the oppressive terms of this treaty.
The Republic's first Reichspräsident ("Reich President"), Friedrich Ebert of the MSPD, signed the new German constitution into law on August 11, 1919.
The early years: internal conflict (1919-1923)
The Republic was under great pressure from both left and right-wing extremists. The left accused the ruling Social Democrats of having betrayed the ideals of the workers' movement by avoiding a communist revolution. The right was opposed to any democratic system, preferring an authoritarian state like the 1871 Empire. To further undermine the Republic's credibility the right (especially the military) blamed it for Germany's defeat in World War I (see Dolchstoßlegende).
The Kapp Putsch took place on March 13, 1920, involving a group of Freikorps troops who captured Berlin and installed Wolfgang Kapp (a right wing journalist) as chancellor. The national government fled to Stuttgart and called for a general strike. This completely halted the economy and the Kapp government had collapsed by March 17.
Inspired by the general strikes, a communist uprising began in the Ruhr region when 50,000 people formed a "Red Army" and took control of the province. The regular army and the Freikorps ended the uprising without orders from the government. Other communist rebellions were put down in March 1921 in Saxony and Hamburg.
By 1923, the Republic could no longer afford the reparations payments required by the Versailles treaty, and the government defaulted. In response, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr region, Germany's most productive industrial region at the time, taking control of most mining and manufacturing companies in January of 1923. Strikes were called, and passive resistance was encouraged. These strikes lasted eight months, further damaging the economy and raising expensive imports.
Since striking workers were paid benefits by the state, much additional currency was printed, fueling a period of hyperinflation. The value of the Mark had declined from 4.2 per US dollar to 1,000,000 per dollar by August 1923 and 4,200,000,000,000 per dollar on November 20. On December 1, a new currency, the Rentenmark, was introduced at the rate of 1,000,000,000,000 old marks for 1 new mark. Reparation payments resumed, and the Ruhr was returned to Germany.
Further pressure from the right came in 1923 with the Beer Hall Putsch, staged by Adolf Hitler in Munich. In 1920, the German Workers' Party had become the Nazi Party (NSDAP), and would become a driving force in the collapse of Weimar. Hitler was named chairman of the party in July 1921. The SA was established in November 1921 and acted as Hitler's personal army. On November 8, 1923, the Kampfbund, in a pact with Erich Ludendorff, took over a meeting by Bavarian prime minister Gustav von Kahr at a beer hall in Munich. Ludendorff and Hitler declared a new government, planning to take control of Munich the following day. The 3,000 rebels were thwarted by 100 policemen. Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison, a minimum sentence for the charge and he served only nine months before his release. Following the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch, his imprisonment and subsequent release, Hitler focused on legal methods of gaining power.
Stresemann's Golden Era (1923-1929)
Gustav Stresemann was Reichskanzler for a brief period in 1923, and served as Foreign Minister from 1923-1929, a period of relative stability for the Weimar Republic when there were fewer uprisings and seemingly the beginnings of an economic recovery.
Stresemann's first move was to issue a new currency, the Rentenmark, to halt the extreme hyperinflation crippling German society and the economy. It was successful because Stresemann repeatedly refused to issue more currency, the initial cause of the inflationary spiral. To further stabilise the economy, he reduced spending and bureaucracy while increasing taxes. He signed the Locarno Treaties with the Allied countries in 1925 as a means of restoring Germany's diplomatic status in Europe.
During this period, the Dawes Plan was also created, tying reparations payments to Germany's ability to pay. Germany was admitted into the League of Nations, made agreements over her western border, signed a neutrality pact with Russia, and disarmament was brought to a halt. However, this progress was funded by overseas loans, increasing the nation's debts, while overall trade decreased and unemployment rose. Stresemann's reforms did not relieve the underlying weaknesses of Weimar but merely gave the appearance of a stable democracy.
Despite the progress made during these years, Stresemann was criticized by his opponents for his policy of "fulfillment", or compliance with the terms of the Versailles Treaty.
In 1929, Stresemann's death marked the end of the "Golden Era" of the Weimar Republic.
The Republic crumbles and Hitler's support rises (1930-1932)
Loss of credibility for the Republic
The last years of the Weimar republic were stamped by even more political instability than in the previous years and the administrations of Chancellors Brüning,Papen,Schleicher and Hitler(from 30 January to 23 March 1933) were all Presidentially appointed Dictatorships. On March 29, 1930, the finance expert Heinrich Brüning had been appointed the successor of Chancellor Müller by Paul von Hindenburg after months of political lobbying by General Kurt von Schleicher on behalf of the military. The new government was expected to lead a political shift towards conservatism, based on the emergency powers granted to the Reichspräsident by the constitution, since it had no majority support in the Reichstag.
After an unpopular bill to reform the Reich's finances was left unsupported by the Reichstag, Hindenburg established the bill as an emergency decree based on Article 48 of the constitution. On July 18, 1930, the bill was again invalidated by a slim majority in the Reichstag with the support of the SPD, KPD, the (then small) Nazi Party (NSDAP) and DNVP. Immediately afterwards, Brüning submitted to the Reichstag the president's decree that it would be dissolved.
The Reichstag general elections on September 14, 1930, resulted in an enormous political shift: 18.3% of the vote went to the NSDAP, five times the percentage compared to 1928. This had devastating consequences for the Republic. There was no longer a majority in the Reichstag even for a Great Coalition of moderate parties, and it encouraged the supporters of the NSDAP to bring out their claim to power with increasing violence and terror. After 1930, the Republic slid more and more into a state of civil war.
From 1930 to 1932, Brüning attempted to reform the devastated state without a majority in Parliament, governing with the help of the President's emergency decrees. During that time, the Great Depression reached its highpoint. In line with liberal economic theory that less public spending would spur economic growth, Brüning drastically cut state expenditures, including in the social sector. He expected and accepted that the economic crisis would, for a while, deteriorate before things would improve. Among others, the Reich completely halted all public grants to the obligatory unemployment insurance (which had been introduced only in 1927), which resulted in higher contributions by the workers and less benefits for the unemployed -- not exactly a popular measure to adopt.
The economic downturn lasted until the second half of 1932, when there were first indices of a rebound. By this time though, the Weimar Republic had lost all credibility with the majority of Germans. While scholars greatly disagree about how Brüning's policy should be evaluated, it can safely be said that it contributed to the decline of the Republic. Whether there were alternatives at the time remains the subject of much debate.
The bulk of German capitalists and land-owners originally gave support to the Conservative experiment: not from any personal liking for Brüning, but believing the Conservatives would best serve their interests. As, however , the mass of the working class and also of the middle classes turned against Bruning ,also more of the great capitalists and landowners declared themselves in favour of his opponents-Hitler and Hugenberg. By late 1931 Conservatism as a movement was dead, and the time was coming when Hindenburg and the Reichswehr would drop Bruning and come to terms with Hugenberg and Hitler. Hindenburg himself was no less a supporter of an anti-democratic counter-revolution represented by Hugenberg and Hitler.{ source Arthur Rosenberg-AR)
On May 30, 1932, Brüning resigned after no longer having Hindenburg's support. Five weeks earlier, Hindenburg had been reelected Reichspräsident with Brüning's active support, running against Hitler (the president was directly elected by the people while the Reichskanzler was not).
Franz von Papen calls for elections
Hindenburg then appointed Franz von Papen as new Reichskanzler. Von Papen lifted the ban on the SA, imposed after the street riots, in an unsuccessful attempt to secure the backing of Hitler.
Since most parties opposed the new government, von Papen had the Reichstag dissolved and called for new elections. The general elections on July 31, 1932 yielded major gains for the KPD and the NSDAP. The latter won 37.2% of the vote for the NSDAP, supplanting the Social Democrats as the largest party in the Reichstag. Hitler now demanded to be appointed Chancellor, but was rejected by Hindenburg on August 13, 1932. There was still no majority in the Reichstag for any government; as a result, the Reichstag was dissolved and elections took place once more in the hope that a stable majority would result.
This was not the case. The November 6, 1932 elections yielded 33.0% for the NSDAP: it lost over four percent. Franz von Papen stepped down, and was succeeded by General von Schleicher as Reichskanzler on December 3. Von Schleicher's audacious plan was to build a majority in the Reichstag by uniting the trade unionist left wings in the various parties, including that of the NSDAP led by Gregor Strasser. This did not prove successful either.
On January 4, 1933, Hitler met secretly with von Papen at the house of the Cologne banker Kurt von Schroeder. They agreed on forming a joint government. Besides Hitler, only two other NSDAP members would be part of the Reich government: (Wilhelm Frick as Minister of the Interior and Hermann Göring as Commissary for Prussia), with von Papen being Hitler's Vice Chancellor. The new cabinet included the influential media mogul Alfred Hugenberg, who was chairman of the (also right-wing) DNVP party at the time. Hitler had outwitted von Papen. The three posts held by the NSDAP were the most influential.
From November 6, 1932 to January 31, 1933 the Nazis were a barely restrained minority excluded from an Army Reichswehr General-anchored Cabinet led by general Kurt von Schleicher and ruling under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. From January 4th Hitler and the ex-Chancellor, non-Party member Franz von Papen, planned between themselves to replace the cabinet.
Hitler learned from von Papen that the general had no authority to abolish the Reichstag parliament, whereas any majority of seats did. The cabinet (under a previous interpretation of Article 48) ruled without a sitting Reichstag, which could vote only for its own dissolution. Hitler also learned that all past crippling Nazi debts were to be relieved by German big business.
On January 22, Hitler's efforts to persuade Oskar von Hindenburg (the President's son) included threats to bring criminal charges over estate taxation irregularities at the President's Neudeck estate (although 5000 extra acres were soon alloted to Hindenburg's property). Out maneuvered by von Papen and Hitler on plans for the new cabinet, and having lost Hindenburg's confidence, Schleicher asked for new elections. On January 28th von Papen described Hitler to Paul von Hindenburg as only a minority part of an alternative, von Papen-arranged government.
The next day Hitler and von Papen thwarted a last-minute threat of an officially-sanctioned Reichswehr takeover, and on 30 January 1933 Hindenburg accepted the new Papen-Nationalist-Hitler coalition with the Nazis holding only three of eleven Cabinet seats. Later that day, the first cabinet meeting was attended by only two political parties, representing a minority in the Reichstag: The Nazis and the DNVP led by Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). Eyeing the Catholic Centre Party's 70 (+ 20 BVP) seats, Hitler refused their leader's demands for constitutional "concessions" (amounting to protection) and planned for dissolution of the Reichstag.
Hitler rejected the DNVP's suggestions to "balance" the majority through further arrests, but assured his coalition partner that arrests would resume after the elections. After meeting with Centre leader Monsignor Ludwig Kaas and denying him a substantial participation in the government, Hitler for new elections to be held on 5 March.
Hindenburg, despite his misgivings about the Nazis' goals and about Hitler as a person, reluctantly agreed to Papen's theory that, with Nazi popular support on the wane, Hitler could now be controlled as chancellor. The date dubbed Machtergreifung (seizure of power) by the Nazi propaganda is commonly seen as the beginning of Nazi Germany.
Hitler's chancellorship and the death of the Weimar Republic (1933)
Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on the morning of January 30, 1933 in what some observers later described as a brief and indifferent ceremony. By early February, a mere week after Hitler's assumption of the chancellorship, the government had begun to clamp down on the opposition. Meetings of the left-wing parties were banned, and even some of the moderate parties found their members threatened and assaulted. Measures with an appearance of legality suppressed the Communist Party in mid-February and included the plainly illegal arrests of Reichstag deputies.
Reichstag Fire
The Reichstag Fire on February 27 was blamed by Hitler's government on the Communists, and Hitler used the emergency to obtain President von Hindenburg's assent to the Reichstag Fire Decree the following day. The decree invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution and suspended a number of constitutional protections of civil liberties, allowing the Nazi government to take swift and harsh action against the Nazis' opponents.
Reichstag election of March 5
Hitler and the Nazis exploited the German state's broadcasting and aviation facilities in a massive attempt to sway the electorate, but this election — the last democratic election to take place until the end of the Third Reich twelve years later — yielded a scant majority of 16 seats for the coalition. Hitler addressed many disparate interest groups, stressing the necessity for a definitive solution to the perpetual instability of the Weimar Republic. He now blamed Germany's problems on communists, even threatening their lives on March 3. Former Chancellor Heinrich Bruning proclaimed that his Centre Party would resist any constitutional change and appealed to the president for an investigation of the Reichstag Fire.
Hitler cabinet meeting in mid-March
At the meeting of the new cabinet on March 15, Hitler introduced the Enabling Act, which would have authorized the cabinet to enact legislation without the approval of the Reichstag. Meanwhile, the only remaining question for the Nazis was whether the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum) would support the Enabling Act in the Reichstag, thereby providing the two-thirds majority required to ratify a law that amended the constitution. Hitler expressed his confidence to win over the Centre's votes. Monsignor Ludwig Kaas, the party's chairman since 1928, had strong non-political connections to the Vatican Secretary of State. At the last internal Centre meeting prior to the debate on the Enabling Act, Kaas expressed no preference or suggestion on the vote, but as a way of mollifying opposition by Centre members to the granting of further powers to Hitler, Kaas arranged for a letter of constitutional guarantee from the Nazi leader prior to Centre voting in favor of the Enabling Act.
Enabling Act negotiations
On March 20 negotiation began between Hitler and Frick on one side and the Catholic Center Party (Zentrum) leaders — Kaas, Stegerwald and Hackelsburger — on the other. The aim was to settle on conditions under which Center would vote in favor of the Enabling Act. Because of the Nazis' narrow majority in the Reichstag, Center's support was necessary to receive the required two-thirds majority vote. On March 22, the negotiations concluded; Hitler promised to continue the existence of the German states, agreed not to use the new grant of power to change the constitution, and promised to retain Zentrum members in the civil service. Hitler also pledged to protect the Catholic confessional schools and to respect the concordats signed between the Holy See and Bavaria (1924), Prussia (1929) and Baden (1931). Hitler also agreed to mention these promises in his speech to the Reichstag before the vote on the Enabling Act.
Ceremonial opening of the Reichstag in Potsdam on March 21
The ceremonial opening of the Reichstag on March 21 was held at the Garrison Church in Potsdam, a shrine of Prussianism, in the presence of many Junker landowners and representatives of the imperial military caste. This impressive and often emotional spectacle — orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels — aimed to link Hitler's government with Germany's imperial past and portray National Socialism as a guarantor of the nation's future. The ceremony helped convince the "old guard" Prussian military elite of Hitler's homage to their long tradition and, in turn, produced the relatively convincing view that Hitler's government had the support of Germany's traditional protector — the Army. Such support would announce to the population a return to conservatism to curb the problems affecting the Weimar Republic, and that stability might be at hand. In a politically adroit move, Hitler bowed in respectful humility before President and Field Marshal von Hindenburg.
Passage of the Enabling Act by the Reichstag on March 23
The Reichstag convened on March 23, 1933, and in the midday opening, Hitler made a historic speech, appearing outwardly calm and conciliatory. It is most noticeable for its abrupt reversal of the Nazi Party's hardline stance against Christianity and particularly Catholicism. Hitler presented an appealing prospect of respect towards Christianity by paying tribute to the Christian faiths as "essential elements for safeguarding the soul of the German people". He promised to respect their rights and declared his government's "ambition is a peaceful accord between Church and State" and that he hoped "to improve our friendly relations with the Holy See." This speech aimed especially at the votes of the Centre Party and therefore addressed many concerns Kaas had voiced in during the previous talks. ( German Resistance Against Hitler, Klemens von Klemperer, OUP, 1992 )
In the debate prior to the vote on the Enabling Act, Hitler orchestrated the full political menace of his paramilitary forces like the storm troopers in the streets to intimidate reluctant Reichstag deputies into approving the Enabling Act. The Communists' 81 seats had been empty since the Reichstag Fire Decree and other lesser known procedural measures, thus excluding their anticipated "No" votes from the balloting. Otto Wels, the leader of the Social Democrats, whose seats were similarly depleted from 120 to below 100 , was the only speaker to defend democracy and in a futile but brave effort to deny Hitler the two-thirds majority, he made a speech critical of the abandonment of democracy to dictatorship. At this Hitler could no longer restrain his wrath. (Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer 1959).
In his retort to Wels, Hitler delivered a characteristic screaming diatribe, promising to exterminate all communists in Germany and threatening Wels' Socialists as well. Meanwhile Hitler's promised written guarantee to Monsignor Kaas was being typed up, it was asserted to Kaas, and thereby Kaas was persuaded to deliver the Centre bloc's votes for the Enabling Act anyway.
Aftermath
The passing of the Enabling Act gave Hitler and his government sweeping powers to legislate without the Reichstag's approval, and to make foreign policy decisions and deviate from the constitution where they saw fit. Hitler would use these powers to remove all opposition to the dictatorship he wished to create. The decrees issueed by Hitler's cabinet within succeeding weeks rapidly stripped Germans of their rights, removed all non-Nazi members of the Civil Service, and banned all other political parties and unions, ushering in the Third Reich.
See also Third Reich.
Reasons for the Weimar Republic's failure
The Weimar Republic's catastrophic collapse is the subject of continued debate. Although Hitler became Reichskanzler legally through mechanisms set forth in the constitution and the NSDAP gained a relative majority of the seats in Parliament in two 1932 elections, he was appointed chancellor at a time when support for the NSDAP was not considered sufficient to gain power. Scholars have expressed divided opinions on the reasons and historical analysis this was complicated by the Cold War, when historians often attempted to justify ideologies. One speculation involves how the NSDAP might have fared in the 1933 elections if Hitler didn't have the political and logistical advantages of being chancellor.
No single reason can explain the rise of Nazism. The most commonly asserted causes might be grouped into three categories.
Economic problems
The Weimar Republic had some of the most serious economic problems ever experienced by any western democracy in history. Rampant hyperinflation, massive unemployment and a large drop in living standards were primary factors. In 1923-29 there was a short period of economic recovery, but the Great Depression of the 1930s, led to a worldwide recession. Germany was particularly affected because she depended heavily on American loans. In 1932, about 5 million Germans were unemployed. The Republic was blamed by many. This was made apparent when political parties wanting to disband the Republic altogether on both right and left made any democratic majority in Parliament impossible.
The Versailles treaty was considered by most Germans as a punishing and degrading document which forced them to surrender resource-rich areas and pay massive amounts of compensation. These punitive reparations caused consternation and resentment, although the actual economic damage resulting from the Treaty of Versailles is difficult to determine. While the official reparations were considerable, Germany ended up paying only fraction of them. However, the reparations did damage Germany's economy by discouraging market loans, forcing the Weimar government to finance its deficit by printing more money which caused rampant hyperinflation.
Most historians agree that many industrial leaders identified the Republic with labour unions and the Social Democrats who had established the concessions of 1918/1919. Although some did see Hítler as a means to abolish these, the Republic was already unstable before any industry leaders were supporting Hitler. Even those who supported Hitler's appointment did not want Nazism in its entirety and considered Hitler a temporary solution in their efforts to abolish the Republic. Industry support alone cannot explain Hitler's enthusiastic support by large segments of the population, including many workers who had turned away from the left.
Institutional problems
It is widely agreed that the 1919 constitution had several weaknesses, making the eventual establishment of a dictatorship likely but it is unknown whether a different constitution could have prevented the Third Reich. However, the 1949 West German constitution (the Grundgesetz) is generally viewed as a strong response to these flaws.
- The institution of the Reichspräsident was frequently considered as an Ersatzkaiser ("substitute emperor"), an attempt to replace the Kaiser (who resigned and fled in 1918) with a similarly strong institution meant to diminish party politics. Article 48 of the constitution gave the President power to "take all necessary steps" if "public order and security are seriously disturbed or endangered". Although this was intended as an emergency clause, it was often used before 1933 to issue decrees without the support of Parliament (see above) and also made Gleichschaltung easier. For example, the Reichstag Fire Decree was issued on the basis of Article 48.
- The use of almost pure proportional representation meant any party with a small amount of support could gain entry into the Reichstag. This led to many small parties, some extremist, building political bases within the system (after the war only parties with 5% or more of the total vote would be allowed to enter the Bundestag). Yet, it has to be noted that the Reichstag of the monarchy was fractioned to a similar degree although being elected by majority vote under a first-past-the-post system.
- The Reichstag could remove the Reichskanzler from office even if it was unable to agree on a successor. This "Motion of No Confidence" led to many chancellors in quick succession, adding to the Republic's instability (see Chancellor of Germany for a list). As a result, the 1949 Grundgesetz stipulates that a chancellor may only be voted down by Parliament if a successor is elected at the same time (see Constructive Vote of No Confidence).
- The constitution provided that in the event of the president's death or resignation, the Reichskanzler would assume that office (and crucially possess its powers) pending election of a new president. This allowed Hitler to easily unite the offices of Reichskanzler and Reichspräsident after Hindenburg's death in 1934. However, by this time the dictatorship was already firmly installed and this clause alone cannot be blamed for Nazism.
Individual roles
Some historians prefer to consider individuals and the decisions they made. This brings up the problematic question of what alternatives were available at the time and leads to speculation and hypothesis.
Brüning's economic policy from 1930-1933 has been the subject of much debate. It caused many Germans to identify the Republic with cuts in social spending and extremely liberal economics. Whether there were alternatives to this policy during Great Depression is an open question.
Paul von Hindenburg became Reichspräsident in 1925. He represented the older authoritarian 1871 Empire, and it is hard to label him as a democrat in support of the 1919 Republic. During his later years (at well over 80 years old), he was senile, but no Nazi. A president with solid democratic beliefs may not have allowed Parliament to be circumvented with the use of Article 48 decrees and might have avoided signing the Reichstag Fire Decree. Hindenburg waited one and a half days before he appointed Hitler as Reichskanzler on January 30, 1933, which indicates some hesitance. Some claim Nazism would have lost much public support if Hitler had not been named chancellor.
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