Editing Weimar Republic (section)

==== Political assassinations ====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1989-072-16, Matthias Erzberger.jpg|left|thumb|230x230px|Matthias Erzberger, one of the signers of the 1918 armistice, was assassinated in 1921.]]
[[File:Walther Rathenau.jpg|thumb|228x228px|Walther Rathenau, German Foreign Minister, was assassinated in 1922.]]
The sharp political polarization that had occurred was visible in the assassinations of important representatives of the Republic by members of the right-wing extremist [[Organisation Consul]]. Finance Minister [[Matthias Erzberger]] was assassinated in August 1921 and Foreign Minister [[Walther Rathenau]] in June 1922. Both men had been defamed as compliant to Germany's former enemies in the matter of reparations payments. Erzberger was also attacked for signing the armistice agreement in 1918, and Rathenau had sought to break Germany's external isolation after the First World War through the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1922)|Treaty of Rapallo]], which opened diplomatic relations with the new [[Soviet Union]], renounced all war claims and mutually cancelled pre-war debts. Rathenau also attracted right-wing extremist hatred because he was a Jew. The passing of the [[Law for the Protection of the Republic]], which increased the punishments for politically motivated acts of violence, established a special court for the protection of the Republic and prohibited organizations, printed material and rallies that opposed the constitutional republican form of government, was intended to put a stop to the Republic's right-wing enemies. The conservative judiciary from the imperial era that still remained in place and passed lenient sentences against right-wing state criminals contributed to the fact that their activities could not be permanently deterred.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stern |first=Howard |date=March 1963 |title=The Organisation Consul |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1899142 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=27–30 |doi=10.1086/243595 |jstor=1899142 |s2cid=143212336 }}</ref>