Editing Weimar Republic (section)

==Reasons for failure==
{{more citations needed|section|find=Weimar Republic|find2=decline|talk=Netual policy violation – Reasons for failure|date=June 2021}}

The reasons for the Weimar Republic's collapse are the subject of continuing debate. It may have been doomed from the beginning since even some moderates disliked it and extremists on both the left and right loathed it, a situation often referred to as a "democracy without democrats".<ref>{{cite book |last=Primoratz |first=Igor |year=2008 |title=Patriotism: Philosophical and Political Perspectives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ob8oDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |publisher=Routledge |page=98 |isbn=978-0-7546-7122-0 |access-date=18 September 2017 |archive-date=2 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202034411/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ob8oDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |url-status=live }}</ref> Germany had limited democratic traditions, and Weimar democracy was widely seen as chaotic. Since Weimar's early left of center politicians had been blamed for the ''Dolchstoß'' ("[[Stab-in-the-back myth|stab-in-the-back]]"), a widely believed theory that Germany's surrender in the First World War had been unnecessary and the act of traitors, the popular legitimacy of the government was on shaky ground from the start. As normal parliamentary lawmaking broke down and was replaced around 1930 by a series of [[Article 48 (Weimar Constitution)|emergency decrees]], the decreasing popular legitimacy of the government further drove voters to extremist parties.<ref name="Ziblatt-2017">{{Cite book|title=Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy|first1=Daniel|last1=Ziblatt|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date= 2017|isbn=978-0521172998 }}</ref>

No single reason can explain the failure of the Weimar Republic. The most commonly asserted causes can be grouped into three categories: economic problems, institutional problems, and the roles of specific individuals.<ref name="Weitz-2018">{{Cite book|title=Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy, Weimar Centennial Edition|first1=Eric D.|last1=Weitz|url=https://www.amazon.com/Weimar-Germany-Promise-Tragedy-Centennial-ebook/dp/B07CSHQLSQ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=weimar+promise&qid=1691449653&sr=8-1|date= 2018|publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref>

===Economic problems===

{{main|Dawes Plan|Reichsbank}}
The Weimar Republic had some of the most serious economic problems ever experienced by any Western democracy. It experienced a period of rampant [[hyperinflation]], sometimes high unemployment, and a large drop in living standards. From 1923 to 1929, there was a period of economic recovery, but the [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s led to a worldwide recession. Germany was particularly affected because it depended heavily on American loans.

The Weimar Republic was severely affected by the Great Depression. In 1926, about two million Germans were unemployed, which rose to around six million in 1932, with many blaming the Weimar Republic. As the Weimar Republic was very fragile throughout its existence, the depression was devastating and played a major role in the [[Nazi Party|Nazi]] takeover.

Most Germans thought the [[Treaty of Versailles]] was a punishing and degrading document because it forced them to surrender resource-rich areas and pay massive amounts of compensation. The punitive reparations caused consternation and resentment, but 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 a fraction of them. However, the reparations damaged Germany's economy by discouraging market loans. A number of factors came together in 1923, including printing currency to finance the costs of passive resistance to the [[occupation of the Ruhr]], to cause rampant hyperinflation. At the beginning of 1920, one US dollar was equivalent to fifty marks. By the end of 1923, one US dollar was equal to 4,200,000,000,000 marks.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pmgnotes.com/news/article/7334/German-Vampire-Note/ |title=German Vampire Notes |date=16 April 2019 |work=PMGNotes.com |access-date=1 May 2019 |archive-date=14 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114005649/https://www.pmgnotes.com/news/article/7334/German-Vampire-Note/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Princeton University|Princeton]] historian [[Harold James (historian)|Harold James]] argues that there was a clear link between economic decline and people turning to extremist politics.<ref>James, Harold, "Economic Reasons for the Collapse of the Weimar Republic", in {{harvnb|Kershaw|1990|pp=30–57}}</ref> That was made apparent when political parties on both the far right and far left wanted to disband the Republic altogether, making any democratic majority in Parliament impossible.<ref name="Weitz-2018"/>

===Institutional problems===
It is widely believed that the [[Weimar Constitution|1919 constitution]] had several weaknesses, making the eventual establishment of a dictatorship likely, but it is impossible to know whether a different constitution could have prevented the rise of the Nazi party.<ref name="Ziblatt-2017"/> The 1949 West German constitution (the [[Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany]]) is generally viewed as a strong response to these flaws.
* The Weimar presidency was frequently considered an ''Ersatzkaiser'' ("substitute emperor"), an attempt to replace the emperors with a similarly strong institution meant to diminish party politics. [[Article 48 (Weimar Constitution)|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 it was intended as an emergency clause, it was often used before 1933 to issue decrees without the support of Parliament and also made Hitler's ''[[Gleichschaltung]]'' easier.
* During the Weimar Republic, it was accepted that a law did not have to conform to the constitution as long as it had the support of two-thirds of Parliament, the same majority needed to change the constitution. That was a precedent for the [[Enabling Act of 1933]]. The Basic Law of 1949 requires an explicit change of the wording, and it prohibits abolishing the basic rights or the federal structure of the republic.
* The use of a [[proportional representation]] without large [[election threshold|thresholds]] meant a party with a small amount of support could gain entry into the Reichstag. That led to many small parties, some extremist, building political bases within the system, and made it difficult to form and maintain a stable [[coalition government]], further contributing to instability. To counter the problem, the modern German Bundestag introduced a 5% threshold limit for a party to gain parliamentary representation. However, the Reichstag of the monarchy was fractioned to a similar degree even if it was elected by [[majoritarian system|majority vote]] (under a [[two-round system]]).
* The Reichstag could remove the chancellor from office even if it was unable to agree on a successor. With the Reichstag increasingly fractured, President Hindenburg rather than the Reichstag chose the Republic's last four chancellors (Brüning, Papen, Schleicher and Hitler). They all governed by presidential decree. The 1949 Basic Law stipulates that a chancellor may not be removed by Parliament unless a successor is elected at the same time, a procedure known as a "[[constructive vote of no confidence]]".
* The fundamental rights of ''[[habeas corpus]]'', sanctity of the home, inviolability of the mail, [[freedom of speech]] and the [[Freedom of the press|press]], [[freedom of assembly]], [[freedom of association]] (including religious associations) and the inviolability of property – Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153 of the Weimar Constitution – could be suspended under Article 48.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Carol |date=June 1944 |title=Weimar in Retrospect |journal=Current History |volume=6 |issue=34 |pages=499|doi=10.1525/curh.1944.6.34.497 }}</ref> The [[Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany|Basic Law]] lists them as basic rights that cannot legally be nullified and in Article 20 (4) includes the [[right to resist]] attempts to abolish the constitutional order.<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (2010)}}</ref>

===Role of individuals and parties===
Chancellor [[Heinrich Brüning]]'s deflationary economic policy from 1930 to 1932 has been the subject of much debate. It caused many Germans to identify the Republic with cuts in social spending.

[[Franz von Papen]], who was chancellor of Germany from 30 May to 17 November 1932, ousted the elected government of the [[Free State of Prussia]] in the [[1932 Prussian coup d'état]], which eliminated one of the last potential bastions of resistance to Hitler's seizure of power. Prussia was led by the Social Democratic Party, was home to the federal capital Berlin and had 61% of the Weimar Republic's population. Papen also pressured Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor and himself as vice chancellor in 1933 in a cabinet ostensibly not under Nazi Party domination. Papen and his allies were quickly marginalized by Hitler.

[[Paul von Hindenburg]] became president of Germany in 1925. As he was an old-style monarchist conservative, he had little love for the Republic, but for the most part, he acted formally within the bounds of the constitution.<ref name="Barth-2020">{{cite book |last1=Barth |first1=Rüdiger |url=https://www.amazon.com/Last-Winter-Weimar-Republic-Third-ebook/dp/B07VVF8DF6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1PXA0FWNKC94K&keywords=the+last+winter+of+weimar&qid=1690759445&sprefix=the+last+winter+of+weimar%2Caps%2C141&sr=8-1 |title=The Last Winter of the Weimar Republic: The Rise of the Third Reich |last2=Friederichs |first2=Hauke |date=2020 |publisher=Pegasus Books}}</ref> However, he ultimately — on the advice of his son and others close to him — appointed Hitler chancellor, thereby effectively ending the Republic after the passage of the [[Enabling Act of 1933]]. Additionally, Hindenburg's death in 1934 ended the last obstacle for Hitler to assume full power in the Weimar Republic.

The [[German National People's Party]] (DNVP) has also been blamed as responsible for the downfall of the Weimar Republic because of its [[Ultranationalism|ultranationalist]] positions and its unwillingness to accept the Republic because of its monarchist ideology. In his book, ''[[The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich]]'', journalist and historian [[William L. Shirer]] wrote that the DNVP's status as a far-right party rather than a mainstream conservative party was one of the main reasons for the Weimar Republic's downfall. In Shirer's view, the DNVP's refusal to "take a responsible position either in the government or in the opposition" during most of Weimar's existence denied Weimar "that stability provided in many other countries by a truly conservative party."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shirer |first=William L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fpFbuCKOLKwC |title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich |date=1960 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=9780795317002 |pages=186 |language=en}}</ref> Similarly, conservative British historian Sir [[John Wheeler-Bennett]] blamed the DNVP for failing to reconcile with the Republic, stating that "Under the cloak of loyalty to the Monarchy, they either held aloof or sabotaged the efforts of successive Chancellors to give a stable government to the Republic. The truth is that after 1918 many German Nationalists were more influenced by feelings of disloyalty to the Republic than of loyalty to the Kaiser, and it was this motive which led them to make their fatal contribution to bringing Hitler to power."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wheeler-Bennett |first=Sir John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=26VBAAAAIAAJ |title=The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics, 1918–1945 |date=1964 |publisher=[[Viking Press]] |pages=208 |language=en |access-date=19 June 2022 |archive-date=2 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202035926/https://books.google.com/books?id=26VBAAAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>