The second was Article 48 of the constitution, which stated that, in an emergency, the president could issue important decrees without approval of the Reichstag -- a backdoor that eventually brought Hitler to power. Despite these difficulties, the Weimar republic also had its strengths. For the first time in its history, Germans under the republic enjoyed the freedom of democracy and a Bill of Rights guaranteed every German citizen freedom
I saw them digging up potatoes...while the farmer...watched them in despair and the local policeman looked on gloomily from the distance...What did it remind me of? Of the war, of the worst period of starvation in 1917 and 1918, but even then people paid for the potatoes.|...| Hauser does not agree with Ostwald that times are finally returning to normal and in fact has his own moral message about the
The result was an inflation rate that brought the value of the German mark down to virtually zero and for nine long months the country languished in a state of economic starvation, hoping for leniency from the Allies. With none forthcoming, the present regime resigned and the new "Reich" coalition party assumed control of the government under the helm of Gustav Stresemann (127). Germany's Return to Prominence? The rise of Stresemann
Nervous Conditions After World War I, the German nation and its people were devastated. The public was led to believe that Germany was going to win the war, and it looked forward to a much- improved socio-economic climate. Instead, the war was lost and the country was facing a very dreary future. As a result, the government established the Weimar Republic under the leadership of Friedrich Ebert, a past leader of
After the initial frustration of the reparations crisis subsided in 1923, cooler heads prevailed for a time and the Weimar Republic started to address its immediate economic problems. The Weimar solved the fiscal crisis by replacing the devalued and disreputable rentenmark with a new currency, the reischmark. (146) The Dawes Plan eased reparations anxiety by bringing in American bankers to loan Germany hard currency to support the reischmark while overseeing
Weimar Republic The Legend of the Weimar Republic The buildup to the Weimar Republic is a fascinating time in world history. The primary reason for this is that it is an international story more than just a German one. Every country that was involved in the conflict of World Was I was also involved in what happened in Germany following the war, and in what occurred in the next twenty years. The