Germany+(1919-1945)

GERMANY 1918-1945

 The Weimar Republic was not simply an artificial regime brought into existence by the peculiar circumstances that prevailed in 1918. In part, it had its roots in a tradition of German social democracy that can be traced back, through the Bismarckian period, to the 1848 revolutions and beyond. This tradition, committed to constitutional government and to the rule of law, had attracted sufficient support in the pre-war years to make the Social Democrats the largest party in the Reichstag (German parliament). The Social Democrats were hurried into power in 1918, not by the due process of parliamentary election, and certainly not by significant long-term shifts in social and economic structures. Instead the change was precipitated by the catastrophe that overtook the German war effort in that year. At that point, finding themselves at a military disadvantage from which there seemed to be no escape, the German generals sued for peace in the full expectation that the terms would reflect the even nature of the long conflict. As a means to that end, they entered into an unlikely alliance with Social Democrat politicians, and abandoned the Kaiser who had seemed hitherto to provide the best guarantee of their interests. When much harsher peace terms were put to them, they had no choice but to accept them, given the military situation on the Western Front and the political instability at home.

1923 Hyperinflation crisis

Nazi Germany