Noor Anisah / Member 2 : Economic weaknesses of Weimar government

Economic weaknesses of the

Weimar's government

                                                                 

General knowledge

 The Weimar's republic was created after the loss of Germany in WW1. A republic is a country without a hereditary ruler, for example, a king or emperor. The new democratic government of German was declared in February 1919 in a small town in Berlin which was the Capital of Germany. WW1 ended on the 11th November 1918 and the old German Government led by the kaiser (German Emperor) was forced out of Germany. The Weimer Republic were not very popular because the leaders of Weimar's Republic signed the armistice (a cease-fire  agreement) and caused the German people to feel betrayed. Many believed that their government was weak.They signed the treaty of Versailles that made Germany give up 13% of its land and important areas, reducing their army to 100,000 men and that no aircraft were allowed with an addition of their navy to be reduced too. Furthermore, the treaty made Germans pay war reparation to France for 6.6 million. This causes the Germans to not only face bankruptcy but to go through hyperinflation.

From the internet

Economic weaknesses

Because of the inflationary means by which the imperial government had influenced the war, the german mark in 1919 was worthless than 20% of its prewar value. Nominal values were hopelessly not enough.Moreover, the economic impact of the treaty of Versailles was crushing. Germany lost 13% of her territory , 10% of her population, 15% of arable land, 75% of iron and 68% of zinc ore, 26% of her coal resources, the entire alsatian potash and textile industries, and the communications system built around Alsace-Lorraine and upper silesia. Huge amounts of ships and shipping facilities and of railway rolling stock were delivered to the allies.

All this was more important than the reparations payments imposed by the treaty, although the letter attracted greater attention. The amount of reparations fixed in 1921 was estimated by J.M. Keynes to exceed by three times Germany's ability to pay.

Another reason for the importance given to reparations is their alleged contribution to the runaway inflation of the early 1920s . In fact, however, inflation, far from being the consequences of reparations, came before them. Successive governments then seized on it as a means of evading reparations payments, as wells as for internal social purposes. No german government before 1923 made any attempt to stabilize the currency because german industrialist worked out a system of  "inflation profiteering". They would obtain short-term loans from the central bank for improvement an expansion of their plant, and then repay the loans with inflated currency.

Similarly, the large agriculture paid off their mortgages with virtually worthless currency. By contrast, everybody with a fixed income- broadly speaking, the middle class, was a victim of the inflation. Even union wages always lagged behind prices. The dislocation caused by inflation brought unemployment, despite the apparent industrial boom. The inflation was obviously deeply divisive in its social effects and contributed to the lack of confidence in the fledgling republic among large groups of the population.

CITATION:
http://www.johndclare.net/Rempel_Weimar20.htm

Source A:

CITATION:

https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=weimar+government+economic+weaknesses&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=677&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwicl7T3z4TNAhXBLo8KHSw6B1EQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=e2uebboK-nekeM%3

Inference :

I can infer from the source that Germans was facing poverty that was caused by the world war one . This is because the source shows that there is a big family living in the same shelter in a very tiny small space, squeezing with other family members. This shows that the germans were greatly suffered by the war and by signing off the treaty of Versailles due to the Weimar republic , they were to pay war reparations that made the families poorer because their homes were badly affected by the war too. This also shows that germans were greatly in suffer from economic loss as to the living condition of the germans were very poor. From my contextual knowledge, the Weimar republic was the reasons to the poverty of the germans because the Weimar signed the treaty without the concern of the germans.This caused the germans to lose basic trust towards their own republic.Therefore, the german being economically weaker and not trusting their own republic would be an advantage for the rise of Hitler because the Weimar weaknesses cause social effects and contributed to the lack of confidence in the fledgling republic among large groups of the population. Moreover, I can infer from the source that the economic weaknesses of the Weimar republic are that they had signed a treaty that removes most of its land causing the picture shown above to have limited land and this also made the germans too have no land to live in and had to share with their family members. This shows that the economic weaknesses of the Weimar's republic are caused mostly by them signing the treaty that they could not even afford a proper living condition.

Furthermore, I can infer that the germans were facing economic weaknesses such that many families do not have unemployment. As shown in the picture, there is a whole family doing nothing at home and their expression were unhappy either. This shows that the germans were not only suffering from bankruptcy but it also suffers from many unemployment which can cause the productivity level in german to be low and face more of poverty.

Source B:

CITATION :
https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=weimar+government+economic+weaknesses&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=677&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwicl7T3z4TNAhXBLo8KHSw6B1EQ_AUIBigB#imgdii=tUBp3abSFhhtVM%3A%3BtUBp3abSFhhtVM%3A%3BFegnHNTOMkjVcM%3A&imgrc=tUBp3abSFhhtVM%3A

Inference :

I can infer from the source that the germans suffer great loss from the war due to the weimar signing the treaty that made germans pay war reparations for the damage german had caused. This was impossible because the war reparation was three times the ability of germans ability to pay. As shown in the above picture shows a horse with the name german on it to representing german, and what pulling its back is the indemnity which means the compension for the damages or loss. The weight pulling the horse is too heavy as it lifted the horse above the ground. This shows that the compesion for the war damages is more than what german has the ability to pay. This means that the germans had nothing left and meant no value because all were used to pay war reparation. This causes the weimar's republic to face huge economic waste as all money were used to pay war reparation. Furthermore, Germans were asked to take total blame and give up its resources. This made the germans super weak and vulnerable , facing poverty and had nothing left. It also made the germans need someone help to pull them back up its currency value whih at that moment was super worthless.
Furthermore, as shown in the source shows a quote of  ''perhaps it would gee-up better if we let it touch the ground". This shows that the economic of the germans were worsen due to the weimar rupublic signing the treaty. It also shows that germans would not have suffer such weaknesses if the treaty was fair and not that harsh towards the germans.









Source C:

CITATION:
https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=weimar+government+economic+weaknesses&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=677&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwicl7T3z4TNAhXBLo8KHSw6B1EQ_AUIBigB#imgdii=dnO2jGq7ECq7bM%3A%3BdnO2jGq7ECq7bM%3A%3BvkpaAH5Zq3UwZM%3A&imgrc=dnO2jGq7ECq7bM%3A

Inference :

I can infer from the source that the german were really poor due to its worthless currency and value of money. As shown from the piture above shows a man paying a women for her services for sewing. The amount of notes laying up on the table is alot. This means that it takes up many notes to actually pay something cheap and that shows that a value for a note in german are quite low. From my contextual knowledge, the republic Weimar printed many notes and causes an inflation in german that caused the notes to value nothing.The purpose why the weimar government print more money was to pay the dept that the country has but the reason is that printing more money does not increase economic output in any way- it merely causes more inflation. Furthermore, this causes the price of goods to increase dramatically causing the germans to face more poverty. Hence, the source above shows that during the period of time, inflation was one of the economic problems that was caused by the weimar reublic causing the money to value nothing.







Source D:

CITATION:
https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=weimar+government+economic+weaknesses&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=677&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwicl7T3z4TNAhXBLo8KHSw6B1EQ_AUIBigB#imgdii=NQA8o8v49mg1MM%3A%3BNQA8o8v49mg1MM%3A%3BEZlOo_rwxcNhCM%3A&imgrc=NQA8o8v49mg1MM%3A

Inference:

I can infer that the germans werefacing huge economic problems. From the source above, shows a banker arranging the notes. As seen from the source too shows that the amount of notes in the room is more than average which this shows what the weimar republic did after the war to pay off the depts.Little did they know, printing too much notes causes inflation, causing a piece of note to worth nothing. This means that the germans were having hard time to pay transactions because the value in a note is worthless. Furthermore, it cause the goods to cost much expensive and this often leads to people facing more poverty and decrease the economic status of the country.