Yeo An Qi Stacy / Member 1 : political weaknesses of the weimar government

Political weaknesses of the Weimar Government

Introduction :

The weaknesses of the Weimar Government are it's proportional representation , Coalition governments and Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. The Proportional representation is a system in which a political party receives the same percentage of seats in parliament as the percentage of votes it won in the election. People voted for a party rather than specific candidates . It was democratic and fair system but resulted in a high degree of fragmentation in parliament. The Coalition government is a government in which two or more political parties cooperate to form a cabinet. A number of parties had extreme ideas and were not willing to compromise. They kept breaking up leading to frequent changes of government. It was difficult to pass laws , thus , seen as weak by the German people .
The Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution allowed the president to dissolve both houses of the parliament and rule by decree for six months in 'time of emergency'. What constituted as an emergency was not clearly defined . It was exploited by Hitler to seize power legally and to remain in power .

The other weaknesses are because of it's weak support and the opposition from the Right and the Left. The Weimar Government also lacked strong support from the people , politicians and soldiers . The civil service , judiciary , military and even big business were mostly under the influence of advisors who had worked for the Kaiser and wished for his return . It was therefore difficult for the Weimar Government to gain their support and loyalty. Without their support , they remained weak and struggled to hold onto power and authority . Both right- and left-wing extremists tried to seize power by violent means . For the Left-wing opposition , they wanted more equality in society which were influenced by the Russian Bolsheviks. They were opposed to democracy and Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht led the communist Spartacist rebellion in berlin . President Ebert made an agreement with the army and the freikorps to put down the rebellion . For the Right -wing opposition , they felt that Germany should not be solely responsible for the World War 1 and disagreed with them. They wanted Germany's army and industry to be strong again , territorial expansion and a dictorial style of government . There were many extreme nationalists and called those who ratified the treaty the 'November Criminals'. They had also blamed politicians for not having the courage to continue the war .

Video: https://youtu.be/eIcbkPTKhmo

Source A
   
 



Inference :
I can infer that the man dressed in the army suit and helmet is doomed as in the picture there is a man dressed in the army uniform and helmet while lying down with his rifles in his hands , behind him is a woman with a chef hat and on the hat is Germany's sign . The woman seems to be holding a very sharp knife placing the tip of the sharp knife onto the army mans back as when the army man is lying down , he leaves his back at a risk of being attacked by the woman but he does not notice as he is busy looking out for the enemy infront of him . This shows that some of the germany people had betrayed their army by stabbing them in the back secretly . Hence i can infer that the german army is doomed as they did not realize that they had been stabbed in the back .

Source A Citation:
http://alphahistory.com/weimarrepublic/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Stab-in-the-back_postcard.jpeghttps://youtu.be/eIcbkPTKhmo


Source B





Inference :
I can Infer that germany wants hitler to suffer as in this picture there is a big woman with the words Germany written on her chest and holding onto a gigantic dumbell which says "Nice safe conservative checks" that is secured onto a guys ankle , on the guy's tie is the word hitler and the guy seems to be holding onto a sword with the words "Nazi Theories" onto them and on his other hand is the Nazi's flag . This means that germany wants to slow down Hitler from imposing his Nazi theories by placing a "Nice safe conservative checks " on him to make it hard for hitler to do so as he would be slowed down by those checks germany had placed on him . Hence , i can infer that Germany does not want hitler to succed .

Source B Citation:
https://www.google.com.sg/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freerepublic.com%2Ffocus%2Ff-chat%2F3097326%2Fposts&usg=AFQjCNE0Ac2lxAULO1JEQ5RBI3xfcwJY6w

Source C

Inference :
I can infer that the bank notes are not useful as this picture shows a woman lighting a bunch of bank notes. This means that they regarded the bank notes as worthless and rather than keeping them for any further use, they disposed them making it worthless. Also in the picture it shows a stack of bank notes that they would probably dispose along with the other bank notes the woman is holding. Among the bunch of bank notes, there are even small boxes of cash that are not even open yet, this meant that even though they had produced lots of new bank notes, they decided to throw it away . Hence i can infer that they did not find the bank notes they themselves created of any use as the value of money at that time had become worthless already .

Source C Citation: 
https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=weaknesses+of+the+weimar+republic&biw=1366&bih=633&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiQ2POVhLbNAhXKtI8KHVHUBKAQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=71cIXKjok9bdNM%3A

Source D






















Inference :
I can infer that the use of money had become worthless. This picture shows children playing with stacks of bank notes by stacking the bank notes to make a structure like a pyramid and there is a baby and a dog sitting on the floor also playing with a few stacks of bank notes on the floor. This shows that they had produced too much bank notes and even could play with the bank notes even though money is very valuable but to them at that time , they did not care about the money as they had too much money . Since they had no use of the large amount of excess money , instead of throwing it , they let their children have it instead of buying toys or some necessities with the bank notes . Hence , this picture shows that they feel that money is not useful for them .

Source D Citation:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcveZSY6-kAcuv9XdlkzqE8gobm8vzR-T-iH3F809eTnQ_kahsTXWkk2_cQF5CJ7b_FkzJaRo81w_Cid0z32I2Jveb5Wd2stB8DPT4RiSDwvLhrttcqwga5P4o-QjgC37koG1hnTmj2Mw/s1600-h/hyperinflation.jpg

Source E
















Inference :
I can infer that the German army got fooled , this picture shows men wearing army uniforms and helmets while lying down to hold their rifles to get ready to attack their enemy . However there seem to be some people standing behind them dressed in suits some sitting down and one of the men dressed in suits is gripping onto a very sharp knife as he looks down staring at the army men , by looking at the positioning of his knife and the direction his eyes are darting towards to the army men , it means that he plans to stab the German army men while the army men are facing their backs to him , and if one where to have his back open to the men in suits , the army men would be busy finding their target and get distracted . Thus making their backs available to any attacks . In the picture it shows a quote saying "Deutsche , denkt daran! " which translates into english saying "German , Remember! " . This means that they want the germans to remember that german had not been beaten in the battlefield but by the mutinies in the navy and by the outbreak of revolution in Berlin .Hence i can infer that the germans where fooled .

Source E Citation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stab-in-the-back_cartoon_1924.jpg