People used the term Weimar Republic to refer to a time in German history 1919 -1933 when the government was a democratic republic that was governed by laws that were laid out in a German city named Weimar. I think that the Weimar Republic was not very successful in dealing with Germany’s problems, because of the French occupation of Ruhr. In the year of 1923, Germany missed a delivery payment for reparations, and as a result of this, France took over the industrial area of Ruhr to manage delivery themselves. As a result, the German workers took on a policy in the form of passive resistance. However, on account, this left 132 Germans killed, and 150,000 expelled from their homes. For the Germans, this would have been very humiliating, as they had been invaded and their government was not doing anything to help or protect them. The German government decided to pay the workers (that were still alive) who were passively resisting in recognition of their loyalty, however, since Germany was losing all of its profit from the Ruhr, the government had to print money they did not have in order to pay the workers, this eventually resulted in hyper-inflation.
The price of bread rose from 163 marks in 1922, to 200 billion marks in 1923. Citizens lost all value for their savings over night. This formed a large amount of anger towards Weimar. I therefore believe that the occupation of the Ruhr and hyper-inflation meant that 1923 was a difficult time for Germany. A second reason as to why the Weimar Republic was not successful with Germany’s problems because of the Munich Putsch. In 1923, Adolf Hitler and Erich Ludendorff, who were supported by 600 SA, tried to take over the government by storming into a meeting that was being held by the Bavarian PM in Munich. The putsch failed, because the Nazis were met by 100 police, resulted in the death of 16 Nazis. Hitler was arrested and imprisoned for 9 months. The fact that Adolf Hitler received only 9 months imprisonment for treason shows how the courts were over sympathetic to right – wing extremism. This is why I believe that Weimar was not successful.
