Was the Weimar Republic was doomed to fail by the end of 1920?

Answer 1

The November revolution was caused because America refused to negotiate an end to the war with the Kaiser. The Americans said that they would only deal with a democracy. So Field Marshalls Hindenburg and Ludendorff advised the Kaiser to abdicate. The new SPD was the majority part so Fredrik Ebert became Chancellor. Three days after the new government being formed they signed the armistice. This gave the impression that the new democratic government had lost the war. Many people felt that they had been betrayed because they still thought Germany was winning the war. This grew hatred for democracy because that they had lost the war. The Spartacists were a group of revolutionary communists led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg. They seized Berlin and the government had to move to the town of Weimar. Thus giving the Weimar Republic its name. The army should have retaken Berlin and crushed the revolution but at this time most of the army was either disbanded or returning home. The government eventually got in the Freikorps who were a group of ex soldiers crush the rebellion. This demonstrated how weak the government was that it could not defend itself. The Freikorps only defended the government because they hated the communists, they would have rather had the Kaiser back. This shows how the government didn't have much support and that the people were not willing to defend democracy. The government was made to sign the treaty of Versailles which made the German people extremely angry, this made the people of Germany question if democracy could work. The constitution said that the President was allowed to suspend democracy which allowed Hitler to stop democracy after he came to power. The Freikorps tried to overthrow the government in 1920. They almost succeeded but were stopped when a general workers strike brought the country to a standstill. The army yet again refused to help. This again showed how democracy was too weak even to defend itself. This shook the Germans faith in democracy or what ever was left of it. The Germans attitude to democracy was that they didn't want it. It was weak because of all the rebellions and not to mention it lost the war in three days. The Germans really wanted the Kaiser back who was always a strong leader.

To conclude I shall sum up by saying that the Weimar Republic was doomed to fail by the end of 1920. It didn't have the support of the German people from the start. The government wasn't seen as strong as the Kaiser had been, after all they had lost the war. The Kaiser had made Germany great and the Germans didn't want to change. When you have a government that the people don't support sooner or later it will fall. The amount of time it takes for the government to fall depends on how badly they are doing a job of it. The government was doomed from the start because they were an escape goat. They got blamed for losing the war and for the treaty of Versailles. They started off bad and only got worse. They couldn't have succeeded when the people didn't want democracy in the first place.