Was Weimar Germany doomed to fail from the start?

Germany – The Weimar Republic, 1918-33

In this course, Professor Matthew Stibbe (Sheffield Hallam University) explores Weimar Germany through twelve key questions: (1) Was Weimar Germany doomed to fail from the start?; (2) Why did Weimar fail in the early 1930s?; (3) How much of a problem was political extremism for the Weimar Republic?; (4) What kind of elections took place in Weimar Germany?; (5) How did the design of the West Germany constitution aim to avoid the problems faced by Weimar Germany?; (6) What was the impact of hyperinflation in Weimar Germany?; (7) How successful was the Weimar economy in the years 1924-29?; (8) What was the impact of the Wall Street Crash on the Weimar Republic?; (9) Did living standards improve in the Weimar period?; (10) What was Weimar culture?; (11) Did the lives of women improve in the Weimar period?; and (12) How did ethnic minorities fare in the Weimar period?

Was Weimar Germany doomed to fail from the start?

In this module, we think about whether Weimar Germany was doomed to fail from the very start, focusing in particular on: (i) the ‘incompleteness’ of the German Revolution that followed the First World War; (ii) the domination of key institutions such as the army, the judiciary and the civil service by political conservatives; (ii) the impact of the Spartacist uprising – and especially the execution of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht – on support for the regime among the political left; and (iii) the extent to which the Weimar constitution – and especially the powers afford to the Reich President – provided a back door for authoritarianism.