History UsefulNotes / WeimarRepublic

What also didn't help the legitimacy of the republic was the persistent "stab-in-the-back" myth: a ConspiracyTheory that blamed subversive elements, namely civilian politicians and Jews,[[note]]which was especially ludicrous considering large numbers of German Jews served in the army[[/note]] for Germany's defeat in the First World War, which major generals like Hindenburg and Ludendorff were happy to propagate to shift blame away from their own decisions. Between angry nationalists who were happy to use the Republic as their scapegoat and communists who hated the government for its less-than-ideal record on worker's rights, one German politician called the republic a "democracy without democrats."

The first few years (and, for that matter, the last few years) of the Weimar Republic was a time of enormous political instability. Between 1918 and 1923, there was an attempted coup by either the far right or the far left every year, as well as almost 500 political assassinations--most of them committed by right-wing organizations like the ''Organisation Konsul'', most of which went unpunished--especially those committed by right-wing extremists, as many judges were unreconstructed monarchists. The last one, the UsefulNotes/{{Munich}} Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, was led by UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. He got less than half a year in jail and wrote ''Literature/MeinKampf''. It didn't help that the Mark suffered from RidiculousExchangeRates, in which thousands of people lost any money that wasn't saved as gold, foreign currency, or silver. This might have also recorded one of the first cases of RidiculousFutureInflation...except not in the future, and with somehow worse inflation. Case in point: you could sit down for tea when the inflation was at its worst at taking the bill two hours later, only to find that your bill had somehow doubled within the two hours you were eating.

What also didn't help the legitimacy of the republic was the persistent "stab-in-the-back" myth: a conspiracy theory that blamed subversive elements, namely the civilian politicians and Jews,[[note]]which was especially ludicrous considering large numbers of German Jews served in the army[[/note]] for Germany's defeat in the First World War, which major generals like Hindenburg and Ludendorff were happy to propagate to shift blame away from their own decisions. Between angry nationalists who were happy to use the Republic as their scapegoat and communists who hated the government for its less-than-ideal record on worker's rights, one German politician called the republic a "democracy without democrats."

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weimarar_republik_5.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"They carry the name of the enterprise - but who carries its spirit?"'' [[note]]A ''Simplicissimus'' caricature depicting, from left to right: a cleric, an aristocrat, a Reichswehr soldier, a vagrant, a farmer, a capitalist, an intellectual, and an SA trooper.[[/note]]]]

The Weimar Republic (so-called because that's where the constitution was written--UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} remained the capital [[note]]but when the constitution was made, there was too much unrest there (again), so the delegates, fearing for their lives, moved to the much-quieter city of Weimar[[/note]]) was the regime that ran Germany from the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI until the UsefulNotes/{{Nazi|Germany}}s took power.

If you're ever on ''Series/{{QI}}'' and Sandi Toksvig asks you what Germany was called in 1930, don't say "The Weimar Republic". That name is an invention of historians and was not used at the time (like [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire 'The Byzantine Empire']] or 'UsefulNotes/TheBonnRepublic'). The correct term is "Deutsches Reich" (German Empire).[[note]]"Reich" directly translates as "realm", but "reich" is more casually used than "realm" is. The German word for France, for instance, is Frank''reich'' - Frankish Realm. The constituent assembly in Weimar actually had some trouble deciding whether the state should be called "Deutsche Republik" (indicating a democratic republic) or "Deutsches Reich" (smacking of monarchism). Ultimately, a compromise between the center-left that favored the former and the center-right that favored the latter was found with Article 1 opening with "Das Deutsche Reich ist eine Republik" - "The German Realm is a Republic".[[/note]]

The Weimar Republic (so-called because that's where the constitution was written--Berlin remained the capital [[note]]but when the constitution was made, there was too much unrest there (again), so the delegates, fearing for their lives, moved to the much-quieter city of Weimar[[/note]]) was the regime that ran Germany from the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI until the UsefulNotes/{{Nazi|Germany}}s took power.

The question of whether the Nazis were "voted into power" or seized it sometimes comes up. On the one hand, it's true that Hitler was defeated soundly in the 1932 ''presidential'' election, and that the Nazi party never won an absolute majority of votes -- in the March 1933 election with Hitler already chancellor, the National Socialist party gained 43.9% of the vote.[[note]]Though this result was very much enabled through widespread voter intimidation and open political persecution of leftists, most prominently the violent arrest of the Communist party chairman, Ernst Thälmann, on transparently trumped-up charges two days prior to the election.[[/note]] While this may seem extraordinary, it only seems so to countries with a two-party system (like the US). Many countries in the world have multiple parties in their governments, requiring parties to make alliances to govern effectively. In such a system, a party receiving 44% of the vote is a big win. Even though the Nazis "only" held 44% of the vote, its opponents were fractured into so many little parties that they didn't matter. The Nazis managed to get an agreement with another right wing party, and ''that'' got them over 50% both of the votes and of the seats in parliament. Furthermore, the third-largest party was the communists. Either way, democracy had been given a thumbs down by a majority of Germans. The Nazis banned the Communist party while still maintaining a facade of democracy, and there was a relatively free vote (with the Communists "abstaining" due to mostly being in jail) on whether Hitler should be given the power to make laws on his own. Hitler got the required two-thirds majority of those present, despite the Social Democrats voting against him, and the other parties (that had voted for Hitler in exchange for promises Hitler mostly broke) dissolved themselves, with the Social Democratic Party being forcibly dissolved through Hitler's new legislative powers.

The first few years (and, for that matter, the last few years) of the Weimar Republic was a time of enormous political instability. Between 1918 and 1923, there was an attempted coup by either the far right or the far left every year, as well as almost 500 political assassinations--most of them committed by right-wing organizations like the ''Organisation Konsul'', most of which went unpunished--especially those committed by right-wing extremists, as many judges were unreconstructed monarchists. The last one, the Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, was led by UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. He got less than half a year in jail and wrote ''Literature/MeinKampf''. It didn't help that the Mark suffered from RidiculousExchangeRates, in which thousands of people lost any money that wasn't saved as gold, foreign currency, or silver. This might have also recorded one of the first cases of RidiculousFutureInflation...except not in the future, and with somehow worse inflation. Case in point: you could sit down for tea when the inflation was at its worst at taking the bill two hours later, only to find that your bill had somehow doubled within the two hours you were eating.

With the emergency powers granted to him by the Reichstag Fire Decree, Hitler launched a persecution of his political opponents on the left and the center, effectively beginning the Nazi's program of state terror, which allowed his coalition to make massive gains in the March 1933 elections. With his coalition having a massive majority in the Reichstag, Hitler passed the Enabling Act, which functionally killed the Weimar Constitution as a functioning document and granted Hitler absolute power. Soon, opposition parties were banned, trade unions were abolished, and all media was brought under the control of the Nazi Party. And with Hindenburg's death in August 1934, Hitler could assume complete control of the army, giving him total control over the German state.