Weakness in political system

• The Weimar Republic had a president who could be elected every seven years and given power to rule by decree in a national emergency
• Chancellor and president had relatively equal power, with the chancellor handling day-to-day affairs and the president handling the overall
• An elected Reichstag allocated seats to parties based on proportional representation, making it easy for new parties to gain power
• The president could take dictatorial power in times of crisis, potentially leading to abuse of power
• The spread of seats across many parties made it difficult for a single party to form a majority government, leading to unstable coalitions
• Franz von Papen formed a coalition with Hitler in 1932, with Hitler challenging the government in 1933 and eventually becoming chancellor
• Hitler used the Reichstag fire in 1933 to portray the government as weak and gain dictatorial power
• Factors contributing to the intensification of humiliation and anger among Germans after losing the war:

  • Humiliation from losing the war intensified by anger towards political leaders who allowed it to happen
• Challenges to the democratic experiment in Germany:

  • Lack of a solid base for the democratic experiment in Germany
  • Weimar's legitimacy was never sufficiently accepted throughout the period
• Abuse of constitutional provisions undermining democratic government:

  • Abuse of Article 48 that undermined the functioning of accountable democratic government by March 1930
• Failure of political parties to work the system of proportional representation:

  • Political parties failed to work the system of proportional representation in the spirit it was designed
• Disillusionment with Weimar policies and actions:

  • Disillusionment with Weimar policies and actions from 1919 onwards
  • Inability to deal with economic crises in the early 1920s and 1930s
  • Brief period of respite under Stresemann was not enough to anchor the system on a solid foundation
• Political intrigue and fatal underestimation of Hitler:

  • Political intrigue (jobbery) by figures like Hindenburg and von Papen
  • Fatal underestimation of Hitler, believed to be controllable