The Weimar Republic

• The Weimar Republic is born

  • In late January 1919, Ebert held the election, that he had promised
  • His own party, the Social Democratic Party, won the most votes and Ebert became the new German President
  • Because of all the recent violence in Berlin, the newly elected politicians, with Ebert as President, met up on 11 February 1919 in another German town called Weimar
  • They met to discuss how to run Germany
  • This was the start of the Weimar Republic
• The Weimar Constitution

  • In 1919, Germany's politicians drew up the Weimar Constitution, which was a formal set of rules for how Germany would be governed
  • It was a far more democratic system than when the Kaiser ruled Germany
  • In fact, the Weimar Republic was one of the most democratic countries anywhere in the world
• The structure of the Weimar Constitution

  • The new constitution was very fair
  • All Germans had equal rights, including the right to vote
  • The fact that all women over the age of 20 could vote shows that Germany was more forward-thinking than many other countries (in Britain, for example, only women over the age of 28 could vote)
  • However, the new system of government had several weaknesses
• Weakness of the Weimar Constitution - Proportional representation


  • Proportional representation meant that lots of different political parties were able to win seats in the Reichstag
  • Sometimes there were over 20 different political parties all arguing over a single issue
  • This made it difficult to make decisions and introduce laws
  • In fact, between 1919 and 1933, no political party ever won more than half the votes in any election
  • As a result, they didn't get more than half the seats
  • With no majority, the leading party had to do deals with smaller groups in order to get anything done
  • Again, this made law-making a very slow process
• Weakness of the Weimar Constitution - Unpopularity in the older generation


  • Many groups didn't like this new democratic system of governing at all
  • Some of the older army generals, judges, upper-class families, rich factory owners and university professors longed for the 'good old days' when the Kaiser ruled Germany
  • The new system of government was linked to the surrender at the end of the First World War
  • The politicians who had lost the war in 1918, the November Criminals, were changing the way the country was ruled
• The structure of the Weimar Constitution - The President (Head of State)

  • Elected every seven years
  • Controlled army, navy and air force
  • Stayed out of day-to-day running of the country; however, in a crisis, he could rule on his own without getting the support of the Reichstag by issuing special emergency decrees known as Article 48
• The structure of the Weimar Constitution - The Chancellor (Prime Minister)

  • Chosen by the President (usually from the political party with most votes at an election)
  • Responsible for day-to-day running of the country, such as law and order, taxation, schooling, health care
  • Must have the support of at least half the politicians in the Reichstag to introduce new laws
• The structure of the Weimar Constitution - The Reichstag

  • Discussed and introduced laws
  • Members of the Reichstag (MPs) were elected every four years
  • The voting system used was called proportional representation. This meant that the number of MPs each political party had in the Reichstag was based on the number of votes they had. For example, if a party won 10 percent of the votes, it was given 10 percent of the seats
• The structure of the Weimar Constitution - The German people (the electorate)

  • All men and women over the age of 20 could vote
  • They elected the President and the politicians in the Reichstag
  • The constitution guaranteed them basic freedoms, such as free speech