Challenges From Left and Right

• Government of the new Weimar Republic was generally unpopular
• Challenges to the Weimar Republic came from within the Reichstag and outside of it
• In the years 1919-1923, 376 political assassinations took place, mostly by those on the extreme right
• Politicians in the early years of the Weimar Republic were afraid of assassination
• Assassinations led to public anxiety
• Leaders lived in fear for their lives
• Assassins were often given light sentences
• Judges and trials were generally sympathetic to the sentiments of the assassins
• Political enemies of the republic used the assassinations to undermine the government
• There were attempted uprisings to overthrow the government and install one more favorable to the political views of the participants
• Spartacist Uprising: 50,000 members of the post-World War I Communist Party rebelled in Berlin on 12th January 1919
• Spartacist Uprising leaders: Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
• Free Corps, right-wing ex-army soldiers, were used to put down the Spartacist Uprising
• 100 protesters were murdered during the Spartacist Uprising
• Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht's bodies were dumped in a canal
• Communists in Germany developed a hatred for the Social Democrats after the Spartacist Uprising
• Kapp Putsch: Right-wing uprising organized by journalist Wolfgang Kapp in response to the Treaty of Versailles betrayal
• Kapp proclaimed a new right-of-center nationalist government in Berlin on 13th March 1920
• Weimar government was forced to relocate to Dresden during the Kapp Putsch
• President Ebert called for a general strike of workers to stop the Kapp Putsch
• General strike of workers largely supported, leading to the failure of the Kapp Putsch
• Wolfgang Kapp fled Berlin on 17th March
• Support for the Weimar government was shown during the Kapp Putsch