Failure+of+Weimar+Germany

The Weimar Republic collapsed due to various reasons, but is centered around three major issues. The first is the opposition of the upper class of Germany, second is the continuous economic problems, and the third is the Germans choice to go against democracy and vote for antidemocratic parties (2).

The elite class of Germany had always been against the creation of the Weimar Republic, and continued to oppose it and any democratic type government. The major figures and big business owners in Germany acted against the views and objectives of the Weimar Republic. The views of the elite class were mainly reactionary, and wanted to reinstate the old imperial Germany with the Kaiser at its head (see Reactionary). The upper class had the most sway in the government, so their position against the democratic republic ultimately led to its downfall (2-3).
 * Hostility Of Germany's Elites**

The Weimar Republic was always in economic turmoil, with the except of the stable years in 1924-1929. The trouble all started with the enormous military costs of WWI, and then the Allies imposed heavy reparations to be payed by Germany for causing the war. These economic problems did not discriminate, and so hit all levels of society, no matter where you were in Germany. The government also hurt the economy by supporting elaborate welfare benefits, which the Weimar Republic had no plan to pay for it. Germany was also economically hurt by the Alies when they took away Alsace-Lorraine and the Ruhr, which held precious raw materials needed for the industry of Germany (3).
 * Economic Problems**

Even at the creation of the Weimar Republic, there was never complete support of democracy. Some people didn't trust in the system, and despised it because it had signed the Treaty of Versailles. There was a larger amount of leftist and right radicals in early Weimar Republic than other democracies. As the economy went downhill, more people began to believe that the democratic republic wasn't the government they wanted. The German democratic parties started to lose votes to extremist parties and many parties were changing their views to more extreme. The German people started looking for change after many years of economic depression, and so the majority of people voted extremist in the 1930 election (3). The German people turned to extremist party which want to destroy the current German government. Parties such as spartachists and the Nazis were included in this action.
 * Limited Support**

[1]   Layton, Geoff. //The Third Reich 1922-1945//. London: Hodder Murray, 2005.