Was The Weimar Republic Doomed From The Start?

In November 1918 Germany was a defeated empire whose Kaiser had fled and whose people were exhausted, hungry and angry. Out of that collapse rose a bold experiment: a democratic republic, governed from the town of Weimar, with one of the most modern constitutions in the world. Yet from its first day it carried the resentment of defeat, the shame of a harsh peace treaty and the violence of armed extremists on both the left and the right. Was such a republic ever likely to survive?

This lesson follows the Weimar Republic from the chaos of 1918 and 1919, through the disaster year of 1923 when French troops occupied the Ruhr and money became worthless, to the surprising recovery led by Gustav Stresemann and the cultural brilliance of the Golden Twenties. You will weigh the deep weaknesses against the real achievements and build the balanced judgement that Cambridge examiners reward.