What Is The Weimar Republic?

The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the government that presided over Germany between the two World Wars from 1919 to 1933 when it came to an end after the ascent of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party to power.

The republic was named as the Weimar Republic after the city of Weimar where a new constitution was framed by the national assembly after the defeat of the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm II in World War I. It was an attempt to establish an elected government in Germany for the first time after the revolutions of 1848-49. Henceforth the Parliament or the Reichstag was to be the governing body with the Chancellor as its head.

The first Chancellor of the Weimar Republic was Friedrich Ebert of the Social Democrats Party. The Weimar Republic was semi Presidential in nature and socialistic in outlook with many of the leaders in that period displaying leftist leanings.

However the Weimar Republic could never became popular with the masses mainly due to its signing of the humiliating Treaty of Versailles; the Republic also failed to arrest the decline of the German economy. The last Chancellor of the Republic was Kurt von Schleicher who was dismissed by President Hindenburg in 1933 to be succeeded by Adolf Hitler, and was later assassinated by the Nazis.