History11 - Nazism in Germany 1918-1945: 1920's Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic faced opposition from the outset in 1919, after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Economic hardship affected the whole nation and led to uprisings and assassinations.

The Weimar Republic looked like the perfect democracy, but it had two great weaknesses - proportional representation and Article 48.

Gustav Stresemann, (born May 10, 1878, Berlin, Germany—died October 3, 1929, Berlin), chancellor (1923) and foreign minister (1923, 1924–29) of the Weimar Republic, largely responsible for restoring Germany’s international status after World War I. With French foreign minister Aristide Briand, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1926 for his policy of reconciliation and negotiation.

Under Stresemann’s leadership, from 1924 onwards Weimar’s economy recovered, Germany regained international credibility and social change accelerated, until the disaster of 1929’s Wall Street Crash.