The Republic was under great pressure from both left and right-wing extremists. The left accused the ruling Social Democrats of having betrayed the ideals of the workers' movement by avoiding a communist revolution. The right was opposed to any democratic system, preferring an authoritarian state like the 1871 Empire. To further undermine the Republic's credibility the right (especially the military) blamed it for Germany's defeat in World War I (see Dolchsto?legende).

The Kapp Putsch took place on March 13, 1920, involving a group of Freikorps troops who captured Berlin and installed Wolfgang Kapp (a right wing journalist) as chancellor. The national government fled to Stuttgart and called for a general strike. This completely halted the economy and the Kapp government collapsed after only four days on March 17.

Inspired by the general strikes, a communist uprising began in the Ruhr region when 50,000 people formed a "Red Army" and took control of the province. The regular army and the Freikorps ended the uprising without orders from the government. Other communist rebellions were put down in March 1921 in Saxony and Hamburg.

By 1923, the Republic could no longer afford the reparations payments required by the Versailles treaty, and the government defaulted. In response, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr region, Germany's most productive industrial region at the time, taking control of most mining and manufacturing companies in January of 1923. Strikes were called, and passive resistance was encouraged. These strikes lasted eight months, further damaging the economy and raising expensive imports.

Since striking workers were paid benefits by the state, much additional currency was printed, fueling a period of hyperinflation. The value of the Mark had declined from 4.2 per US dollar to 1 million per dollar by August 1923 and 4.2 million million (trillion) per dollar on November 20. On December 1, a new currency, the Rentenmark, was introduced at the rate of 1 million million (trillion) old marks for 1 new mark. Reparation payments resumed, and the Ruhr was returned to Germany.

Further pressure from the right came in 1923 with the Beer Hall Putsch, staged by Adolf Hitler in Munich. In 1920, the German Workers' Party had become the Nazi Party (NSDAP), and would become a driving force in the collapse of Weimar. Hitler was named chairman of the party in July 1921. The SA was established in November 1921 and acted as Hitler's personal army. On November 8, 1923, the Kampfbund, in a pact with Erich Ludendorff, took over a meeting by Bavarian prime minister Gustav von Kahr at a beer hall in Munich. Ludendorff and Hitler declared a new government, planning to take control of Munich the following day. The 3,000 rebels were thwarted by 100 policemen. Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison, a minimum sentence for the charge and he served only nine months before his release. Following the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch, his imprisonment and subsequent release, Hitler focused on legal methods of gaining power.

Stresemann's Golden Era (1923–1929)

Gustav Stresemann was Reichskanzler for a brief period in 1923, and served as Foreign Minister from 1923-1929, a period of relative stability for the Weimar Republic when there were fewer uprisings and seemingly the beginnings of an economic recovery.

Stresemann's first move was to issue a new currency, the Rentenmark, to halt the extreme hyperinflation crippling German society and the economy. It was successful because Stresemann repeatedly refused to issue more currency, the initial cause of the inflationary spiral. To further stabilise the economy, he reduced spending and bureaucracy while increasing taxes. He signed the Locarno Treaties with the Allied countries in 1925 as a means of restoring Germany's diplomatic status in Europe.

During this period, the Dawes Plan was also created, tying reparations payments to Germany's ability to pay. Germany was admitted into the League of Nations, made agreements over her western border, signed a neutrality pact with Russia, and disarmament was brought to a halt. However, this progress was funded by overseas loans, increasing the nation's debts, while overall trade decreased and unemployment rose. Stresemann's reforms did not relieve the underlying weaknesses of Weimar but merely gave the appearance of a stable democracy.

Despite the progress made during these years, Stresemann was criticized by his opponents for his policy of "fulfillment", or compliance with the terms of the Versailles Treaty.

In 1929, Stresemann's death marked the end of the "Golden Era" of the Weimar Republic.

The Republic crumbles and Hitler's support rises (1930–1932)

Loss of credibility for the Republic

The last years of the Weimar republic were stamped by even more political instability than in the previous years and the administrations of Chancellors Bruning, Papen, Schleicher and Hitler (from 30 January to 23 March 1933) were all Presidentially appointed Dictatorships. On March 29, 1930, the finance expert Heinrich Bruning had been appointed the successor of Chancellor Muller by Paul von Hindenburg after months of political lobbying by General Kurt von Schleicher on behalf of the military. The new government was expected to lead a political shift towards conservatism, based on the emergency powers granted to the Reichsprasident by the constitution, since it had no majority support in the Reichstag.

After an unpopular bill to reform the Reich's finances was left unsupported by the Reichstag, Hindenburg established the bill as an emergency decree based on Article 48 of the constitution. On July 18, 1930, the bill was again invalidated by a slim majority in the Reichstag with the support of the SPD, KPD, the (then small) Nazi Party (NSDAP) and DNVP. Immediately afterwards, Bruning submitted to the Reichstag the president's decree that it would be dissolved.

The Reichstag general elections on September 14, 1930, resulted in an enormous political shift: 18.3% of the vote went to the NSDAP, five times the percentage compared to 1928. This had devastating consequences for the Republic. There was no longer a majority in the Reichstag even for a Great Coalition of moderate parties, and it encouraged the supporters of the NSDAP to bring out their claim to power with increasing violence and terror. After 1930, the Republic slid more and more into a state of civil war.

From 1930 to 1932, Bruning attempted to reform the devastated state without a majority in Parliament, governing with the help of the President's emergency decrees. During that time, the Great Depression reached its highpoint. In line with liberal economic theory that less public spending would spur economic growth, Bruning drastically cut state expenditures, including in the social sector. He expected and accepted that the economic crisis would, for a while, deteriorate before things would improve. Among others, the Reich completely halted all public grants to the obligatory unemployment insurance (which had been introduced only in 1927), which resulted in higher contributions by the workers and less benefits for the unemployed -- not exactly a popular measure to adopt.

The economic downturn lasted until the second half of 1932, when there were first indices of a rebound. By this time though, the Weimar Republic had lost all credibility with the majority of Germans. While scholars greatly disagree about how Bruning's policy should be evaluated, it can safely be said that it contributed to the decline of the Republic. Whether there were alternatives at the time remains the subject of much debate.

The bulk of German capitalists and land-owners originally gave support to the Conservative experiment: not from any personal liking for Bruning, but believing the Conservatives would best serve their interests. As, however, the mass of the working class and also of the middle classes turned against Bruning, also more of the great capitalists and landowners declared themselves in favour of his opponents-Hitler and Hugenberg. By late 1931 Conservatism as a movement was dead, and the time was coming when Hindenburg and the Reichswehr would drop Bruning and come to terms with Hugenberg and Hitler. Hindenburg himself was no less a supporter of an anti-democratic counter-revolution represented by Hugenberg and Hitler.{ source Arthur Rosenberg-A History of The German Republic,1936)

On May 30, 1932, Bruning resigned after no longer having Hindenburg's support. Five weeks earlier, Hindenburg had been reelected Reichsprasident with Bruning's active support, running against Hitler (the president was directly elected by the people while the Reichskanzler was not).

Franz von Papen calls for elections

Hindenburg then appointed Franz von Papen as new Reichskanzler. Von Papen lifted the ban on the SA, imposed after the street riots, in an unsuccessful attempt to secure the backing of Hitler.
SPD election poster, 1932. Translation: "Against Papen, Hitler, Thalmann; List 2, Social Democrats". The poster shows the Social Democrats crushing their three ideological enemies, Monarchism, Nazism and Communism.
Enlarge
SPD election poster, 1932. Translation: "Against Papen, Hitler, Thalmann; List 2, Social Democrats". The poster shows the Social Democrats crushing their three ideological enemies, Monarchism, Nazism and Communism.

Papen was closely associated with the industrialist and land-owning classes pursued an extreme Conservative policy on Hindenberg's lines. He appointed as Reichswehr Minister Kurt von Schleicher and all of the members of the new cabinet were of the same political opinion as Hugenberg. This Government was to be expected to assure itself of the co-operation of Hitler. Since the Republicans and Socialists were not yet ready to take action and the Conservatives had shot their political bolt, Hitler and Hugenberg were certain to achieve power.

Elections of July 1932

Since most parties opposed the new government, von Papen had the Reichstag dissolved and called for new elections. The general elections on July 31, 1932 yielded major gains for the KPD and the NSDAP. The latter won 37.2% of the vote for the NSDAP, supplanting the Social Democrats as the largest party in the Reichstag.

Hitler now demanded to be appointed Chancellor, but was rejected by Hindenburg on August 13, 1932. There was still no majority in the Reichstag for any government; as a result, the Reichstag was dissolved and elections took place once more in the hope that a stable majority would result.

July 1932 resulted in the question as to now what part this immense Party [NSDAP] would play in the Government of the country . The NSDAP owed its huge increase to an influx of workers, unemployed, despairing peasants, and middle class people. The millions of radical adherents at first forced the Party towards the Left .They wanted a re-newed Germany and a new organisation of German society. The left of the NSDAP strove desperately against any drift into the train of such capitalist and feudal reactionaries. Therefore Hitler refused Ministry under Papen, and demanded the Chancellership for himself, but was rejected by Hindenburg on August 13, 1932.

November and 'Socialist General' Schleicher

The November 6, 1932 elections yielded 33.0% for the NSDAP: it dropped 2 million voters. Franz von Papen stepped down, and was succeeded by General von Schleicher as Reichskanzler on December 3. The political army officer Schleicher, had developed in atmosphere of semi-obscurity and intrigue that encompassd the Republican military policy. He had for years been in the camp of those supporting the Conservative counter-revolution. Schleicher's bold and unsuccessful plan was to build a majority in the Reichstag by uniting the Trade Unionist left wings in the various parties, including that of the NSDAP led by Gregor Strasser. This did not prove successful either. In this brief Presidential Dictatatorship entr'acte, Schleicher took the role of 'Socialist General', and entered into relations with the Christian Trade Unions , the Left [NSDAP], and even with the Social Democrats . Schleicher's plan was for a sort of Labour Government under his Generalship. It was an utterly un-workable idea as the Reichswehr officers were hardly prepared to follow Schleicher on this path, and the working class had a natural distrust of their future allies. Equally, Schleicher aroused hatred amongst the great capitalists and landowners by these plans. The above suspicion accompanied an opening for the Republicans and Socialists. The SPD and KPD Could have achieved success building on a Berlin transport strike.

Hitler learned from von Papen that the general had no authority to abolish the Reichstag parliament, whereas any majority of seats did. The cabinet (under a previous interpretation of Article 48) ruled without a sitting Reichstag, which could vote only for its own dissolution. Hitler also learned that all past crippling Nazi debts were to be relieved by German big business.

On January 22, Hitler's efforts to persuade Oskar von Hindenburg (the President's son) included threats to bring criminal charges over estate taxation irregularities at the President's Neudeck estate (although 5000 extra acres were soon alloted to Hindenburg's property). Out maneuvered by von Papen and Hitler on plans for the new cabinet, and having lost Hindenburg's confidence, Schleicher asked for new elections. On January 28 von Papen described Hitler to Paul von Hindenburg as only a minority part of an alternative, von Papen-arranged government. The four great political movements, the SPD, KPD, Centre, and the [NSDAP] were in opposition. If this continued there was real danger the Centre and the [NSDAP] would radicalize further, and that in the end a vast united national bolshevist front would be formd against the ruling system.

On 29 January Hitler and von Papen thwarted a last-minute threat of an officially-sanctioned Reichswehr takeover, and on 30 January 1933 Hindenburg accepted the new Papen-Nationalist-Hitler coalition with the Nazis holding only three of eleven Cabinet seats. Later that day, the first cabinet meeting was attended by only two political parties, representing a minority in the Reichstag: The Nazis and the DNVP led by Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). Eyeing the Catholic Centre Party's 70 (+ 20 BVP) seats, Hitler refused their leader's demands for constitutional "concessions" (amounting to protection) and planned for dissolution of the Reichstag.

Hindenburg, despite his misgivings about the Nazis' goals and about Hitler as a person, reluctantly agreed to Papen's theory that, with Nazi popular support on the wane, Hitler could now be controlled as chancellor. The date dubbed Machtergreifung (seizure of power) by the Nazi propaganda is commonly seen as the beginning of Nazi Germany.