How accurate is it to say that political opposition from the extreme

right was the most significant threat to the stability of the Weimar
Republic in the years 1919-1923?
The stability of the Weimar Republic was threatened by a number of factors
in the period 1919 1929. One of these factors was the violence from the
right which was significant however it can be argued that the most
important factor was the impact the Treaty of Versailles had on the
government such as reparations and war guilt which caused unrest from the
people.The lack of stability of the republic was also caused by the
weaknesses of the constitution of the new government. Overall, all of these
factors contributed to the threat to stability however the violence from the
right was not as significant as the impact Treaty of Versailles.

Without a doubt, violence from the right played a significant part in the
threat to stability of the Weimar Republic as there were many different right
wing parties that took part in putsches, such as the Kapp Putsch and Munich
Putsch.The most significant putsch was the Kapp Putsch in March 1920
which succeeded in overthrowing the government for four days before being
put down due to a general strike which paralysed the capital. The Kapp
Putsch showed that the right wing violence was a big threat to the stability
of the republic.Although it only lasted for a few days the Putsch still showed
that the right was capable of completely disrupting the stability of the
republic. Even though, there were many significant attempts to take over
power using violence from the right, there were also some unsuccessful
attempts such as in September 1923 when the Bavarian government
decided they would march on Berlin and overthrow the central government
however they were persuaded not to by the fate of the communists in
Saxony and Thuringian. This shows weaknesses in the right. The fact that
the government managed to put down both the Munich putsch and the Kapp
Putsch suggests that the violence from the right was not strong enough to
completely set up a stable Putsch which ultimately demonstrates this was
not the main factor of the threat to the stability of the republic.

It is clear that the Treaty of Versailles was met by hatred from the majority
of German people. One of the reasons for this was article 231, the war guilt
cause, which put the blame of the war on Germany. Attempts were made by
Germany to drop the article from the final version of the treaty however
there was no way they could.. The people of Germany blamed the
government for agreeing for the armistice. The impact of the war blame
combined with the territorial provisions and military restrictions lead to a

hatred of the republic from both the right and left which eventually
threatened the stability of the republic as it caused significant opposition to
the establishment. The war guilt clause was more significant than the
violence from the right because without the Treaty of Versailles there would
have been less dissatisfaction from the right.It can be argued that the
reparations from the Treaty of Versailles were a significant threat to the
Weimar Republic as they caused social unrest in Germany which caused
people to turn to extremist parties. The cost of reparations and war debt
drastically raised the economic crisis. To deal with this the government
printed more money which meant that by 1923 the Reichmark wad
practically worthless. This meant the everyday commodities such as bread
was worth millions which was not good for workers as their wages were not
raised. This left the people poverty stricken and frustrated with the
government, which led the people to support extreme groups which
weakened the republic as it lost the support of the people. So Hyperinflation
led to depression and thats why it is mroe significant than the right
extremist groups threatening stability in the Weimar Republic.

It can be argued that the constitution of the Weimar Republic was one of the
factors that threatened the establishment. The constitution was created in
Germany out of the defeat in WW1 with the purpose of taking the blame for
signing of the Treaty of Versailles. This meant that the republic was destined
for instability from the start. Article 48 which let the president rule by decree
demonstrated a threat to the republic as it provided the president with too
much power over Germany.The first president of the Republic, Ebert, used
Article 48 on 136 occasions. This threatened the stability of the Weimar
Republic, as it lessened the democracy of the establishment and meant that
anyone who could persuade the president could successfully take control of
the republic. Another weakness of the constitution was the voting system
used to elect members of the Reichstag. Between the years 1919 and 1933
there were 20 separate coalition governments. Although the constitution
gave threat to the republic it did provide stability to the republic as it gave
the people fundamental rights and had a series of checks and balances that
helped it remain secure. But it was not a significant threat as the Treaty of
Versailles was for the stability of the Weimar Republic.

It can be seen that the reparations and war guilt from the Treaty of Versailles
were the most significant threats to the republic as it caused republic to lose
the support of the people. However the violence from the right cannot be
underestimated as it had too much power that was supported by the
judiciary or the army. The weakness of the constitution also can be

important threat to the republic, giving a bit of stability to the republic at the
same time they gave that threat of not being 100% secure with Article 48.

How far do you agree that the nature of the government of the
Federal Republic in the years 1949-69 was completely different
from that of the Nazi regime?
In my opinion, I dont agree that the nature of the FRG was completely
different from that of the Nazi regime; however I do believe that the two are
different. It has to be remembered that the FRG are influenced from the
west and the Nazi regime had no real external political interventions.
Firstly, the differences of both governments will be exposed. The FRGs
structure was based around a democracy, where there was a vote to decide
who gets presidency. The president appoints the federal chancellor and
federal government with the approval of the Reichstag. This clearly shows a
western democratic based political system. Hitler, also known as the Fhrer,
was at the top of the government and had total control of the Nazi party.
This authoritarian system is completely different to the more democratic
system because it doesnt allow as many people to have a say in the vote as
to who is in control, which of course influenced the policies carried out. This
gives the clear evidence that the two governments were different. The main
motives of Chancellor Adenauer was to get the FRG to find their way back
into the European community whereas the Nazi wanted to get out of Europe
and try to establish a pure Aryan German regime. Adenauer achieved
power through the CDU and had to earn an overall majority to be elected
president. Statistically, votes for the CDU increased from 31% in 1949 to
50.2% in 1957 which shows how Adenauer had to be elected into power. The

Nazi regime, on the other hand, had a single omnipotent party that had no
enemies to power, so the Nazi party didnt have to be elected in once they
earned power, although the Nazis did have to be elected into the Reichstag
in 1933 with a majority vote. Another factor was the time in which they had
to govern. The Nazis main motive was to try and regain lost territories in
their own legal ways. In the other hand the FRG, had to clean up the mess
the Nazis left. The FRG naturally disagreed with the Nazis policies so during
this government, the FRG had to create policies to reverse what the Nazis
did, and thats why it is mainly different but not completely as it has some
similarities that will be shown below.
There are similarities such as propaganda that was used to communicate to
their voters, plus the fact that both Hitler and Adenauers face was on the
poster. Even though both had similar type of propaganda, they had different
reasons for it, as Hitler made propaganda to get everyone into his
dictatorship and Adenauer made his for people to decide if they supported
him or not. Both Nazi Germany and the FRG had to recover from war, create
work and re-build the economy. Hitler and Adenauer set up an army, but
once again with different purposes, Hitler to get to power and fight against
all the Allies while Adenauer created it after joining the NATO and fighting
with Britain and American rather than opposing them as Hitler did. Another
similarity is that both opposed communism. This led to the establishment of
the Berlin Wall 1961 and both the Nazi regime and FRG banned the
communist party in 1933 and 1956. This similarities might tell that these
two governments were alike, but all the similarities oppose each other as
they had different purposes, showing once more that both governments
were different, but not completely different.
So to conclude, I believe that both political systems have some similarities,
but mainly differences; because the two political systems have different
approaches to governing Germany, the social situation and views are
different. So even though there are some similitudes, it cant be said that
the political systems are completely different but are definitely different.

In the light of differing interpretations, how convincing do you find

the view that the Second World War was ostensibly fought over the
independence of Poland?
The two extracts have different views about the reasons of the Second
World War breaking out in 1939. The first extract expressed that the war
was caused by a deteriorating Europe and that Poland was just the spark
that make the war begin. In comparison to the second extract, Tooze
mentions that invading Poland would create a war. But from my point of
view, the war wasnt fought over the independence of Poland.
Extract 3 by Richard Overy in September 1939, explains that the wars
reason to break out was properly explained only on the context of the
deteriorating Europe. It mentions that it was nevertheless a war fought over
Polands independence and that Polands intransigent refusal to make
concessions to Germany made war almost certain.
Extract 4 by Adam Tooze in 2006, tell us that invading Poland was going to
bring war, and that by that Hitler meant that he was right about the Allies
miscalculations and mistakes and thats why he was so sure on going to war.
In fact, it states that there was no crisis in the Third Reich, either political

nor economic. Hitler might thought that but the truth is that there was and
thats why of the reasons Hitler at the end regretted going into war.
It might be convincing that Poland wanted to become independent after the
pressure from Germany to invade them to get into the East for Germanys
Lebensraum. Poland was a significant regional power and was also militarily
strong. Poland knew their weakness as a position in-between Germany and
the Soviet Union so they signed the Soviet-Polish Non-Aggression Pact
which was broken by the Soviet Union when Poland was invaded. Another
reason for the Second World War being fought over the independence of
Poland is that as other countries did, Poland didnt want to become another
Germanys satellite, they were strong enough to be a great power. As the
Poles were really closed in terms of negotiations, the Pact of Steel was
signed between Germany and Italy to try and dissuade Western zones and
force the Poles to be more opened in negotiations. As Poland was in a weak
but strong position, as they were between the Soviet Union and Germany
but they were strong enough to fight for their independence, Britain and
France would fight for Polands independence. At the beginning they might
saw it as fighting for their independence rather than seeing Hitler as
someone that was invading them to kill all the undesirables and non Aryan
raced people and to gain territory for his true Aryans, so from Polands point
of view, they were fighting for Polands independence.
It can be said that Poland was fighting for their independence but its not
convincing at all that these was the reason that the Second World War was
fought. Hitler as the cruel dictator he was known for, wanted to secure
eastern borders for his Aryan race Germans and their legal lebensraum, and
invading Poland was the first step towards the invasion of the Soviet Union
and breaking up the non aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet
Union. Poland was a big aim for Hitler as it was one of the major benefactors
from the Treaty of Versailles, being offered such territories as Danzig and
Silesia, rich in materials. For Hitler all countries were weak in all the 5
factors: politically, militarily, socially, economic and religiously; as Germany
with the Aryan race ere superior than any other country, they were the best
and everyone had to be like them. This created more desire in Hitler to
invade and become the leader of Europe, if not, the world. He proved that
not caring about the Treaty of Versailles, sending troops to train in Russia
and creating army machinery too. Since he became chancellor in 1933, it
was clear that Hitler wanted to go to war. Hitler had more reasons rather
than just invading Poland for the Second World War, for example his
ideologies(Lebensraum, to get their space for all the pure Aryan Germans,
anti-Semitism, to get rid off of undesirables also know as Jews, blacks.. not
Aryan people).
To conclude, Poland was the spark that made the Second World War break
out. It can be said that Poland was fighting for their independence but its
mostly not the reason for it. Hitler first invaded Poland as it had power and
was really well benefited from the Treaty of Versailles, as well as it made him

secure borders with the Eastern zones. Its not convincing that the Second
World War was fought ostensibly over Polands independence, as once the
war started, Poland was left behind and Hitler then had other aims such as
Polands back helpers, Britain and France. Poland was just the beginning of
the Second World War.