Problems Faced by the Weimar Republic

In order to answer this question we must first establish whether in fact the problems that Weimar faced were insurmountable and how much of a threat they posed to the survival of the republic. The years of 1918 to 1923 are deemed by many historians as the "crisis years" as they were a period of much unrest and discontentment, to add to this there were social, economic and political breakdowns and much opposition from several quarters.
Before the arise of any additional problems there was already instability in the government, with the abandonment of the Kaiserreich, three parties made up the broadly based Weimar Coalition. Although democratic, the coalition operated on a system of proportional representation - in other words if party A, for example, gets 10% of the votes then they would get 10% of seats in the Reichstag. The introduction of proportional representation became a controversial issue and was the subject of much criticism at the time. By having several parties running the country, all with different aims and ideas, it was difficult to agree on policies. It can also be argued that this system may have assisted in the rise of Nazism and Communism.
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