Weimar Republic - OCR History

Weimar republic 1919 - 1923

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  • Created by: Chloe
  • Created on: 30-10-13 17:26

Weimar Republic - OCR History

Advantages

  • It allowed everybody over the age of 20 to vote, whether they were male or female.
  • It was a form of democracy rather than dictatorship meaning that it was a lot easier for people to get their points of view across.
  • There was a bill of rights which gave every German freedom of speech, religion and equality.
  • The Reichstag and the president was elected by the German people.

Disadvantages

  • It used a system called proportional representation where Germans vote for a party and the number of votes a party got directly reflects the number of seats they had in the Reichstag. This meant that there was rarely a dominant party that could get a majority so it was difficult to pass laws.
  • Article 48 meant that in a state of national emergency, the president could pass laws and decrees without consulting the Reichstag. However, there was no clear statement of what an emergency was so people were unsure of when it could be used. In the end, Hitler used this to take power in Germany.

Evaluation

To evaluate, the Weimar republic was a great concept that did improve the rights of the German people and allowed them to put across their ideas better, however, the structure needed work to allow laws to be passed effectively and certain laws needed to be made and understood more clearly.

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