The Weimar Republic

The weakness and the eventual destruction of the Weimar Republic were the result, to some degree, of the Treaty of Versailles and the Weimar Constitution. To a far greater degree the failure of the German Republic was the result of the incongruity of the democratic republic superimposed on the inherent authoritarianism of the German people. The Revolution of 1918, a revolution decreed from above and imposed upon the people, was nothing unique in the history of Germany. The German people as a nation have not taken advantage of their revolutionary situations, partly because they have been so thoroughly indoctrinated in the principles of state service and duty to the state, and partly because the liberal tradition in Germany has always been an undercurrent. The two examples of tradition liberalism that modern Germany rests most heavily upon are the War of Liberation and the Revolution of 1848