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Flag of Germany (3-2 aspect ratio)

Flag of the Weimar Republic 1919 - 1933. http://wikipedia.org

The Weimar Republic was the main democratic government of Germany from 1919 until 1933.

History[]

The Weimar Republic was formed in 1919 after the Weimar Constitution and Treaty of Versailles were signed. The first President of the Weimar Republic was Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). He became the first President mainly because the SPD was the biggest party in Germany at the time, and he was the only person the German Elite (army generals) saw fit to run the country.

In order to keep the new Republic secure, Ebert got together with the army and signed the Ebert-Groener Pact, a document which promised Ebert that he would be protected by the German army, as long as he allowed the army generals to have full control of what it did and he stayed out of its business.

During the early 1920s, the Republic went through a hyper inflation. This was caused by the struggle of Germany faced trying to pay off their huge Reperations, which were finally totalled at £6,600,000,000 (£6.6 billion). The Germans were forced to pay the Allies in pounds due to the fact it was a stable currency, unlike the German Reichmark which was not. This meant that Germany could not simply print the money they wanted. However, they did this, and it led to hyperinflation, in which the worth of the Reichsmark grew up to as high as a loaf of bread costing 3 billion marks. To solve this, the Weimar Republic balanced its budget, by increasing taxes and reducing costs, created a new currency, the Rentenmark, and got loans from the United States of America in what was known as the Dawes Plan in 1924.

Friedrich Ebert died on February 28, 1925, and was replaced as president by Paul von Hindenburg until 1933 when the Nazi Party came into power and removed the Republic from leadership.

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