Why go
Weimar history makes Berlin's interwar culture and the later collapse of democracy more intelligible. It connects the end of the monarchy with women's voting rights, the 1848 dream of parliamentary government, and the crisis that allowed the Nazis to gain power.
The full story
Germany's defeat in the First World War and the November Revolution ended the empire in 1918. Women gained the right to vote and stand in the election for a constituent assembly. The Weimar Constitution came into force in 1919, establishing a parliamentary republic. The Treaty of Versailles imposed territorial losses, occupation of the Rhineland, and reparations, all of which burdened public debate. Democracy faced repeated assaults. Right-wing conspiracies promoted the false claim that the army had been betrayed at home. Putsch attempts and political murders targeted the republic; communist uprisings also added to instability. France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr in 1923 after disputes over reparations. Yet the middle of the decade brought economic recovery and an exceptional flowering of culture, especially in Berlin. The worldwide economic crisis that began in 1929 ended that respite. Unemployment rose sharply, moderate parties struggled to form stable governments, and extremist parties gained support. Seeing both the republic's achievements and its fragility gives a fuller account than treating it only as a prelude to dictatorship.