The Weimar Republic
Explore the Weimar Republic — Germany's troubled democratic experiment between World War I and the rise of Hitler, marked by cultural brilliance and political crisis.
The Weimar Republic (1918–1933) was Germany's first experiment with parliamentary democracy, born from the wreckage of World War I and destroyed by the rise of Adolf Hitler. Its brief, turbulent existence encompasses both extraordinary cultural achievement and devastating political failure.
The republic was handicapped from birth. The new democratic government was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed crushing reparations, territorial losses, and the humiliating 'war guilt clause' on Germany. Hyperinflation in 1923 wiped out middle-class savings. Right-wing nationalists blamed the 'November criminals' who had supposedly 'stabbed Germany in the back' by accepting the armistice.
Despite political turmoil, the Weimar period produced a cultural golden age. Berlin became the avant-garde capital of Europe, with breakthroughs in expressionist cinema, Bauhaus design, jazz, cabaret, and theoretical physics (Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921). But the Great Depression after 1929 destroyed the fragile political center, and by 1933, Hitler and the Nazi Party had exploited economic despair and democratic weakness to seize power — ending the republic and beginning one of history's darkest chapters.
Lessons covering this topic
Browse all lessons →The Treaty of Versailles
The peace that planted the seeds of the next war.
The Roaring Twenties & the Great Depression
Boom, bust, and global economic crisis.
The Rise of Fascism
Mussolini, Hitler, and the assault on democracy.