The German public was initially in supportive of the outbreak of the First World War in Germany. From a German perspective at the time, parties were looked down upon as self-interested and a danger to the nation’s unity. People believed the war would be over soon, but to their dismay later found that the war was not ending soon enough. Germany faced great food shortages, which instigated protests against hunger. The Russian government finally decided in order to end the war “a peace without annexations or reparations” would be needed. An inter-party Committee was formed by the three delegations in the Reichstag with the goal to put pressure on the government with threats to deny an important bill to ratify war loans. The majority in the Reichstag were in support of the proposal to end war, which moved Reichstag into an independent political force. Two important figures to the German people were the military commanders: Paul Von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. Ludendorff contributed to creating the groundwork for totalitarian dictatorship through his outlook that “You are nothing, the people are everything.” Nevertheless, Ludendorff’s management of the economy served no benefits as it did not solve the growing social and political conflicts in Germany. Soon, as a result of being tired of the war, those involved in the war(armaments industry, army draftees, navy) agreed that there needed to be a revolution. Ludendorff called for a truce and the creation of a new government that would consist of member s of the Inter-Party committee. Unfortunately, the German democracy was created due to desperate situation Germany was in. Civilian politicians would run the truce negotians rather than the generals of the High Command. However, some sentences needed to be changed to turn the state into parliamentary democracy. German people were more concerned about the steps towards reaching peace rather than minor adjustments to the wording of the constitution.

The First World War eventually came to a close, but became a Civil War in Germany. Three parties fought for power including the Reichstag, social democrats, Liberals, and the Center Party. Their opposition were a conglomeration of leftist groups. Thesse groups became known as the red-gold forces and received the most votes. This signified that a democratic government had the majority of the peoples vote. However, in 1919 allies caused havoc through their requirements that Germany would have to lose quite a lot of territory. The allies would not renegotiate the terms they set in place and threatened to continue fighting if Germany did not comply with its terms. This Treaty of Versailles caused great harm to Germany through its restrictive terms that placed restraints on Germany’s ability to exercise its political and economic powers. Germans were impacted because they saw democracy the same as the Treaty of Versailles.

Germany underwent many issues in its efforts to establish democracy. The radical right-wing extremists were a threat to democracy.

(pictures: all of Reichstag)