The problems faced by the Weimer Republic are discussed below:

(i)This republic, however, was not received well by its own people largely because of the terms it was forced to accept after Germany’s defeat at the end of the First World War.

(ii)The peace treaty at Versailles with the Allies was a harsh and humiliating peace. Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13 per cent of its territories, 75 per cent of its iron and 26 per cent of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.

(iii)The Allied Powers demilitarised Germany to weaken its power. The War Guilt Clause held Germany responsible for the war and damages the Allied countries suffered. Germany was forced to pay compensation amounting to £6 billion.

(iv)The Allied armies also occupied the resource-rich Rhineland for much of the 1920s.

(v)Many Germans held the new Weimar Republic responsible for not only the defeat in the war but the disgrace at Versailles.