How long can the Weimar Republic last?

With a POD around 1920 or so, how long can the Weimar Republic last "as-it-is" without falling into some sort of totalitarian regime?
 
Probably about as long as it did OTL. The Great Depression hit Germany hard just as the Republic was showing signs of life.

In the Nov. 1932 election (the last free one before the Nazis took over) about half the electorate voted for either the Nazis or the Communists - two groups who were explicitly anti-democratic. People were more than willing to end the "democracy" experiment and try something new and totalitarian in nature. Even if you butterfly away the Nazis someone like them will eventually topple the government by the mid 1930s at the latest.
 
Probably about as long as it did OTL. The Great Depression hit Germany hard just as the Republic was showing signs of life.

In the Nov. 1932 election (the last free one before the Nazis took over) about half the electorate voted for either the Nazis or the Communists - two groups who were explicitly anti-democratic. People were more than willing to end the "democracy" experiment and try something new and totalitarian in nature. Even if you butterfly away the Nazis someone like them will eventually topple the government by the mid 1930s at the latest.
Not necessarily with a PoD as early as 1920. Have 1923 go differently, or mess with global economic trends - a lot can happen.
There wasn't necessarily a penchant for totalitarianism (at least not in the German radical left), so lumping both Nazis and KPD together gives you a wrong picture. It does show you that by 1931, the Weimar Republic had few active defenders left, and that the number of people who''d see a totalitarian dictatorship in their favour as the lesser evil was high. But none of that was predestined by 1920.
 

Marc

Donor
Well, it was no more structurally flawed than the French 3rd Republic which lasted for 70 years.
Its misfortune was timing: it came into existence in the context of the collapse of a centuries old socioeconomic system and the tangible rise of powerful ideologies.
However, the fall of the 2nd Reich wasn't predetermined, it just would have taken more skill and luck than tragically it got.
 
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My top 5 solutions for a longer-lived Weimar Republic:
1) Stalin killed in Russian Civil War or otherwise no "social fascism" doctrine in the Comintern; KPD splinters less, more united leftist reaction to post-1929 troubles
2) Beer Hall putschists all shot in 1923; far Right remains divided and dominated by the ilk of DNVP who, Lacking a charismatic Rat Catcher, never leave their niche
3) Ebert in better health, getting reelected in 1925, not sabotaging great coalitions, so the Great Depression must be dealt with by the Reichstag, then in 1932 he or any other sane politician is elected and never appoints Hitler or signs the dictatorial decrees.
4) Stresemann in better health keeps the great coalition together, No 1930 elections, much less momentum for the Nazis, republican majority barely holding together in 1932, and by 1936, the worst is Behind us.
5) Hindenburg dies three years earlier. In 1932, the Parties who backed Hindenburg agaonst Hitler IOTL back Wilhelm Marx or whomever from a centrist Party, and He wins Like Hindenburg did. No February decrees, NSDAP-DNVP coalition, if it forms, Breaks apart soon.
 
It could have survived.

  1. The Nazis already lost voters in the last free elections in 1932.
    And if one can believe the Goebbels diaries, the Nazi party was essentially bankrupt in late 1932.
    According to the diaries Hitler was allegedly wondering if he should commit suicide or emigrate to Southern America because the Nazi party was totally incapable of paying back their late 1932 election loans. IOUs signed by Hitler personally.
    The nomination to become German Chancellor in early 1933 rescued the Nazi party from imploding.
    Without the Nazi party on the right, the Weimar Republic might have dealt / survived the danger from the Communist party.

  2. Before that?
    Maybe a few more concessions to Stresemann in the 1920s?
    He allegedly said that he offered everything he could. If his foreign opponents had offered him something substantial back he could have won the support of the Germans. They didn´t do it. Everything they offered was too late and with much hesitation. And that - according to him - was his tragedy and their fault.

  3. And he wasn´t that wrong.
    Simply compare what the Allies granted Hitler in the 1930s and what they offered the democratic Weimar Republic in the 1920s. It truly is a shame.

  4. Avoid Brüning.
    He deliberately practiced severe austerity to show the WW1 winners that Germany was incapable of paying back the WW1 reparations. Quite understandable since all WW1 winners closed their markets to foreign states following the Great Depression. Just how was Germany supposed to earn the foreign currency to pay back reparations with tariff walls everywhere?
    Anyway, his policies turned a great recession into a great depression in Germany. 6-7 million unemployed with a barely existing social safety net probably would be deadly to almost every country.
 
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