Who ruled Germany after ww1?

Answer 1

Initially there was some chaos, as Germany went through a revolution- there was a huge military mutiny going on, the Kaiser fled, and no new government had formed. Not only that, Communists were trying to take control of the country, as had happened in Russia about a year earlier. This resulted in bloody street battles between the Communists and right-wing militias called "Freikorps".

However, some officials from the Kaiser's old regime met in the city of Weimar and created a republic, which would be called the Weimar Republic. The Republic had elected leaders, and their system worked pretty similar to how the British system works- except instead of having a Queen, Germany had a "President" who was the symbolic leader of the country; the person who runs the government was called "Chancellor", and still is to this day.

The Weimar Republic was Germany's first attempt at democracy, and was immediately met with problems. Their system of government needed political parties to work together to get things done; however, there were many parties and they often refused to work together. Eventually things got so bad that President Hindenburg had to use his special emergency powers to issue executive orders, which forced the government to do things it needed to do. This was very undemocratic though, and made the Republic look very weak. Economic problems, especially those caused by the result of World War I and then the Great Depression, further exacerbated this weakness.

The Republic lasted until Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party were able to take control and wipe away any sense of "democracy". By 1935, the Weimar Republic had virtually ceased to exist, replaced by Hitler's dictatorial "Third Reich".