Review of Ernst Troeltsch's Article on The Weimar Republic

The newspaper article written by Ernst Troeltsch who is voicing his support for the new Weimar Republic has value as it was written by a liberal which means that it is from the opinion of someone who advocates for democracy and is a supporter of the Republic. This means that it is a view from someone who theoretically represents the centre of German politics which is valuable to a historian as it means that the author would not advocate from one extreme political point of view, but rather give an all-rounded political perspective which eliminates the possibility of there being a sense of bias. 

Troeltsch would be considered a member of the ‘educated elite’ which is valuable to a historian as his position as a historian and theorist gives the source credibility as he wouldn’t have an underlying sense of bias. We also can see that Troeltsch is very passionate about this matter as he uses emotive and dramatic phrases such as “volcano of misery”, however, this may limit the source’s value as since he is a strong supporter of the Weimar Republic, it can be seen that he is trying to persuade people to support the new republic, inevitably making this newspaper article a form of propaganda. 

The date the article was published (1918) also supports my previous point as Troeltsch was writing at a time of extreme political tension with the shock defeat of the war and the growing extremist resentment (Spartacist Uprising happened just a few days after this article was published). This is valuable to a historian studying the collapse of the Weimar democracy as it can be seen that the new Republic was flawed and disliked from the start, so would be unable to thrive in future years inevitably pre-empting its collapse. 

The content of this source is valuable to a historian as it provides an accurate prediction of what might occur if Germany failed to establish a “conservative democracy” as it highlights the political threats that the new republic could potentially face: the “terrorist minority on the left” and “demagogues of the right”. This is because the Weimar Republic was created at a time of chaos and confusion after Germany had lost WW1 and many people resented the government for signing the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The defeat in the war came as a huge surprise to the German people, which led to a theory emerging which stated that they were ‘stabbed in the back’ by the politicians. This therefore resulted in various uprisings which Troeltsch correctly predicted: threat for the left being expressed in the form of the Spartacist Uprising of January 1919, and the resentment of the “demagogues of the right” (referring to the Nazi Party) taking the form of the Kapp (1920) and Munich (1923) Putsch. This is valuable to a historian studying the collapse of the Weimar democracy as it can be seen that the democracy ‘dug its own grave’ when they agreed to sign the Versailles Treaty which inevitably sparked the extremist resentment which led to its collapse.

Overall, this article is valuable to a historian as it can be seen that the Weimar Republic was flawed from the start when they signed the Versailles Treaty which inevitably led to its collapse. Furthermore, the authorship gives this source credibility as since Troeltsch is historian and theorist, he wouldn’t have a political bias which makes this source valuable.