https://www.facebook.com/notes/german-consulate-general-hong-kong/威瑪共和國-德國第一次實行民主-the-weimar-republic-the-first-democracy-of-germany/645129789020476?qid=6397700228613109110&mf_story_key=1751706167717954025德國簡史系列之一/ Concise History of Germany I
時間軸： 1919 - 1930
威瑪共和國在1918年11月君主制度的垮台後，從1919年1月制定憲法的德國國民大會的選舉中脫胎而出。在某種程度上，君主制度的機構還以變通的形式繼續存在著：民選的總統大權在握，以至於當時的人們就稱他為「皇帝代理」或「代理皇帝」了。
同樣，威瑪共和國也延續了之前帝國時代的道德價值觀。儘管（或者是因為）德國文件上清楚地記載著：「在奧匈帝國皇儲於1914年6月28日在薩拉熱窩遇刺後，德帝國領導層故意激化國際爭端，因此承擔第一次世界大戰爆發的主要責任。」，一戰的罪責問題並沒受到正視。罪責問題缺乏討論的結果，導致了一個德國無戰爭罪責的說法。它與「刀刺在背」傳說（即德國的失敗是因國內有人出賣所致）傳說一起，埋葬了這個德國第一次民主制度的合法性。
作為議會民主的威瑪民主制僅延續了11年。 1930年3月底，社民黨的赫曼 · 穆勒（Hermann Müller）領導下的最後一屆多數政府在一場關於整頓失業保險的爭論中垮台了。代替此前的大聯盟（Grand Coalition）是一個在信奉天主教的中央黨（Centre Party）政治家海因里希· 布呂寧（Heinrich Brüning）領導下的市民的少數內閣，自1930年夏起借助年邁的陸軍元帥兼帝國總統保羅· 馮· 興登堡（Paul von Hindenburg）的緊急法令，得以執政。
阿道夫 · 希特拉的納粹黨（NSDAP）在1930年9月14日的帝國議會選舉中上升為第二大黨後，仍是第一大黨的社民黨（SPD）轉而容忍布呂寧的內閣，藉以避免國家內部進一步的權力突變，在普魯士這個最大的、由社民黨與天主教的中央黨（即布呂寧的黨派）以及市民的民主主義者共同執政的國家中保全民主。
Timeline: 1919 - 1930
The Weimar Republic (1918-1933) emerged following the fall of the monarchy in November 1918 and the January 1919 elections to the German National Assembly, which was to draw up a constitution. To a certain extent the institution of the monarchy simply persisted in a different form: The office of Reich President, who was elected by the people, came with such powers that there was very quickly talk of a “substitute Emperor” or a “replacement Emperor”.
Nor was there any ethical break with the German Reich. The question of responsibility for the war (World War I) was not addressed in a serious manner even though (or because) Germany’s actions spoke a very clear language: Following the assassination on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo of the successor to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, the leaders of the Reich deliberately escalated the crisis and therefore bore the main responsibility for the outbreak of the First World War. The subsequent lack of debate about bearing the blame for the war resulted in the German legend that the country was indeed innocent of starting the war. Together with the „stab-in-the-back-legend” (which claimed that treason on the home front had led to Germany’s defeat) this played a part in the undermining of the first German democracy.
As a parliamentary democracy the Weimar Republic survived a mere 11 years. At the end of March 1930, the last majority government, headed by Hermann Müller, a Social Democrat, collapsed on the back of an argument about restructuring the unemployment insurance system. The Grand Coalition that had been in power until then was replaced by a center-right minority cabinet under a politician from the Catholic Zentrum Party, Heinrich Brüning. From the summer of 1930, this government ruled with the help of emergency decrees issued by General Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg, the aging Reich President.
When at the Reichstag elections held on September 14, 1930 Adolf Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist Party (NSDAP) became the second biggest party, the Social Democrat Party (SPD), which was still the largest party, decided to tolerate the Brüning cabinet in order to prevent the Reich drifting further to the right and to preserve democracy in Prussia, the largest individual state, where the SPD ruled jointly with Brüning’s Catholic Center Party, and the center-right Democrats.