German Republic

The German Republic, also called the Weimar Republic, the German Reich and the German People's State, is a nation in Europe and is the successor state to the German Empire.

Background
Following the Great War and the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II from the thrones of Germany and Prussia, Germany formed a republic under pressure from the Entente powers. Despite peace being wrought from the Treaty of Versailles, the Republic was not a stable regime with various attempted coup d'etats from the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands and the various Freikorps movements.

After a 1923 putsch carried out by the Bayern Volkspartei was crushed by the state's police, the country was hit by economic instability due to a combination of the harsh reparations of the Versailles Treaty and hyperinflation. Due to this, the Entente powers of France and Belgium seized control of the vital Saar Economic Zone. In 1930, the German Republic suffered more economic woes following the Great Depression. Despite these economic hardships creating prime breeding grounds for Ernst Thälmann's KPD and Hermann Goering's Groß-Deutsche Volkspartei, the ruling Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands narrowly scraped a win in the 1933 election and formed a coalition with the Sozialzentum Partei of former SDP member Philipp Scheidemann and the Deutsche Zentrumspartei of Heinrich Brunning.

After the death of Paul von Hindenberg in 1934, Zentrum politician Franz von Papen was elected to replace the old war hero as President. While this consolidated the SDP/SZP/DZP coalition's hold on power, it also paved the way for the Zentrumspartei to exert more power over the already weak hold of Chancellor Otto Wels.

Politics
The German Republic follows a democratic structure based around proportional representation. This led to the constant formation and dissolution of large numbers of minor political parties. The main parties and their leaders in the 663 seat Reichstag are:

Military
The armed forces of the Weimar Republic in the Reichswehr or Defence Force. Despite being limited to 100,000 active personnel due to the restrictions of Versailles, the Republic gets around this by sending active personnel to the nation's reserves. However, the actual size of the Republic's military might may be larger if one factors in the various paramilitary forces that are assigned to the many political parties.

To compound matters, the Republic's officer corps is split between the many political factions, most notably the monarchist Deutschnationale Volkspartei, nationalistic GDVP, and the KPD.

Foreign Relations
The German Republic has-


 * Friendly ties to the following nations:
 * Empire of Austria
 * Denmark
 * Ottoman Empire
 * Tsardom of Bulgaria
 * Kingdom of Yugoslavia


 * Hostile relations with the following nations:
 * Petrograd Soviet
 * Rhineland Mandate
 * Soviet Republic of Hungary
 * Kingdom of Poland
 * Distrustful relations with the following nations:
 * French Republic
 * United Kingdom