The Weimar Republic was the democratic government of Germany from 1919 to 1933. Formed in the city of Weimar soon after World War I, it had the difficult task of ruling a nation forced to live under the harsh postwar settlements of the Treaty of Versailles. Though the Weimar period is remembered for some scientific and cultural achievements, it was a chaotic period in Germany's social and economic history. Internal political violence, high inflation, and the Great Depression undermined the popular support and stability of the Weimar government. Conditions were fertile for ideas such as those of the Nazi Party. The Weimar Republic came to an end in 1933, when Adolf Hitler, the new Fuehrer, suspended the Weimar constitution and established an authoritarian one-party dictatorship in Germany.
