Weimar Germany was a diverse and complex landscape throughout the entirety of the years following the war. This intricate environment was moulded through the many factors that were either carried from certain organizations with different views or felt throughout the Republic of Weimar. During the period of 1918-1924, arguably one of the most significant factors, in terms of the impact on Weimar Germany, was nationalism. Nationalism is the belief that an individual’s loyalty to a nation exceeds any opposing individual or group interests. German nationalism, in particular, opposed the new Weimar Republic and pushed for a return to the imperialist rule in place during the period of the German Empire. While nationalism did have major impacts on Weimar Germany, other factors such as internationalism were also impactful.
To understand the impact of nationalism on Weimar Germany, the organizations that carried the ideology of nationalism must first be established.
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Chancellor Hermann Müller had passed cabinet laws that allowed secret and illegal rearmament efforts, starting nearly as soon as the Treaty was signed. This rearmament was relatively small, secret, and supported mostly by Germans motivated with nationalism. The belief that the Treaty of Versailles had left Germany under protected and essentially powerless in the face of other European countries was a nationalistic belief that had led to this rearmament. The men supporting the rearming had a hope that Germany would slowly build up enough military power to return to their previous colonial economic activity, and that the military power would be enough that Britain and France would decline to fight another war to enforce the Treaty, thus bringing it the to an end. This action shows how nationalism had a major effect on Weimar, even leading to the breaking of the Treaty of Versailles, which could have resulted in catastrophic