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|today = |footnotes = The coat of arms shown above is the version used after 1928, which replaced that shown in the "Flag and coat of arms" section.〔Cf. ''Der Große Brockhaus: Handbuch des Wissens in zwanzig Bänden'': 21 vols., completely revis. ed., Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 151928–1935, vol. 4 (1929): "Vierter Band Chi–Dob", article: 'Deutsches Reich', pp. 611–704, here pp. 648 and 651. No ISBN.〕 }} The Weimar Republic ((ドイツ語:Weimarer Republik) ) was the federal republic and semi-presidential representative democracy established in 1919 in Germany to replace the German Empire. It is named after Weimar, the city where the constitutional assembly took place, although the official name of the state was German Reich (''Deutsches Reich''), continuing the name from the pre-1918 Imperial period. The republic emerged from the German Revolution in November 1918. In 1919, a national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the German Reich was written, and adopted on 11 August. In its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremists (with paramilitaries – both left and right wing) and continuing contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. However, the Weimar Republic successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies and the railway system and eliminated most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, in that Germany never completely met the disarmament requirements, and eventually only paid a small portion of the total reparations required by the treaty, which were reduced twice by restructuring Germany's debt through the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan.〔Marks, Sally, ''The Illusion of Peace: International Relations in Europe, 1918–1933'', St. Martin's, NY, 1976, pp.96–105.〕 While the Western borders of the Weimar Republic were accepted by Germany under the influence of Gustav Stresemann as German foreign minister in the Locarno Treaties, the Eastern border remained debatable for the Weimar German governments. In 1930, President Hindenburg assumed emergency powers to back the administrations of Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen and General Kurt von Schleicher. Between 1930 and 1933 the Great Depression, worsened by Brüning's policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment.〔Buttner, Ursula ''Weimar: die überforderte Republik'', Klett-Cotta, 2008, ISBN 978-3-608-94308-5, p. 424〕 This led in 1933 to the appointment by Hindenburg of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of a coalition government – out of 10 other cabinet seats besides Hitler's, there were only two others held by Nazis: Wilhelm Frick (Minister of the Interior) and Hermann Göring (Minister without portfolio) – von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the ''éminence grise'' who would keep Hitler under control, using his close personal connection to Hindenburg. The Reichstag Fire Decree, signed by Hindenburg less than a month later, declared a state of emergency – the presumed start of a Communist revolution – and wiped out Constitutional civil liberties at a stroke. This, combined with the passage by the legislature in March of the Enabling Act of 1933, allowed the Chancellor – Hitler – to govern by decree without the involvement of the legislature. These two events were commonly known by the Nazi Party as the ''Machtergreifung'' ("seizure of power"), and brought the Weimar Republic to an end. The constitution became irrelevant, a democratically elected legislature was disbanded, and a single-party state was created. The end of the Weimar Republic marked the beginning of Nazi Germany. ==Name== Despite its political form, the new republic was still known as ''Deutsches Reich'' in German. This phrase was commonly translated into English as ''German Empire'', although the German word ''Reich'' has a broader range of connotations than the English "empire", so the name is most often translated to the ''German Reich'' in English. The English word "realm" captures broadly the same meaning. The common short form in English remained ''Germany''. The Weimar Republic is so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar, Germany from 6 February 1919 to 11 August 1919,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Weimar Republic )〕 but this name only became mainstream after 1933. Between 1919 and 1933 there was no single name for the new state that gained widespread acceptance, which is precisely why the old name "Deutsches Reich" continued in existence even though hardly anyone actually used it during the Weimar period. To the right of the spectrum the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model and hated to see the honour of the traditional word "Reich" associated with it. The Catholic Centre party favoured the term "Deutscher Volksstaat" (''"German People's State"'') while on the moderate left the Chancellor's SPD (party) preferred "Deutsche Republik" (''"German Republic"'').〔 "Deutsche Republik" was, by 1925, the term that most Germans used, but for the anti-democratic right the word "Republik" was, along with the relocation of the seat of power to Weimar, a painful reminder of a government structure that had been imposed by foreign statesmen, along with the expulsion of Kaiser Wilhelm in the wake of massive national humiliation.〔 The first recorded mention of the term "Republik von Weimar" (''"Republic of Weimar"'') came during a speech delivered by an opposition leader at a National Socialist German Worker's Party rally in Munich on 24 February 1929, and it was a few weeks later that the same opposition politician, Adolf Hitler, first used the term "Weimar Republik" in a newspaper article.〔 Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany. ==Flag and coat of arms== After the introduction of the republic, the flag and coat of arms of Germany were altered to reflect the political changes. The republican tricolour is based on the flag that the Paulskirche Constitution of 1849 introduced, which was decided upon by the German National Assembly in Frankfurt upon Main, at the peak of the German civic movement that demanded parliamentary participation and unification of the German states. The achievements and signs of this movement were mostly done away with after its downfall and the political reaction. Only the tiny German Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont upheld the tradition and continued to use the German colours called Schwarz-Rot-Gold in German ((英語:Black-Red-Gold)). These signs had remained symbols of the Paulskirche movement and Weimar Germany wanted to express its view of being also originated in that political movement between 1849 and 1858. However, anti-republicans opposed this flag. While the first German Confederal Navy (''Reichsflotte'') (1848–1852) had proudly used a naval ensign based on Schwarz-Rot-Gold, the Weimar republic navy, or ''Reichsmarine'' (1918–1933) insisted on using the pre-1918 colours of the previous Kaiserliche Marine (1871–1918), which were Black-White-Red, as did the German merchant marine. The republican coat of arms took up the idea of the German crest established by the Paulskirche movement, using the same charge animal, an eagle, in the same colours (black, red and gold), but modernising its form, including a reduction of the heads from two to one. Friedrich Ebert initially declared the official German coat of arms to be a design by Emil Doepler (shown in the infobox above) as of 12 November 1919, following a decision of the German government.〔Jana Leichsenring, "Staatssymbole: Der Bundesadler", in: ''Aktueller Begriff'', Deutscher Bundestag—Wissenschaftliche Dienste (ed.), No. 83/08 (12 December 2008), p. 1.〕 In 1928, however, the ''Reichswappen'' (Reich coat of arms) designed by Tobias Schwab (1887–1967) in 1926 (1924〔According to sources of the German national football team Schwab created the emblem for the team in 1924.〕 ) replaced it as the official emblem for the German Olympic team.〔Cf. Reichswappen as depicted in the table: "Deutsches Reich: Wappen I" in: ''Der Große Brockhaus: Handbuch des Wissens in zwanzig Bänden'': 21 vols., Leipzig: Brockhaus, 151928–1935; vol. 4 "Chi–Dob" (1929), p. 648.〕〔Jürgen Hartmann, "Der Bundesadler", in: ''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'' (No. 03/2008), Institut für Zeitgeschichte (ed.), pp. 495–509, here p. 501.〕〔Jana Leichsenring, "Staatssymbole: Der Bundesadler", in: ''Aktueller Begriff'', Deutscher Bundestag—Wissenschaftliche Dienste (ed.), No. 83/08 (12 December 2008), p. 2〕 The Reichswehr adopted the new Reichswappen in 1927.〔 Doepler's design then became the ''Reichsschild'' (Reich's escutcheon) with restricted use such as pennant for government vehicles. In 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) adopted all three signs of Weimar Republic, Reichswappen, Reichsschild and Reichsflagge as Bundeswappen, Bundesschild and Bundesflagge.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Weimar Republic」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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