What type of government system was the Weimar Republic?

Correct answer: Democratic republic

The direct answer is A, democratic republic. The Weimar Republic was the democratic government established in Germany after the German Empire and the First World War. Its constitution was adopted in 1919, and the system included an elected parliament, the Reichstag, and a president. The reasoning is: Germany lost the First World War; the monarchy ended; a new constitution was created at Weimar; and Germany became a parliamentary democratic republic, although it later faced severe economic and political problems. Option A is correct because the Weimar system was based on a constitution, elections and republican institutions. Option B, absolute monarchy, is wrong because the Kaiser’s imperial monarchy had ended and political authority was no longer supposed to rest entirely with a hereditary ruler. Option C, feudal state, is wrong because feudalism describes a different medieval social and political order, not the constitutional government created in 1919. Option D, military dictatorship, is wrong as a description of its original system; the army and anti-democratic forces were influential, but the Weimar Republic itself was not established as a military dictatorship. Remember that later Nazi dictatorship replaced the democratic republic; it should not be confused with the system’s original character. Memory cue: Weimar 1919 equals Germany’s democratic republic before Hitler’s dictatorship.