lone was a major economic hurdle to overcome. With the amount of money being demanded by the Allies in reparation payments, and the pension costs of the war victims, there was little left to finance rebuilding initiatives, and to get the country back on its feet in general. These economic problems were worsened by the very weak currency, and loss of many international trading partners. The people of Germany did not at the time realize that the country was as poor as it was, and expected the situation to revert to what it had been like previous to the war. Unfortunately this was not possible. The Left wing government had gained power quite unexpectedly, and was not prepared to deal with the problems the country was facing. Many of the political elites had relinquished power, and backed out of the new left government, taking with them their leadership, experience and support. The Left gaining power was perhaps less the consequence of a triumph of the Left, than a colossal failure of elite politics in Germany. This compromise made it difficult for the Left wing government to function. The people were in no means ready for a Bolshevik style revolution, or even left wing reforms for that matter. The left gained power because there was no one else to take control. This presented a problem, in that there was no strong leadership of the left. The government was never quite legitimate in the eyes of the public. As well, in the formation of the constitution of the new Weimar republic, there was such an emphasis on it being democratic, that it ended up being so democratic that it was very difficult for legislation to be passed. All the balances and counter-balances proved to stall proposed bills before they got anywhere. This caused a vicious cycle in which not legislation was being passed. The inability of the Reichstag to pass any legislation forced President Hindenburg to enact Article 48 of the constitution numerous times to t...
