ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Weimar Republic

So imagine you and your friends are playing a game where you take turns being the leader. The Weimar Republic was a bit like that, but with a whole country instead of just a group of friends.

After World War I ended in 1918, Germany was in pretty bad shape. They had lost the war and their economy was struggling. So they decided to make a new type of government called the Weimar Republic.

The Weimar Republic worked like this: every few years, the people of Germany would vote for someone to be their leader, sort of like how your class votes for a class president. The leader, called a president, would then choose other people to help him make decisions and run the country, just like how your class president might choose some friends to help plan a class party.

Things were going fairly well for the Weimar Republic at first. They made a new constitution, which is like a big set of rules for the whole country. They even gave people rights and freedoms, like the freedom to speak up and share their opinions without getting in trouble.

But then a lot of bad things started happening. The economy got even worse, which meant that people didn’t have enough money to buy food or pay for their homes. Some people started to get angry and frustrated with the government, and some even started to do bad things like breaking the law.

Eventually, a man named Adolf Hitler came along and started telling people that he could make things better. He was a very persuasive speaker and a lot of people started to believe him. Eventually, Hitler and his followers took over the government and became the leaders of Germany instead of the Weimar Republic.

So the Weimar Republic was like a big game of leader with a whole country, but it didn’t last very long. Even though they tried to make things better for people, it eventually fell apart and was replaced by something much worse.