Weimar Republic
The
Weimar Republic (
German Weimarer Republik,
IPA: []) is the common name for the republic that governed Germany from
1919 to
1933. This period of
German history is often known as the Weimar period. The republic was named after the city of
Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new
constitution after the
German Empire was abolished following the nation's defeat in
World War I. Despite its political form, the new Republic still called itself "Deutsches
Reich" (
German Empire), the same name used by the German monarchy before 1919. The phrase
Weimar Republic is an invention of historians, and was not used officially during its existence.
This first attempt to establish a
liberal democracy in Germany happened during a time of civil conflict, and failed with the ascent of
Adolf Hitler and the
Nazi Party in
1933. Although technically the 1919 constitution was not invalidated until after
World War II, the legal measures taken by the Nazi government in 1933 (commonly known as
Gleichschaltung) destroyed the mechanisms of a typical democratic system, so 1933 is cited as the end of the Weimar Republic.
From
1916 onwards, the
1871 German Empire had effectively been governed by the military, led by the
Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL, Supreme Army Command) with the Chief of Staff
Paul von Hindenburg. When it became apparent that
World War I was lost, the OHL demanded that a civil government be installed in order to meet a key peace talk condition from
United States President
Woodrow Wilson. Any attempt to continue the war after
Bulgaria had left the
Central Powers would only have caused German territories to be occupied. The new
Reichskanzler Prince
Max von Baden thus offered a cease-fire to President Wilson on
October 3,
1918. On
October 28, 1918, the 1871 constitution was finally amended to make the
Reich a
parliamentary democracy, which the government had refused for half a century: the Chancellor was henceforth responsible to Parliament, the
Reichstag, and no longer to the
Kaiser.
The plan to transform Germany into a
constitutional monarchy similar to
Britain quickly became obsolete as the country slid into a state of near-total chaos. Germany was flooded with soldiers returning from the front, many of whom were wounded physically, psychologically, or both. Violence was rampant, with fights breaking out even between rival
leftist groups at funerals for leaders assassinated by right-wing adversaries.
Rebellion broke out when on
October 29, the military command, without consultation with the government, ordered the German
High Seas Fleet to
sortie. This was not only entirely hopeless from a military standpoint, but was also certain to bring the peace negotiations to a halt. The crews of two ships in
Wilhelmshaven mutinied. When the military arrested about 1,000 seamen and had them transported to
Kiel, the
Wilhelmshaven mutiny turned into a general rebellion that quickly swept over most of Germany. Other seamen, soldiers and workers, in solidarity with the arrested, began electing worker and soldier councils modelled after the
soviets of the
Russian Revolution of 1917, and took over military and civil powers in many cities. On
November 7, the revolution had reached
Munich, causing King
Ludwig III of Bavaria to flee.
Initially, the demands of the councils were modest: they wanted the arrested seamen to be freed. In contrast to Russia one year earlier, the councils were not controlled by a communist party. Still, with the emergence of the Soviet Union, the rebellion caused great fear in the establishment down to the middle classes. The country was on the verge of becoming a
socialist republic.
At the time, the political representation of the working class was divided: a faction had separated from the Social Democratic Party, the traditional working-class party, calling themselves "Independent Social Democrats" (USPD) and leaning towards a socialist system. In order not to lose their influence, the remaining "Majority Social Democrats" (MSPD, who supported a parliamentary system) decided to put themselves at the front of the movement, and on
November 7, demanded that Emperor
Wilhelm II abdicate. On
November 9,
1918, the Republic was proclaimed by
Philipp Scheidemann at the
Reichstag building in
Berlin and two hours later a socialist republic was proclaimed around the corner at the
Berlin Castle by
Karl Liebknecht.
On
November 9, in a legally questionable act,
Reichskanzler Prince
Max von Baden transferred his powers to
Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the MSPD. It was apparent that this act would not be sufficient to satisfy the masses, so a day later, a revolutionary government called "Council of People's Commissioners" (
Rat der Volksbeauftragten) was created, consisting of three MSPD and three USPD members, led by Ebert for the MSPD and
Hugo Haase for the USPD. Although the new government was confirmed by the Berlin worker and soldier council, it was opposed by the
Spartacist League led by
Rosa Luxemburg and
Karl Liebknecht. Ebert called for a National Congress of Councils, which took place from
December 16 to 20, 1918, and in which the MSPD had the majority. Ebert thus managed to enforce quick elections for a National Assembly to produce a constitution for a parliamentary system, marginalizing the movement that called for a socialist republic (see below).
From November
1918 through January
1919, Germany was governed dictatorially by the Council of People's Commissioners. In these three months, the government was extraordinarily active, and issued a large number of decrees. At the same time, its main activities were confined to certain spheres: the 8 hour day, domestic labour reform, agricultural labour reform, right of civil-service associations, local municipality social welfare relief (split between Reich and States) and important national health insurance, re-instatement of demobilised workers, protection arbitrary dismissal with appeal as right, regulated wage agreement, and Universal suffrage from 20 years of age in all classes of elections - local and national. Occasionally the name "Die Deutsche Sozialdemokratische Republik" (The German Social-Democratic Republic) appeared in leaflets and on posters from this era, although this was never the official name of the country.
The Reichswehr and the Revolution
To ensure that his fledgling government was able to maintain control over the country, Ebert made a pact with the OHL, now led by Ludendorff's successor General
Wilhelm Groener. This
Ebert-Groener pact stipulated that the government would not attempt to reform the Army so long as the army swore to protect the government. On the one hand, this agreement symbolised the acceptance of the new government by the military, assuaging concern among the middle classes; on the other hand, it was considered a betrayal of worker interests by the left wing. The new model
Reichswehr armed forces, limited by the
Treaty of Versailles to 100,000 army soldiers and 15,000 seamen, remained fully under the control of the Imperial military caste despite its nominal re-organisation. As an independent and conservative group in Weimar, it wielded a large amount of influence over the fate of the republic. Unlike all other revolutions, the men of the German Revolution asked the High Command how to bring the army home.
This pact also marked one of several steps that caused the permanent split in the working class's political representation into the SPD and Communists. The eventual fate of the Weimar Republic in no small part derives from the general political backwardness of the German labour movement. The several strands within the central mass of the socialist movement adhered more to sentimental loyalty to alliances arising from chance than to any recognition of political necessity. Combined action on the part of the socialists was impossible without action from the millions of workers who stood midway between the
parliamentarians and the ultra-leftists who supported the workers councils. Confusion through Weimar as a whole made acute the danger of extreme right and extreme left engaging in virulent conflict.
The split became final after Ebert called upon the OHL for troops to put down another Berlin soldier mutiny on
November 23,
1918, in which soldiers had captured the city commandant and closed off the
Reichskanzlei where the Council of People's Commissioners was situated. The suppression was brutal with several dead and injured. This caused the left wing to call for a split with the MSPD, which, in their view, had joined with the counter-revolutionary military to suppress the Revolution. The USPD thus left the Council of People's Commissioners after only seven weeks. The split deepened when, in December, the
Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) was formed out of a number of left-wing groups, including the left wing of the USPD and the
Spartakus group.
In January, more armed attempts at establishing
council communism by workers in the streets of Berlin were put down by paramilitary
Freikorps units consisting of volunteer soldiers, culminating in the beating to death of
Rosa Luxemburg and
Liebknecht on
January 15. With the affirmation of Ebert, the murderers were tried not before a civil court, but a military court, leading to very lenient sentences, which did not exactly lead to more acceptance for Ebert on the left wing either.
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Official postcard of the National Assembly |
The National Assembly elections took place
January 19, 1919. In this time, the new left-wing parties, including the USPD and KPD, were barely able to get themselves organized, leading to a solid majority of seats for the moderate forces. To avoid the ongoing fights in Berlin, the National Assembly convened in the city of
Weimar, giving the future Republic its unofficial name. The
Weimar Constitution created a republic under a
semi-presidential system with the
Reichstag elected by
proportional representation. The Socialist and (Non-Socialist) Democratic parties obtained a solid 80 per cent of the vote.
During the debates in Weimar, fights continued. A
Soviet republic was declared in
Munich, but was quickly put down by
Freikorps and regular army units. The presence of these conservative units resulted in the growth
far-right movements and organizations in
Bavaria, including the
Nazis. Sporadic fighting continued to flare up around the country. In eastern territories, forces loyal to the Kaiser fought the republic, while the Polish population fought for independence:
Great Poland Uprising in
Provinz Posen and three
Silesian Uprisings in
Upper Silesia.
The socialist roots of Weimar
The carefully thought-out social and political legislation introduced during the revolution was generally unappreciated by the German working-class. The two goals sought by the government, democratisation and social protection of the working class, were never achieved. This has been attributed to a lack of pre-war political experience on the part of the Social Democrats. The government had little success in confronting the twin economic crises following the war.
The permanent economic crisis was a result of lost pre-war industrial exports, the loss of supplies in raw materials and food stuffs from
Alsace-Lorraine, Polish districts and the colonies along with worsening debt balances and reparations payments. Military-industrial activity had almost ceased, although controlled demobilisation kept unemployment at around one million.
The
Entente permitted only low import levels of goods that most Germans could not afford. After four years of war and famine, many German workers were exhausted, physically impaired and discouraged. Millions were disenchanted with capitalism and hoping for a new era. Meanwhile the currency devalued.
The German peace delegation in
France signed the
Treaty of Versailles, accepting mass reductions of the German military, heavy reparations payments and the controversial "
War Guilt Clause".
Adolf Hitler later blamed the republic and its democracy for the oppressive terms of this treaty.
The Republic's first
Reichspräsident ("Reich President"),
Friedrich Ebert of the SPD, signed the new German constitution into law on
August 11,
1919.
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1923-issue 50 million mark banknote. Worth approximately $1 US when printed, this sum would have been worth approximately $12 million nine years earlier. The note was practically worthless a few weeks later due to continued inflation. |
The Republic was under great pressure from both left and right-wing extremists. The left accused the ruling Social Democrats of having betrayed the ideals of the workers' movement by avoiding a communist revolution. The right was opposed to any democratic system, preferring an authoritarian state like the 1871 Empire. To further undermine the Republic's credibility the right (especially the military) blamed it for Germany's defeat in World War I (see
Dolchstoßlegende).
The
Kapp Putsch took place on
March 13,
1920, involving a group of
Freikorps troops who captured
Berlin and installed
Wolfgang Kapp (a right wing journalist) as chancellor. The national government fled to
Stuttgart and called for a
general strike. This completely halted the economy and the Kapp government collapsed after only four days on
March 17.
Inspired by the general strikes, a communist uprising began in the
Ruhr region when 50,000 people formed a "Red Army" and took control of the province. The regular army and the
Freikorps ended the uprising without orders from the government. Other communist rebellions were put down in March
1921 in
Saxony and
Hamburg.
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Inflation 1923â€"24: a woman feeds her tiled stove with money. At the time, burning money was less expensive than buying firewood. |
By
1923, the Republic claimed it could no longer afford the reparations payments required by the Versailles treaty, and the government defaulted on some payments. In response,
French and
Belgian troops
occupied the Ruhr region, Germany's most productive industrial region at the time, taking control of most mining and manufacturing companies in January of
1923. Strikes were called, and passive resistance was encouraged. These strikes lasted eight months, further damaging the economy and raising expensive imports.
Since striking workers were paid benefits by the state, much additional currency was printed, fueling a period of
hyperinflation. The value of the Mark had declined from 4.2 per US dollar at the outbreak of World War I to 1 million per dollar by August 1923 and 4.2
trillion per dollar on
November 20. On
December 1, a new currency, the
Rentenmark, was introduced at the rate of 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) old mark for 1 new mark. Reparation payments resumed, and the Ruhr was returned to Germany.
Further pressure from the right came in 1923 with the
Beer Hall Putsch, staged by
Adolf Hitler in
Munich. In
1920, the
German Workers' Party had become the
Nazi Party (NSDAP), and would become a driving force in the collapse of Weimar. Hitler was named chairman of the party in July
1921. The
SA was established in November 1921 and acted as Hitler's personal army. On
November 8,
1923, the
Kampfbund, in a pact with
Erich Ludendorff, took over a meeting by Bavarian prime minister
Gustav von Kahr at a beer hall in Munich. Ludendorff and Hitler declared a new government, planning to take control of Munich the following day. The 3,000 rebels were thwarted by 100 policemen. Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison, a minimum sentence for the charge and he served less than eight months before his release. Following the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch, his imprisonment and subsequent release, Hitler focused on legal methods of gaining power.
Gustav Stresemann was
Reichskanzler for a brief period in
1923, and served as Foreign Minister from
1923-
1929, a period of relative stability for the Weimar Republic when there were fewer uprisings and seemingly the beginnings of an economic recovery.
Stresemann's first move was to issue a new currency, the
Rentenmark, to halt the extreme
hyperinflation crippling German society and the economy. It was successful because Stresemann repeatedly refused to issue more currency, the cause of the inflationary spiral. To further stabilise the economy, he reduced spending and
bureaucracy while increasing
taxes. He signed the
Locarno Treaties with the Allied countries in 1925 as a means of restoring Germany's diplomatic status in Europe.
During this period, the
Dawes Plan was also created, tying reparations payments to Germany's ability to pay. Germany was admitted into the
League of Nations, made agreements over its western border, signed a neutrality pact with
Russia, and
disarmament was brought to a halt. However, this progress was funded by overseas loans, increasing the nation's debts, while overall trade decreased and unemployment rose. Stresemann's reforms did not relieve the underlying weaknesses of Weimar but merely gave the appearance of a stable democracy.
Despite the progress made during these years, Stresemann was criticized by his opponents for his policy of "fulfillment", or compliance with the terms of the
Versailles Treaty.
In 1929, Stresemann's death marked the end of the "Golden Era" of the Weimar Republic.
Loss of credibility for the Republic
The last years of the Weimar republic were stamped by even more political instability than in the previous years and the administrations of Chancellors Brüning, Papen, Schleicher and Hitler (from
30 January to
23 March 1933) were all Presidentially appointed dictatorships. On
March 29,
1930, the finance expert
Heinrich Brüning had been appointed the successor of Chancellor Müller by
Paul von Hindenburg after months of political lobbying by General
Kurt von Schleicher on behalf of the military. The new government was expected to lead a political shift towards conservatism, based on the emergency powers granted to the
Reichspräsident by the constitution, since it had no majority support in the
Reichstag.
After an unpopular bill to reform the Reich's finances was left unsupported by the
Reichstag, Hindenburg established the bill as an emergency decree based on
Article 48 of the constitution. On
July 18 1930, the bill was again invalidated by a slim majority in the
Reichstag with the support of the SPD,
KPD, the (then small) NSDAP and
DNVP. Immediately afterwards, Brüning submitted to the
Reichstag the president's decree that it would be dissolved.
The
Reichstag general elections on
September 14,
1930, resulted in an enormous political shift: 18.3% of the vote went to the Nazis, five times the percentage compared to 1928. This had devastating consequences for the Republic. There was no longer a majority in the
Reichstag even for a Great Coalition of moderate parties, and it encouraged the supporters of the Nazis to bring out their claim to power with increasing violence and terror. After 1930, the Republic slid more and more into a state of potential civil war.
From 1930 to 1932, Brüning attempted to reform the devastated state without a majority in Parliament, governing with the help of the President's emergency decrees. During that time, the
Great Depression reached its lowpoint. In line with liberal economic theory that less public spending would spur economic growth, Brüning drastically cut state expenditures, including in the social sector. He expected and accepted that the economic crisis would, for a while, deteriorate before things would improve. Among others, the
Reich completely halted all public grants to the obligatory unemployment insurance (which had been introduced only in 1927), which resulted in higher contributions by the workers and less benefits for the unemployed. This was understandably an unpopular move on his part.
The economic downturn lasted until the second half of 1932, when there were first indices of a rebound. By this time though, the Weimar Republic had lost all credibility with the majority of Germans. While scholars greatly disagree about how Brüning's policy should be evaluated, it can safely be said that it contributed to the decline of the Republic. Whether there were alternatives at the time remains the subject of much debate.
The bulk of German capitalists and land-owners originally gave support to the conservative experiment: not from any personal liking for Brüning, but believing the conservatives would best serve their interests. As, however, the mass of the working class and also of the middle classes turned against Bruning, more of the great capitalists and landowners declared themselves in favour of his opponents - Hitler and Hugenberg. By late 1931 conservatism as a movement was dead, and the time was coming when Hindenburg and the
Reichswehr would drop Bruning and come to terms with Hugenberg and Hitler. Hindenburg himself was no less a supporter of an anti-democratic counter-revolution represented by Hugenberg and Hitler. {source Arthur Rosenberg-
A History of The German Republic,1936)
On
May 30, 1932, Brüning resigned after no longer having Hindenburg's support. Five weeks earlier, Hindenburg had been reelected
Reichspräsident with Brüning's active support, running against Hitler (the president was directly elected by the people while the
Reichskanzler was not).
Franz von Papen calls for elections
Hindenburg then appointed
Franz von Papen as new
Reichskanzler. Von Papen lifted the ban on the
SA, imposed after the street riots, in an unsuccessful attempt to secure the backing of Hitler.
Papen was closely associated with the industrialist and land-owning classes and pursued an extreme Conservative policy along Hindenberg's lines. He appointed as Reichswehr Minister
Kurt von Schleicher and all of the members of the new cabinet were of the same political opinion as Hugenberg. This government was to be expected to assure itself of the co-operation of Hitler. Since the Republicans and Socialists were not yet ready to take action and the Conservatives had shot their political bolt, Hitler and Hugenberg were certain to achieve power.
Elections of July 1932
Since most parties opposed the new government, von Papen had the
Reichstag dissolved and called for new elections. The general elections on
July 31,
1932 yielded major gains for the
KPD and the Nazis, who won 37.2% of the vote, supplanting the
Social Democrats as the largest party in the
Reichstag.
July 1932 resulted in the question as to now what part the immense Nazi Party would play in the Government of the country. The Nazi party owed its huge increase to an influx of workers, unemployed, despairing peasants, and middle-class people. The millions of radical adherents at first forced the Party towards the Left. They wanted a renewed Germany and a new organisation of German society. The left of the Nazi party strove desperately against any drift into the train of such capitalist and feudal reactionaries. Therefore Hitler refused Ministry under Papen, and demanded the Chancellership for himself, but was rejected by Hindenburg on
August 13 1932. There was still no majority in the
Reichstag for any government; as a result, the Reichstag was dissolved and elections took place once more in the hope that a stable majority would result.
November and 'Socialist General' Schleicher
The
November 6,
1932 elections yielded 33.0% for the Nazis: it dropped 2 million voters. Franz von Papen stepped down, and was succeeded by General von Schleicher as
Reichskanzler on
December 3. The political army officer Schleicher, had developed in atmosphere of semi-obscurity and intrigue that encompassed the Republican military policy. He had for years been in the camp of those supporting the Conservative counter-revolution. Schleicher's bold and unsuccessful plan was to build a majority in the Reichstag by uniting the
Trade Unionist left wings in the various parties, including that of the Nazis led by Gregor Strasser. This did not prove successful either.
In this brief Presidential Dictatatorship entr'acte, Schleicher took the role of 'Socialist General', and entered into relations with the Christian Trade Unions, the Left Nazis, and even with the Social Democrats. Schleicher's plan was for a sort of Labour Government under his Generalship. It was an utterly un-workable idea as the Reichswehr officers were hardly prepared to follow Schleicher on this path, and the working class had a natural distrust of their future allies. Equally, Schleicher aroused hatred amongst the great capitalists and landowners by these plans. The SPD and KPD could have achieved success building on a Berlin transport strike.
Hitler learned from von Papen that the general had no authority to abolish the
Reichstag parliament, whereas any majority of seats did. The cabinet (under a previous interpretation of Article 48) ruled without a sitting Reichstag, which could vote only for its own dissolution. Hitler also learned that all past crippling Nazi debts were to be relieved by German big business.
On
January 22, Hitler's efforts to persuade Oskar von Hindenburg (the President's son) included threats to bring criminal charges over estate taxation irregularities at the President's
Neudeck estate (although 5000 extra acres were soon alloted to Hindenburg's property). Out maneuvered by von Papen and Hitler on plans for the new cabinet, and having lost Hindenburg's confidence, Schleicher asked for new elections. On
January 28 von Papen described Hitler to
Paul von Hindenburg as only a minority part of an alternative, von Papen-arranged government. The four great political movements, the SPD, KPD, Centre, and the Nazis were in opposition. If this continued there was real danger that the Centre and Nazi parties would radicalize further, and that in the end a vast united national bolshevist front would be formed against the ruling system.
On
29 January Hitler and von Papen thwarted a last-minute threat of an officially-sanctioned
Reichswehr takeover, and on
30 January 1933 Hindenburg accepted the new Papen-Nationalist-Hitler coalition with the Nazis holding only three of eleven Cabinet seats. Later that day, the first cabinet meeting was attended by only two political parties, representing a minority in the Reichstag: The Nazis and the
DNVP led by
Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). Eyeing the Catholic
Centre Party's 70 (+ 20
BVP) seats, Hitler refused their leader's demands for constitutional "concessions" (amounting to protection) and planned for dissolution of the Reichstag.
Hindenburg, despite his misgivings about the Nazis' goals and about Hitler as a person, reluctantly agreed to Papen's theory that, with Nazi popular support on the wane, Hitler could now be controlled as chancellor. The date dubbed
Machtergreifung (seizure of power) by the Nazi propaganda is commonly seen as the beginning of
Nazi Germany.
Hitler was sworn in as
Chancellor on the morning of
January 30,
1933 in what some observers later described as a brief and indifferent ceremony. By early February, a mere week after Hitler's assumption of the chancellorship, the government had begun to clamp down on the opposition. Meetings of the left-wing parties were banned, and even some of the moderate parties found their members threatened and assaulted. Measures with an appearance of legality suppressed the Communist Party in mid-February and included the plainly illegal arrests of
Reichstag deputies.
Reichstag Fire
The
Reichstag Fire on
February 27 was blamed by Hitler's government on the Communists, and Hitler used the emergency to obtain President von Hindenburg's assent to the
Reichstag Fire Decree the following day. The decree invoked
Article 48 of the
Weimar Constitution and suspended a number of constitutional protections of civil liberties, allowing the Nazi government to take swift and harsh action against political meetings, arresting or in some cases murdering members of the Communist party.
Reichstag election of March 5
Hitler and the Nazis exploited the German state's broadcasting and aviation facilities in a massive attempt to sway the electorate, but this election — the last democratic election to take place until the end of the
Third Reich twelve years later — yielded a scant majority of 16 seats for the coalition. At the Reichstag elections, which took place
5 March, the NSDAP obtained seventeen million votes. The Communist, Socialist and Catholic Centre votes stood firm .
Hitler addressed disparate interest groups, stressing the necessity for a definitive solution to the perpetual instability of the Weimar Republic. He now blamed Germany's problems on the Communists, even threatening their lives on
March 3. Former Chancellor
Heinrich Bruning proclaimed that his Centre Party would resist any constitutional change and appealed to the President for an investigation of the Reichstag Fire.Hitler's successful plan was to induce what remained of the now Communist depleted Reichstag to grant him, and the Government, the authority to issue decrees with the force of law. The hitherto Presidential Dictatorship hereby was to give itself a new legal form.
On
15 March the first cabinet meeting was attended by the two coalition parties, representing a minority in the Reichstag: The Nazis and the
DNVP led by
Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). According to the
Nuremburg Trials this Cabinet meeting's first order of business was how to at last achieve the complete counter-revolution by means of the constitutionally allowed
Enabling Act, requiring two-thirds parliamentary majority. This Act would, and did, bring Hitler and the
NSDAP unfettered dictatorial powers.
Hitler cabinet meeting in mid-March
At the meeting of the new cabinet on
March 15, Hitler introduced the
Enabling Act, which would have authorised the cabinet to enact legislation without the approval of the Reichstag. Meanwhile, the only remaining question for the Nazis was whether the Catholic
Centre Party (
Zentrum) would support the Enabling Act in the Reichstag, thereby providing the two-thirds majority required to ratify a law that amended the constitution. Hitler expressed his confidence to win over the Centre's votes. Hitler is recorded at the Nuremberg Trials as being sure of eventual
Centre Party Germany capitulation and thus rejecting of the DNVP's suggestions to "balance" the majority through further arrests, this time of socialists. Hitler however assured his coalition partners that arrests would resume after the elections, and in fact some 26 SDP Socialists were physically removed. After meeting with Centre leader Monsignor
Ludwig Kaas and other Centre Trade Union leaders daily, and denying them a substantial participation in the government, negotiation succeeded in respect of guarantees towards Catholic civil-servants and education issues. Kaas himself negotiated a letter of constitutional guarantee in theory accepted by the Centre Party as final condition for assent to the
Enabling Act, which guarantee was not finally given, before the Centre indeed assented through Kaas towards the two-thirds majority.
Monsignor
Ludwig Kaas, the party's chairman since
1928, had strong connection to the
Vatican Secretary of State, later
Pope Pius XII. At the last internal Centre meeting prior to the debate on the
Enabling Act, Kaas expressed no preference or suggestion on the vote, but as a way of mollifying opposition by Centre members to the granting of further powers to Hitler, Kaas somehow arranged for a letter of constitutional guarantee from Hitler himself prior to his voting with the centre
en bloc in favor of the Enabling Act.
Kaas is remembered in connection with this vote he handed, and in this connection to the Vatican for whom he thereafter set in train and drafted the
Holy See's very long desired
Reichskonkordat with Germany. Ludwig Kaas is named along with von Papen as being one of the two most important political figures within this achievement of Dictatorship by Adolf Hitler. (K.vKlemperer-
German Resistance Against Hitler, OUP 1992)
The Socialist leader
Otto Wels is remembered as the sole opposing voice to the
23 March Enabling Act that marks the end of the Weimar republic.
Enabling Act negotiations
On
March 20 negotiation began between Hitler and Frick on one side and the Catholic Center Party (
Zentrum (the word
zentrum means center in German, thus the naming of the
Catholic Center Party)) leaders — Kaas, Stegerwald and Hackelsburger — on the other. The aim was to settle on conditions under which Center would vote in favor of the Enabling Act. Because of the Nazis' narrow majority in the
Reichstag, Center's support was necessary to receive the required two-thirds majority vote. On
March 22, the negotiations concluded; Hitler promised to continue the existence of the German states, agreed not to use the new grant of power to change the constitution, and promised to retain
Zentrum members in the civil service. Hitler also pledged to protect the Catholic confessional schools and to respect the concordats signed between the Holy See and Bavaria (1924), Prussia (1929) and Baden (1931). Hitler also agreed to mention these promises in his speech to the Reichstag before the vote on the Enabling Act.
Kaas is remembered in connection with this vote he handed, and in his close connection to the Vatican for whom he immediately set in train the
Holy See's very long desired
Reichskonkordat with Germany . Ludwig Kaas is named along with von Papen as being one of the two most important political figures within this achievement of Dictatorship by Adolf Hitler. (K von Klemperer,''German Resistance Aaginst Hitler OUP,1992)
Ceremonial opening of the Reichstag in Potsdam on March 21
The ceremonial opening of the Reichstag on
March 21 was held at the
Garrison Church in
Potsdam, a shrine of
Prussianism, in the presence of many
Junker landowners and representatives of the imperial military caste. This impressive and often emotional spectacle — orchestrated by
Joseph Goebbels — aimed to link Hitler's government with Germany's imperial past and portray National Socialism as a guarantor of the nation's future. The ceremony helped convince the "old guard" Prussian military elite of Hitler's homage to their long tradition and, in turn, produced the relatively convincing view that Hitler's government had the support of Germany's traditional protector — the Army. Such support would announce to the population a return to conservatism to curb the problems affecting the Weimar Republic, and that stability might be at hand. In a politically adroit move, Hitler bowed in respectful humility before President and Field Marshal
von Hindenburg.
Passage of the Enabling Act by the Reichstag on March 23
The Reichstag convened on
March 23,
1933, and in the midday opening, Hitler made a historic speech, appearing outwardly calm and conciliatory. It is most noticeable for its abrupt reversal of the Nazi Party's hardline stance against Christianity and particularly Catholicism. Hitler presented an appealing prospect of respect towards Christianity by paying tribute to the Christian faiths as "essential elements for safeguarding the soul of the German people". He promised to respect their rights and declared his government's "ambition is a peaceful accord between
Church and State" and that he hoped "to improve our friendly relations with the
Holy See." This speech aimed especially at the future recognition by the named
Holy See and therefore to the votes of the Centre Party addressing many concerns Kaas had voiced during the previous talks. Kaas is considered to have had a hand therefore in the drafting of the speech (
German Resistance Against Hitler, Klemens von Klemperer, OUP, 1992 )Kaas is also reported as voicing the Holy see's desire for Hitler as bulwark against
atheistic Russian
nihilism previously as early as May 1932 (Edgar Ansel Mowrer, Triumph and Turmoil,1968 p.209)
In the debate prior to the vote on the Enabling Act, Hitler orchestrated the full political menace of his
paramilitary forces like the
storm troopers in the streets to intimidate reluctant Reichstag deputies into approving the Enabling Act. The Communists' 81 seats had been empty since the Reichstag Fire Decree and other lesser known procedural measures, thus excluding their anticipated "No" votes from the balloting.
Otto Wels, the leader of the Social Democrats, whose seats were similarly depleted from 120 to below 100, was the only speaker to defend democracy and in a futile but brave effort to deny Hitler the two-thirds majority, he made a speech critical of the abandonment of democracy to dictatorship. At this Hitler could no longer restrain his wrath. (
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,
William L. Shirer 1959).
In his retort to Wels, Hitler abandoned earlier pretence at calm statesmanship and delivered a characteristic screaming diatribe, promising to exterminate all Communists in Germany and threatening
Wels' Social Democrats as well. Meanwhile Hitler's promised written guarantee to Monsignor Kaas was being typed up, it was asserted to Kaas, and thereby Kaas was persuaded to silently deliver the Centre bloc's votes for the Enabling Act anyway.
Aftermath
The passing of the Enabling Act gave Hitler and his government sweeping powers to legislate without the Reichstag's approval, and to make foreign policy decisions and deviate from the constitution where they saw fit. Hitler would use these powers to remove all opposition to the dictatorship he wished to create. The decrees issueed by Hitler's cabinet within succeeding weeks rapidly stripped Germans of their rights, removed all non-Nazi members of the Civil Service, and banned all other political parties and unions, ushering in the Third Reich.
The NSDAP movement had rapidly passed the power of the majority Nationalist Ministers to control. Unchecked by the police, the S.A indulged in acts of terrorism throughout Germany. Communists, Social Democrats, and the Centre were ousted from public life everywhere. The violent persecution of Jews began, and by the summer 1933 the
NSDAP felt itself so invincible that it did away with all the other parties, as well as trades unions. The Nationalist Party was among those suppressed. The
NSDAP ruled alone in Germany. The Reichswehr had, however, remained completely un-touched by all these occurrences. It was still the same State within a State that it had been in the Weimar Republic. Similarly, the private property of great capitalists and landowners was untouched, whilst the administrative and judicial machinery was only very slightly tampered with. {Arthur Rosenburg, A History of The German Republic, 1936)
See also Third Reich..
The Weimar Republic's catastrophic collapse is the subject of continued debate. Although Hitler became
Reichskanzler legally through mechanisms set forth in the constitution and the NSDAP gained a relative majority of the seats in Parliament in two 1932 elections, he was appointed chancellor at a time when support for the NSDAP was not considered sufficient to gain power. Scholars have expressed divided opinions on the reasons and historical analysis. This was complicated by the
Cold War, when historians often attempted to justify ideologies. One
speculation involves how the NSDAP might have fared in the 1933 elections if Hitler didn't have the political and logistical advantages of being chancellor.
No single reason can explain the rise of Nazism. The most commonly asserted causes can be grouped into three categories: economic problems, institutional problems and the roles of specific individuals.
Economic problems
The Weimar Republic had some of the most serious economic problems ever experienced by any Western democracy in history. Rampant
hyperinflation, massive unemployment and a large drop in living standards were primary factors. In 1923-29 there was a short period of economic recovery, but the
Great Depression of the 1930s led to a worldwide recession. Germany was particularly affected because it depended heavily on American loans. In 1932, about 5 million Germans were unemployed. Many blamed the Weimar Republic. This was made apparent when political parties on both right and left wanting to disband the Republic altogether made any democratic majority in Parliament impossible.
The Weimar Republic was severely affected by the
Great Depression triggered by the Wall Street crash in 1929. The crash and subsequent economic stagnation led to increased demands on Germany to repay the debts owed to the U.S. As the Weimar Republic was very fragile in all of its existence, the depression proved to be devastating, and played a major role in the NSDAP's takeover.
The
Versailles treaty was considered by most Germans to be a punishing and degrading document because it forced them to surrender resource-rich areas and pay massive amounts of compensation. These punitive reparations caused consternation and resentment, although the actual economic damage resulting from the Treaty of Versailles is difficult to determine. While the official reparations were considerable, Germany ended up paying only a fraction of them. However, the reparations did damage Germany's economy by discouraging market loans, which forced the Weimar government to finance its deficit by printing more money, causing rampant hyperinflation. In addition, the rapid disintegration of Germany in 1919, due to the return of a disllusioned army, the rapid change from possible victory in 1918 to defeat in 1919, and the political chaos may have caused a psychological imprint on Germans that could lead to extreme
nationalism, shown by Hitler.
Most historians agree that many industrial leaders identified the Weimar Republic with labour unions and with the Social Democrats, who had established the Versailles concessions of 1918/1919. Although some did see Hitler as a means to abolish the latter, the Republic was already unstable before any industry leaders were supporting Hitler. Even those who supported Hitler's appointment often did not want Nazism in its entirety and considered Hitler a temporary solution in their efforts to abolish the Republic. Industry support alone cannot explain Hitler's enthusiastic support by large segments of the population, including many workers who had turned away from the left.
Institutional problems
It is widely agreed that the 1919 constitution had several weaknesses, making the eventual establishment of a dictatorship likely but it is unknown whether a different constitution could have prevented the Third Reich. However, the 1949 West German constitution (the
Grundgesetz) is generally viewed as a strong response to these flaws.
* The institution of the
Reichspräsident was frequently considered as an
Ersatzkaiser ("substitute emperor"), an attempt to replace the Kaiser (who resigned and fled in 1918) with a similarly strong institution meant to diminish party politics. Article 48 of the constitution gave the President power to "take all necessary steps" if "public order and security are seriously disturbed or endangered". Although this was intended as an emergency clause, it was often used before 1933 to issue decrees without the support of Parliament (see above) and also made
Gleichschaltung easier. For example, the
Reichstag Fire Decree was issued on the basis of Article 48.
* The use of almost pure
proportional representation meant any party with a small amount of support could gain entry into the
Reichstag. This led to many small parties, some extremist, building political bases within the system (after the war only parties with 5% or more of the total vote would be allowed to enter the
Bundestag). Yet, it has to be noted that the Reichstag of the monarchy was fractioned to a similar degree although being elected by
majority vote under a
first-past-the-post system.
* The
Reichstag could remove the
Reichskanzler from office even if it was unable to agree on a successor. This "
Motion of No Confidence" led to many chancellors in quick succession, adding to the Republic's instability (see
Chancellor of Germany for a list). As a result, the 1949
Grundgesetz stipulates that a chancellor may only be voted down by Parliament if a successor is elected at the same time (see
Constructive Vote of No Confidence).
* The constitution provided that in the event of the president's death or resignation, the
Reichskanzler would assume that office (and crucially possess its powers) pending election of a new president. This allowed Hitler to easily unite the offices of
Reichskanzler and
Reichspräsident after Hindenburg's death in 1934. However, by this time the dictatorship was already firmly installed and this clause alone cannot be blamed for Nazism.
Individual roles
Some historians prefer to consider individuals and the decisions they made. This brings up the problematic question of what alternatives were available at the time and leads to speculation and hypothesis.
Brüning's economic policy from 1930-1933 has been the subject of much debate. It caused many Germans to identify the Republic with cuts in social spending and extremely liberal economics. Whether there were alternatives to this policy during
Great Depression is an open question.
Paul von Hindenburg became
Reichspräsident in
1925. He represented the older authoritarian 1871 Empire, and it is hard to label him as a democrat in support of the 1919 Republic, but he was never a Nazi. During his later years (at well over 80 years old), he was also
senile. A president with solid democratic beliefs may not have allowed Parliament to be circumvented with the use of Article 48 decrees and might have avoided signing the
Reichstag Fire Decree. Hindenburg waited one and a half days before he appointed Hitler as
Reichskanzler on
January 30,
1933, which indicates some hesitance. Some claim Nazism would have lost much public support if Hitler had not been named chancellor.
Writers
John Cornwell and
Ian Kershaw are amongst the modern commentators who have studied the role of
Ludwig Kaas and his alliance to
Pope Pius XII.
As regards the
Rhenish-Westphalian Industrial Magnates and
Franz von Papen, the
Nuremburg Trials studied the era from
January 30 1933, and came to the conclusion that it would not be an indictable offence to have assisted Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP to power.
*Abraham, David
The Collapse of the Weimar Republic: Political Economy and Crisis (2nd. Edition) New Jersey; Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1986 ISBN 0841910847.
*
Allen, William Sheridan The Nazi seizure of Power: the experience of a single German town, 1922-1945 New York; Toronto: F. Watts, 1984 ISBN 0531099350.
*V.R. Berghahn
Modern Germany, Cambridge, UK ; Cambridge University Press, 1982 ISBN 0-521-34748-3
*Bookbinder, Paul
Weimar Germany: the Republic of the Reasonable, Manchester, UK ; New York: Manchester University Press; New York: Distributed exclusively in the USA by St. Martin's Press, 1996 ISBN 0719042860.
*
Bracher, Karl Dietrich Die Aufloesung der Weimarer Republik; eine Studie zum Problem des Machtverfalls in der Demokratie Villingen: Schwarzwald, Ring-Verlag, 1971.
*
Broszat, Martin Hitler and the Collapse of Weimar Germany, Leamington Spa; New York: Berg: Distributed exclusively in the US by St. Martin's Press, 1987 ISBN 0854965092.
*Childers, Thomas
The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1933, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983 ISBN 0807815705.
*
Craig, Gordon A.
Germany 1866-1945 (Oxford History of Modern Europe), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980, ISBN 0195027248.
*Dorpalen, Andreas
Hindenburg and the Weimar Republic, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1964.
*Feuchtwanger, Edgar
From Weimar to Hitler: Germany, 1918-33, London: Macmillan, 1994, 1993 ISBN 0333274660.
*
Gay, Peter Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider, New York, Harper & Row 1968.
*
Gordon, Mel Volutpuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin, New York, Feral House 2000.
*Hamilton, Richard F.
Who Voted for Hitler?, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982 ISBN 0691093954
*James, Harold
The German Slump: Politics and Economics, 1924-1936, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, 1986 ISBN 0198219725.
*Kaes, Anton Kaes; Jay, Martin; Dimendberg, Edward (editors)
The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994 ISBN 0520067746.
*Kolb, Eberhard
The Weimar Republic translated from the German by P.S. Falla London: Unwin Hyman, 1988 ISBN 0049430491.
*
Mommsen, Hans From Weimar to Auschwitz translated by Philip O'Connor Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991 ISBN 0691031983.
*Nicholls, Anthony James
Weimar And The Rise Of Hitler, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000 ISBN 0312233507.
*
Peukert, Detlev The Weimar Republic: the Crisis of Classical Modernity, New York: Hill and Wang, 1992. ISBN 0809096749.
*
Turner, Henry Ashby Hitler's Thirty Days To Power: January 1933, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1996 ISBN 0201407140.
*
Turner, Henry Ashby German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler, New York: Oxford University Press, 1985 ISBN 0195034929.
*
Wheeler-Bennett, Sir John The Nemesis of Power: German Army in Politics, 1918-1945, New York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishing Company, 2005 ISBN 1403918120.
*
Edgar Ansel Mowrer Germany Puts The Clock Back, John Lane The Bodley Head, London ,1933 and
Triumph and Turmoil, George Allen & Unwin,1968
*Arthur Rosenberg
A History of The German Republic, Methuen, London, 1936.
*
The Constitution of the German Reich (Weimar constitution) of 11th August 1919, in full text*
PSM Data Bank*
historical documents (German)*
List of Weimar states*
List of German presidents since 1919*
Chancellor of Germany*
Union of Poles in Germany*
1920s Berlin*
Pope Pius XII*
Centre Party Germany*
Ludwig Kaas*
Franz von Papen*
Weimar Constitution
