Chapter 7

Question 1

Overall political trend 1924-28

Answer 1

The years 1924 to 1928 were much calmer than the immediate post-war years.
Political violence receded, extremist parties attracted less support in elections and the trauma of hyper-inflation had been successfully treated. In 1925, Hindenburg, a staunch opponent of the republic, was elected as its President.

Question 2

Outcomes of 1924 elections

Answer 2

There were two elections in 1924. These elections indicated a return of greater support for the parties that supported the Weimar Republic - the SPD, DDP, DVP and Centre:
• Over 61 per cent voted for pro-republican parties in May 1924, and 67 per cent in December.
The May 1924 election was the first contested by the Nazis, when they won 6.5 per cent of the vote. By December the Nazis’ vote share was down to
3 per cent.
• On the left, the Communist Party also saw its fortunes fall after May 1924.
• Whilst the nationalist political parties of the right began to accept the republic and work within it, rather than against it, they found their electoral position weakening from December 1924. The conservative right-wing DNVP joined a Reich coalition government for the first time in January 1925.

Question 3

What did the 1924 elections show?

Answer 3

Even so, the political developments of 1924 showed that the democratic parties were struggling to provide stable governments that commanded widespread support. Right-wing anti-republican parties were still in a position to do political damage to the Republic.

Question 4

Outcome of 1928 election

Answer 4

In the 1928 election, support for extremist and anti-republican parties declined even further. The Nazis (NSDAP) made little impression on the national political scene in 1928. Their share of the vote went down even lower than in
1924. With 2.6 per cent of the vote and winning only 12 seats. the NSDAP trailed behind obscure minor parties such as the Bavarian People’s Party and the Reich party of the German Middle Class. The previously unheard-of Christian National Peasants and Farmers’ Party did almost as well as the Nazis, winning nine seats.
The communist KPD, however, saw a revival of its electoral support in 1928.

Question 5

KPD deputies elected in Reichstag May 1924 vs 1928

Answer 5

May 1924:62
1928:54

Question 6

SPD deputies elected in Reichstag May 1924 vs 1928

Answer 6

100-153

Question 7

Coalition governments during the period

Answer 7

There were seven coalition cabinets between November 1923 and March 1930 (see Table 2). Governments in the Weimar Republic’s so-called ‘golden age, therefore, were scarcely more stable than those in the years 1919-23, despite the fact that support for the anti-democratic parties of the extreme left and extreme right was falling. Coalition governments throughout the short history of the Weimar Republic were inherently unstable.

Question 8

How many governments between 1919 and 1932 had had majority support in the Reichstag?

Answer 8

Only six of the twenty-three cabinets between 1919 and 1932 had majority support in the Reichstag and many minority governments only survived as long as there was some semblance of unity between the parties that made up the coalitions.

Question 9

Effect on policy of political system

Answer 9

In this situation, governments could not plan for the long term. Instead, they tended to muddle along from issue to issue. The historian Gordon Craig has written that government in the Weimar Republic resembled an endless cabinet crisis, with more time and energy expended on the task of filling ministerial chairs than in governing the country:

Question 10

What was the flag controversy?

Answer 10

Sometimes, seemingly trivial issues could wreck a coalition cabinet. In 1926, for example, the government of Luther collapsed after a dispute over flags. When President Hindenburg ordered that the old imperial flag, with its black, white and red colours should be flown alongside the new republican tricolour (black, red and gold) at all German consulates in other countries, the resulting dispute led to the collapse
of the government.

Question 11

The German flag

Answer 11

The Weimar Republic adopted a new flag when it was established in 1919.
This was a tricolour flag of black, red and gold. It replaced the old imperial flag of black, white and red. Flags became a symbol of political allegiance in the Weimar years, with anti-Weimar, nationalist groups continuing to use the old imperial flag.

Question 12

Who was Hermann Muller?

Answer 12

Hermann Muller (1876-1931) was an SPD politician who had been
Foreign Minister from 1919 to 1920 and Chancellor in 1928. As Foreign Minister, he was one of the German signatories of the Treaty of Versailles. He had a reputation for being a calm, hard-working politician but he lacked charisma.

Question 13

Conflict between parties

Answer 13

The problems of establishing and sustaining a stable coalition government arose because the number of workable combinations of parties was limited.
The SPD and the DNVP would not serve in the same cabinet and the more moderate parties did not have enough seats to command a Reichstag majority. The formation of the broadly based Grand Coalition in 1928, led by Hermann Müller of the SPD, appeared to offer the potential for a more stable government. It was, indeed, one of the longest-lived coalitions of the Weimar era, remaining in office until March 1930. Even this coalition, however, was fraught with divisions. Although the government was established in June 1928, it was not until the spring of 1929 that the parties involved finally agreed on the government’s policies. There were ongoing disputes over the budget and over foreign policy, and the government only survived because of the strong working relationship between Müller and Stresemann, the Foreign Minister.

Question 14

What opportunity did political parties have in this period?

Answer 14

The quieter and more prosperous conditions of the years 1924-28 provided the pro-democracy parties with an opportunity to try to establish a stable democratic system that could be supported by the majority of
Germans.

Question 15

Why did political parties fail to establish a stable democratic system during this period?

Answer 15

That they largely failed to do so was due to a number of factors:

-Firstly, deputies in the Reichstag did not represent a particular constituency; instead, under proportional representation, deputies were chosen from party lists to collectively represent a large area. There was thus no direct connection between a deputy and his or her constituents. -Secondly, the party list system gave party committees control over Reichstag deputies. Deputies were not allowed to display any individuality but had to behave according to the dictates of their party bureaucracies. The result was that the Reichstag became a rather sterile debating chamber remote from the concerns of ordinary voters.
-The leaderships of the main pro-democracy parties were also at fault.
Factional rivalries weakened many parties. When leading party members became ministers in coalition cabinets, party committees would not allow them any flexibility to operate on their own initiative. Party leaders often gave higher priority to protecting the interests of their own party, and the interest groups they represented, than to the wider national interest. This brought the parliamentary system into disrepute and support for democratic institutions suffered as a result.

Question 16

SPD during this period

Answer 16

Through the years 1924-28, the left-wing SPD remained the largest single party in the Reichstag. It was the party that had taken the leading role in the revolution of 1918 and the establishment of the Weimar Republic. It therefore had a vital interest in the success of democratic government. Yet the SPD participated in only one of the six coalition cabinets that were established in these years. Although it had been in the process of becoming a thoroughly reformist, moderate party since the 1890s, it could not let go of the revolutionary Marxist rhetoric that had been its trademark since its foundation in the 1860s. This hangover from the past tended to make the SPD rather inflexible on important issues and unwilling to make the kind of compromises that participation in coalition governments involved. It therefore tended to be a party that was more comfortable in opposition than in government. The SPD had close links with the trade unions and appealed mainly to industrial workers. It had limited appeal to young people and to women, and had no support among farmers, agricultural workers or the Mittelstand.

Question 17

Centre Party during this period

Answer 17

The Centre Party had been established to defend the interests of the Roman Catholic Church in the German Empire and this remained its priority in the Weimar Republic. As a party based on religious affiliation, however, its appeal crossed class and occupational boundaries. It was supported by industrial workers and industrialists, farmers and their landlords, together with professional groups such as teachers. This broad-based appeal made the party more flexible and pragmatic than the SPD, but also tended to cause divisions over social and economic issues. The Centre Party was vital to the success of Weimar democracy and no coalition government was formed without its participation. There was an important leadership change in 1928, however, which reflected a growing drift to the right. The new leader, Heinrich Brüning, was less committed to parliamentary democracy than Marx, his predecessor.

Question 18

The DDP during this period

Answer 18

The liberal DDP was in decline by the mid-1920s. Its appeal was mainly to academics and professional groups, and it gave an impression of being composed of worthy intellectuals who had limited political experience. It was also increasingly riven by internal disputes and had great difficulty in conveying clearly and unequivocally what it stood for. It was, nevertheless, a party committed to the success of parliamentary democracy and participated in all of the coalition governments of this period.

Question 19

How much did the SPD participate in gov 1924-28?

Answer 19

The SPD participated in only one of the six coalition cabinets that were established in these years.

Question 20

The DVP during this period

Answer 20

The conservative DVP, like the DDR, was committed to parliamentary democracy and also participated in all the coalition cabinets of the period. It had support amongst academics but its main support came from industrialists.
The DVP provided the leading politician from 1924 to 1929, Gustav Stresemann, but after his death in 1929 the party drifted to the right and increasingly became a narrow pressure group promoting the interests of big
business.

Question 21

How did the DNVP increase influence?

Answer 21

The conservative, nationalist DNVP broadened its appeal in the 1920s beyond its traditional base amongst landowners in the east of Germany. By the mid-1920s, it had attracted support from industrialists, professional groups and even some industrial workers. It was anti-democratic and nationalist, with its main aims being restoration of the monarchy and dismantling of the Treaty of Versailles. As an anti-Weimar party, the DNVP refused to join coalitions most of the time. However, growing diversity in the party led to increased divisions over policy and tactics, with many of its newer and younger members being willing to compromise with democratic parties. The decisions to join the Luther cabinet in 1926 and the Marx cabinet in 1927 were, therefore, a significant change in the party’s tactics.

Question 22

Limits to increases in DNVP influence

Answer 22

In the 1928 Reichstag election, however, the DNVP suffered a significant loss of support, which encouraged the right in the party to return to their anti-democratic ways. When Hugenberg was chosen as party leader in 1928, the shift to the right was confirmed. It was Hugenberg who, in 1929, led the DNVP into an alliance with the Nazis and paramilitary groups in the campaign against the Young Plan. Henceforth, the DNVP returned to its blind opposition to the Weimar Republic.

Question 23

What was Mein Kampf?

Answer 23

(meaning ‘My Struggle’)
Hitler’s autobiography and a statement of his beliefs; it became required reading for all members of the Nazi Party

Question 24

The NSDAP (Nazi Party) 1923-27

Answer 24

After the failure of the Munich Putsch in 1923, the Nazi Party entered a period of decline, but also of reflection and reorganisation. While Hitler was in prison he wrote Mein Kampf and also took the opportunity to think about Nazi Party tactics. He came to the conclusion that the route to power was not through an armed overthrow of the Weimar Republic - even though paramilitary violence was still to be an essential component of the Nazis tactics - but through winning mass support. The Nazis could not hope to win power if they did not have the support, or at least the acquiescence, of the army and other key groups among the elite.
Hitler was released from prison early and set about rebuilding the party, although he was severely hampered by the fact that the party and its Stormtroopers were banned organisations. Until 1927 he was not allowed to speak in public. He used the time to assert his undisputed control over the Nazi Party, to reorganise it and to re-orientate its campaigning.

Question 25

The NSDAP (Nazi Party) 1927-29

Answer 25

At the end of 1927, the Nazi Party had only 75,000 members and seven deputies in the Reichstag. A key decision was taken in 1928, however, to broaden the Nazi Party’s appeal. In a bid to capitalise on the discontent of farmers, the Nazis began to concentrate their efforts in rural areas, especially in the mainly Protestant north of Germany. Across the country, the Nazis did badly in the 1928 Reichstag election, losing 100,000 votes. In some rural areas in the north, however, the Nazis share of the vote was as high as 18 per cent. The party’s membership grew to 150,000 by October 1929 and, in that same year, the party took control of its first town council. Even before the campaign against the Young Plan, which gave Hitler the chance to make a name for himself as a national politician, the party was showing clear signs of revival.

Question 26

The KPD (Communist Party) during this period

Answer 26

The German Communist Party was the largest communist party outside
Russia, but it never became a genuinely mass party. It had support in important industrial and port areas such as the Ruhr, Saxony and Hamburg, nd also in Berlin, and it had a significant presence in the Reichstag throughout the period. As an avowedly revolutionary party, however, it was dedicated to the overthrow of the Weimar Republic. As a member of the Comintern, the policies and tactics of the KPD were dictated by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1923, for example, at the height of the political and economic crisis caused by hyperinflation and the occupation of the Ruhr, the KPD leadership was summoned to Moscow to be instructed to launch a communist revolution in Germany. This led to communist uprisings in Saxony and Hamburg, which were ruthlessly suppressed by the army. After 1924, the Soviet leadership instructed the KPD that the opportunity for revolution had receded and that their main priority was to attack the SPD as a party that had betrayed the working class. The KPD labelled the SPD as ‘social-fascists’ and concentrated on attacking them rather than on countering the influence of the Nazi Party. This division in the working-class movement in Germany weakened the anti-Nazi forces in Weimar Germany.

Question 27

What happened after Ebert’s death?

Answer 27

Ebert, the first President of the Weimar Republic, died on 28 February 1925.
He had been indirectly elected by the National Assembly, but his successor had to be elected according to the terms of the Weimar Constitution, which meant that a full national election would have to be held.

Question 28

Terms of the 1925 presidential election

Answer 28

Under the terms of the constitution, unless a candidate received more than 50 per cent of the vote in the first round of voting, there had to be a second ballot and it was possible to nominate alternative candidates in this second ballot.

Question 29

First round of 1925 presidential election

Answer 29

In the first round, there were seven candidates including Karl Jarres for the right (DVP and DNVP), Otto Braun for the SPD, Wilhelm Marx for the Centre, Ernst Thälmann for the Communist Party and Erich Ludendorff, who stood as a Nazi Party candidate. Jarres won the most votes, with the SPD in second place, but there was no outright winner.

Question 30

Second round of 1925 presidential election and result

Answer 30

In the second round, Jarres withdrew in favour of Paul von Hindenburg, who allegedly consulted the exiled ex-Kaiser before he reluctantly agreed to stand. The SPD calculated that Marx had a better chance of winning against Hindenburg than Braun, so withdrew its candidate and advised SPD supporters to vote for Marx. The number of candidates was reduced to just three - Hindenburg, Marx and Thälmann. However, because of Thalmann’s candidacy, the left vote was split and, in the election on 26 April, Hindenburg won with 48.3 per cent to Marx’s 45.3 per cent. Thälmann trailed with 6.4 per cent.

Question 31

What did Hindenburg represent?

Answer 31

Hindenburg was a symbol of the past. With his military uniform, his war medals and his authoritarian views, he was revered by the right, who regarded his election as the beginning of the restoration of the old order. For many, Hindenburg was the Ersatzkaiser (substitute emperor), and his election was seen as a major step away from parliamentary democracy.

Question 32

Short term positives of Hindenburg

Answer 32

In the short term, the foreseen step away from parliamentary democracy proved not to be true. When he took his presidential oath, Hindenburg appealed to the parties in the Reichstag to work with him in restoring national unity. He stuck closely to the letter of the Weimar constitution and did not abuse his powers. Moreover, his election was important in reconciling, at least temporarily, some anti-democratic political parties, such as the DNVP, to the existence of the Republic and to playing a more constructive role in making parliamentary democracy work.

Question 33

Who was Ernst Thälmann?

Answer 33

Ernst Thälmann (1886-1944)
became the Chairman of the Communist KPD in 1925. He had been a member of the SPD before
1914 but split with the party in 1917 over its support for the war. Having survived an assassination attempt by a right-wing paramilitary group in 1922, he was one of the leaders of the Hamburg communist uprising in 1923. He was very much guided by Stalin after 1925 and followed unquestioningly the line that the SPD were the communists’ main enemies.
He was the communist candidate in the presidential elections of 1925 and
1932. In 1933, he was arrested by the Nazis and imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was executed on Hitler’s orders in 1944.

Question 34

Long-term political reality after Hindenburg’s election

Answer 34

However, for party politicians it was generally business as usual. They continued to place party political advantage above national interest, and cooperation between the parties was merely a means to secure tactical
Discussion point
‘The election of Hindenburg as
President was a sign that the Weimar Republic had finally won the support of the old elites.’
advantage. By the early 1930s, Hindenburg was becoming increasingly impatient with this party political manoeuvring at a time of serious economic crisis and he used his powers to rule by decree on a routine basis. Therefore, after 1925, presidential power was in the hands of a man who did not believe in democracy and was not prepared to defend it against its enemies.

Question 35

Elites’ attitude to the republic

Answer 35

The Weimar Republic could only be truly stable if it succeeded in winning the support and loyalty of the majority of its citizens. We saw in Chapter 1 how the circumstances in which the Republic was born predisposed large and important sections of German society to oppose it. The old elites, who were firmly entrenched in the army, the civil service and the judiciary, were hostile to parliamentary democracy and held firm to the view that the Republic was born out of betrayal of the Fatherland. This hostility was strengthened by the signing of the humiliating Versailles Treaty and by the political and economic crises of the early years of the Republic. The election of Hindenburg went some way towards reconciling the elites to the existence of the Republic, but only because they believed that Hindenburg would steer Germany back towards a more authoritarian form of government.

Question 36

Workers’ attitude towards republic

Answer 36

At the other end of the social spectrum, there were many industrial workers who felt that the Republic had not delivered on its promises of greater equality and social justice and that the crushing of revolts by the army and the police, at the behest of democratically elected politicians, was clear evidence that parliamentary democracy was failing.

Question 37

Middle-class attitude towards republic

Answer 37

Middle-class support for moderate political parties was therefore vital if the Weimar Republic was to succeed in establishing solid foundations. It is difficult to generalise about the middle class in Germany since it was very diverse, with many variations in wealth, in religion and in political affiliations.
There were many among the middle class who continued to prosper and were broadly supportive of the Republic.

There were many more, however, especially among the lower-middle class Mittelstand, who had suffered a catastrophic decline in their incomes as a result of hyperinflation and who had no organised way to defend their interests. People in this group welcomed the return of economic stability under Stresemann and political stability under Hindenburg, but their resentment of the Republic continued to fester.

Question 38

Summary: The extent of political stability by 1928

Answer 38

When viewed in comparison with the early years of the Weimar Republic, or with the years 1929-32, the period 1924-28 can be interpreted as a time of political stability. Political violence receded and there were no attempts by extremist groups to overthrow the republic by force. Indeed, the parties of the extreme left and the extreme right suffered a loss of support in the elections of these years. The election of Hindenburg as President in 1925 can also be seen as a sign that traditional conservatives were beginning to adapt and accommodate to the new reality of a democratic republic.
On the other hand, the fundamental weaknesses in the Weimar political system remained and stable cabinets were as elusive as they had been in the post-war years. Parties represented narrow sectional interests, making it difficult for politicians with a national appeal and national programme to emerge. The circumstances under which the Weimar Republic was created deepened these political divides. Of course, many of the Weimar Republic’s democratic politicians understood the need to compromise in order to establish coalition governments but their parties, and the interests of the people they represented, placed severe constraints on their freedom of action.
Coalition governments, therefore, were fragile and temporary alliances.
Even in the favourable circumstances of the years 1924-28, stable government proved impossible to achieve and respect for democratic institutions was further eroded.