The Burden of Versailles and the Weimar Constitution
The 'Diktat'
HISTORICAL CONTEXT: The Treaty of Versailles
•
Germany was limited to: 100,000
man army with a reduced officer
corps, no air force, a navy with no
submarines and a small fleet; no
conscription was allowed.
•
Germany was forbidden to: join the
League of Nations or unite with
Austria (Anschluss).
•
Germany and Austria-Hungary were
given the blame for starting WWI
(Article 231; "war guilt clause") and
required to pay reparations (amount
would be set in the future).
•
The Versailles treaty was hated by Germans of all
political persuasions. It was referred to as the Diktat
("dictated peace"). Weimar's attempts to flout it
were popular. Germany lost: all its colonies, the
Polish Corridor and Danzig, Alsace-Lorraine, plus
additional territories (see map, above).
Signing the Unacceptable Treaty:
WHAT OPTIONS DID WEIMAR LEADERS HAVE?
ELECTION RESULTS COMPARISON
•
Thousands of Germans rally at the
Reichstag building in Berlin in May 1919
to oppose the anticipated Treaty of
Versailles.
Jan. 1919
SPD 37.9%
Z 19.7%
DDP 18.6%
DNVP 10.3%
USPD 7.6%
DVP 4.4%
June 1920
SPD 21.7%
USPD 17.9%
DNVP 15.1%
DVP 13.9%
Z 13.6%
DDP 8.3%
% change
-16.2%
+10.3%
+4.8%
+9.5%
-6.1%
-10.3%
Chancellor Philip Scheïdemann resigned in protest against the future Treaty of
Versailles in March 1919 (before the treaty was completed).
• President Ebert asked the military to explore the feasibility of military resistance
should he refuse to sign the treaty. He was advised by Hindenburg that military
resistance would not succeed. This ostensibly left the Weimar leaders with no options.
• Allied ultimatum: sign treaty or prepare for invasion (Germany signed on June 28,
1919).
•
The Weimar Constitution:
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
•
Proportional
Representation: A method of
voting by which political parties
are given representation in
proportion to their popular vote.
•
The Weimar constitution called for a closed-list
party-proportional system of voting for the
Reichstag. If a party received 15% of the vote, it
would receive 15% of the seats in the Reichstag.
The current U.S. system for electing members to
Congress is a plurality-based system that is
sometimes called "first-past-the-pole" (FPTP). The
winning candidate's party gets all the representation.
The Weimar Constitution:
COALITION GOVERNMENT
STEPS IN COALITION CREATION
•
Elections are held; seats are assigned
according to proportional representation
•
Head executive (President, King, etc.)
usually assigns leader of top vote-gaining
party to create a ruling coalition
•
Negotiations among parties occur until a
Chancellor (or Prime Minister is
selected) and an entire Cabinet is formed
(concessions on issues may also occur to
close deals)
•
Next election occurs when: vote of no
confidence passes, or coalition is
dissolved by executive, or scheduled
elections take place
COALITION: An alliance for combined action,
especially a temporary alliance of political
parties for the purpose of making a government.
CABINET: A body of persons appointed by a
Prime Minister (or Chancellor) to head the
executive departments of the government and to
act as official advisers.
The Weimar Constitution:
ARTICLE 48 AND ARTICLE 25 POTENTIAL FOR ABUSE?
•
Article 48: granted the President
the power to issue laws and
orders as decrees under
"emergency" circumstances that
were not well defined in the
Weimar constitution
•
Reichstag could overturn such a
decree by a simple majority vote
•
President (according to Article
25) could dissolve the Reichstag,
but new elections had to be held
within 60 days
WHILE President Ebert used Article 48 to put
down specific left-wing and right-wing revolts and
did not dissolve the Reichstag during his
presidency, President Hindenburg came to rely
upon use of Article 48 powers to allow unpopular
conservative politicians to regularly rule by decree
in the authoritarian period of 1930-32. In 1930,
he dissolved the Reichstag because it had
overturned Brüning's decrees.
The Continuity of Weimar:
JUDICIARY, CIVIL SERVICE, REICHSWEHR
REICHSWEHR: The German
military (both the army and the
dramatically-reduced navy), up until
1935 (from that time forward, the
military was known as the Wehrmacht).
•
While a new constitution was created for the
Weimar Republic, there was no significant
turnover of government employees, military
leaders or civil servants.
•
Thus, the bureaucracy (a body of non-elected
government officials) was basically that of
Imperial Germany; most government workers
were authoritarian & opposed to the republic they
served. This was also true of most of the police.
•
Most of the judges in Germany had been
appointed by Wilhelm II's government; they were
sympathetic to right-wing paramilitary groups
(Freikorps, Nazi storm troopers) and gave them
much more lenient treatment for equivalent
offenses than they gave left-wing groups.
The Kapp Putsch & Munich Putsch:
POLITICAL CRISIS: Right Wing Coup Attempts
•
Kapp Putsch (March 1920): A right-wing coup
(actually led by Gen. Lüttwitz) that began in
response to orders to reduce military forces to
100,000 men by dissolving various Freikorps.
•
Berlin was seized; elected Weimar officials
relocated to Stuttgart & called for a general
strike by workers to oppose putsch. It worked &
Weimar survived.
•
Beer Hall Putsch (Nov. 1923): Amidst a context
of hyperinflation, Adolf Hitler (NSDAP leader)
and Ludendorff attempted a multiple-stage
coup in Bavaria that they hoped would result in
an overthrow of the Weimar gov't in Berlin.
Instead, almost everything that could go wrong
did & Hitler was arrested (sentenced to 5 years
for high treason, but he was released after only 9
months).
WOLFGANG
KAPP (above)
KAPP PUTSCH
IN BERLIN (left)
BEER
HALL
PUTSCH:
A scene
from its
demise
(right)