Rise and fall of a democracy

When the exhibition “Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic opens on October 27, the newly elected government of the Federal Republic of Germany will hopefully have formed itself. The fact that 61.5 of around 82 million people are able to cast a free vote may be a matter of course to us today. Yet the first free and democratic vote took place less than 100 years ago.

September 1918. The German Reich, a constitutional monarchy under Wilhelm II, was in the last throes of World War I and close to the point of both military and economic collapse. As the situation seemed likely to deteriorate at the time and in order to prevent a “top-up revolution”, as had just been observed in Russia in 1917, a “top-down revolution” was decided upon. The Reich administration, appointed by the Kaiser, was deposed, and a Reich government supported by parliament was introduced on October 3, 1918. 

Insubordination and rebellion

Prince Maximilian of Baden, one of the Kaiser’s cousins, was made Chancellor of the German Reich. With the government established, offers of a ceasefire were made to the Allies. While the German people were surprised by these offers – for years they had been advised by Reich propaganda that peace could only be brought about by a victory – they quickly accepted the turn. In fact they did so faster than the government of the Reich would have liked. At the end of October 1918, people were already broadly calling for the Kaiser’s abdication, in particular as the latter, along with the high-ranking military men, showed the new government no loyalty.

The first free and democratic vote after the end of the monarchy took place on January 19, 1919. What was new was not just that women were given the vote, but also that the voting age was lowered from 25 to 20. Of all of the votes, 70% went to the parties SPD (who were to put up the first President of the Reichstag in the person of Friedrich Ebert), the Catholic Centre Party (which later on was to merge into the CDU for the main part) and the center-left German Democratic Party. All three parties were fully committed to democracy. However, they had already lost their majority forever when it came to the vote for the first Reichstag one year later.

Repression and intimidation

Today, the inter-War years are known for the instability and short-lived nature of the governments. In principle, the Reichstag was elected for four years at a time, yet the vote was always brought forward in order to achieve a clear majority. After the election of the first Reichstag in 1920, two votes were held in 1924, then Germans voted again in 1928, 1930 and twice again in 1932. The President of the Reich was elected by the people directly. He then in turn appointed the Reich Chancellor, who held far-reaching powers, including the right to dissolve the Reichstag and the ability to declare a state of emergency in those cases were public safety was under threat.

At the same time the democratic parties were very much rooted in their milieus and their focus was quite inflexible and unwilling to compromise. In this context there is often talk of a failure of democracy, yet what is seldom taken into account is that German democracy in the Weimar Republic was only just learning to walk and not yet sure-footed. The historian Tim B. Müller emphasizes an interesting aspect in relation to this in a contribution to weekly newspaper ZEIT: At the time there simply were no role models and traditions that could have been called upon. Few countries saw themselves as democracies before 1918, in the US for example democracy simply stood for the politics of the Democratic Party. A clear definition of the term “democracy” was fundamentally lacking.

The right motivation

With the rise of the AfD in recent years, comparisons to the Weimar Republic have been drawn time and again. It was the first time since 1932 that a right-wing populist party was able to achieve double-digit election results in state elections, and prognoses for the parliamentary elections point to similar results. Like the Nazi party, the AfD has become radicalized over a longer period of time. But are the motivations for voting for a populist-nationalist party the same today as they were then? This remains a highly complex question, one that is almost impossible to analyze at this point. While the longing for a strong leader played a role in the inter-War years, the attraction of populist parties – whether in Germany, France or the US – now seems mainly founded in wanting to exact revenge on the political establishment. It remains questionable whether that is the right motivation in deciding on whom to vote for.