Founding of the Weimar Republic (1919): Germany's First Democracy

The founding of the Weimar Republic in 1919 turned the German Empire, a monarchy ruled by the Kaiser, into Germany’s first parliamentary democracy. After revolution swept away the old regime in November 1918, an elected National Assembly met in the small town of Weimar and adopted a new constitution, signed on 11 August 1919. The republic it created introduced universal suffrage and wide civil rights, but it was born in defeat and faced enemies from its first days.

Background: defeat and the November Revolution

By the autumn of 1918 Germany’s army was in retreat on the Western Front and its generals had told the government that the war was lost. In early November sailors at Kiel mutinied rather than sail on a last, hopeless operation against the British fleet. Workers’ and soldiers’ councils, modelled loosely on the Russian soviets, sprang up across the country within days.

On 9 November 1918 the chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, announced the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and handed power to Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). That afternoon Ebert’s colleague Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed a republic from a balcony of the Reichstag building, while the radical socialist Karl Liebknecht proclaimed a “free socialist republic” from the royal palace a short distance away. The Kaiser crossed into exile in the Netherlands.

A provisional government, the Council of People’s Deputies, took over and signed the armistice on 11 November. Ebert made an agreement with the army command under General Wilhelm Groener: the army would support the government, and the government would preserve the officer corps. The question of whether Germany would become a parliamentary democracy or a council republic was settled in favour of an elected national assembly.

The National Assembly at Weimar

Elections for the National Assembly were held on 19 January 1919, a week after the Spartacist Uprising in Berlin had been crushed. For the first time all men and women aged 20 and over could vote, and turnout was about 83 per cent. Thirty-seven women were elected.

The parties that supported the new democracy did well. The SPD won about 38 per cent of the vote, the Catholic Centre Party about 20 per cent and the liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) about 19 per cent. Together these three formed the “Weimar Coalition”, which held more than three-quarters of the seats.

Because Berlin was still unsettled, the assembly opened on 6 February 1919 in the National Theatre at Weimar. On 11 February it elected Ebert provisional Reich President, and Scheidemann became head of the first coalition government. The assembly returned to Berlin in the autumn of 1919.

The Weimar Constitution

The main author of the draft constitution was Hugo Preuss, a liberal professor of law and member of the DDP. After months of debate the assembly passed the constitution on 31 July 1919 by 262 votes to 75, with the right-wing nationalists and the Independent Socialists among those voting against. Ebert signed it on 11 August 1919, and it came into force three days later.

The constitution made Germany a federal republic with a parliament, the Reichstag, elected by proportional representation. The head of state, the Reich President, was to be elected directly by the people for seven years and had considerable powers, including the right to appoint the chancellor, to dissolve the Reichstag and, under Article 48, to rule by emergency decree in a crisis. A second section listed basic rights, from equality before the law and freedom of speech to social rights such as protection of labour. The constitution also allowed for national referendums.

The new republic adopted black, red and gold as its national colours, the colours of the liberal revolutionaries of 1848.

A new political and social order

The founding year brought changes that reached far beyond the constitution. Workers had already won the eight-hour day in November 1918, and an agreement between employers and trade unions recognised the unions as partners in collective bargaining. A Works Councils Act of 1920 gave employees a voice in larger firms. The princes who had ruled the German states lost their thrones, and the former kingdoms and duchies became republican states, or Lander, within the federation.

Censorship was eased, and Weimar itself gave its name to an era of cultural experiment. In April 1919 the architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus school of art and design in the same town where the National Assembly was sitting, and the following decade became famous for its film, theatre, painting and new architecture.

Yet many powerful groups never accepted the republic. Senior civil servants, judges, university professors and army officers had served the monarchy and often stayed in their posts. The Reichswehr, the new army, saw itself as standing above party politics, and courts were notoriously lenient towards right-wing political violence. Historians often describe Weimar as a “republic without republicans”, although millions of Social Democratic, Catholic and liberal voters did support it.

Early pressures on the republic

The most painful test came almost immediately. The Allies presented their peace terms in May 1919, and Scheidemann resigned in June rather than sign them. His successor Gustav Bauer’s government accepted the Treaty of Versailles under threat of renewed war, and it was signed on 28 June 1919. Nationalists blamed the republic’s leaders for the defeat and the treaty, spreading the false “stab-in-the-back” legend that the army had been betrayed at home.

Violence came from both extremes. The government used army units and paramilitary Freikorps volunteers to crush left-wing uprisings, including a short-lived council republic in Munich in April and May 1919. In March 1920 right-wing officers attempted the Kapp Putsch in Berlin, which failed when workers launched a general strike. Political assassins murdered the Centre Party politician Matthias Erzberger, who had signed the armistice, in 1921 and Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau in 1922.

In the Reichstag election of June 1920 the Weimar Coalition lost its majority, and it never regained one. War debts, reparations and monetary policy led to the hyperinflation of 1923, which wiped out savings and deepened distrust of the republic.

Key people

• Friedrich Ebert (1871–1925): SPD leader and first Reich President, a moderate who sought order and parliamentary government.
• Philipp Scheidemann (1865–1939): proclaimed the republic and led its first elected government.
• Hugo Preuss (1860–1925): constitutional lawyer and principal drafter of the constitution.
• Matthias Erzberger (1875–1921): Centre Party politician, signatory of the armistice, later murdered by nationalists.

Timeline

• 1918, early November: Sailors mutiny at Kiel and councils form across Germany.
• 1918, 9 November: Abdication of Wilhelm II is announced and a republic is proclaimed in Berlin.
• 1919, 5-12 January: The Spartacist Uprising is suppressed in Berlin.
• 1919, 19 January: Election of the National Assembly, the first in which German women vote.
• 1919, 6 February: The National Assembly opens in Weimar.
• 1919, 11 February: Friedrich Ebert is elected provisional Reich President.
• 1919, 28 June: Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles.
• 1919, 31 July: The National Assembly adopts the constitution.
• 1919, 11 August: Ebert signs the Weimar Constitution.

Why it matters

The Weimar Republic was Germany’s first experiment with full parliamentary democracy and gave Germans votes for women, broad civil liberties and a vibrant cultural life. Its weaknesses, especially the presidential emergency powers, and the hostile circumstances of its birth were exploited after 1930, ending with Hitler’s appointment as chancellor in 1933. The makers of West Germany’s Basic Law in 1949 studied Weimar’s failure closely and designed their constitution to avoid it.