The Death of the Dream? - The Election of 1920
By 1920 it seemed that the promise of Weimar, to rebuild Germany as a fairer and better nation had failed. It had now been nearly two years since the democratic revolution had toppled the Kaiser, and with him sent Germany's once mighty political right into the wilderness, and brought an end to the war. Yet things had only become worse since then. The DNVP and DVP did not enter the elections of 1920 with the hopeful promises of a more egalitarian and freer Germany, but instead promised order, an end to instability and perhaps most importantly a strong armed foreign policy that would prevent further humiliation by the allies.
It was a message Germany eagerly lapped up. Both the DNVP and DVP registered impressive electoral gains with the former rising from 60 to 108 seats, making them the largest party in the Reichstag and the latter more than doubling their share of the vote. The great losers of the election were the SPD and DDP who both lost a little over half their seats. Their defeat was extremely symbolic as more than any others these two parties had symbolised the Weimar Republic founded in 1919 with their support for democratic freedoms and (to a degree) social justice. The Centre Party managed to maintain its domination over Southern Germany's Catholic population and was thus able to maintain all 90 of its seats despite its part in the Weimar Coalition. Finally the USPD, recently taken over by one Karl Kautsky (once known as the ''Pope of Marxism''), lapped up around half of the SPD's lost seats to finish with only a slightly smaller number of Reichstag members than the DNVP.
The DNVP might have been triumphant in their securing of a plurality of seats, something that would have been unthinkable just one year before, but they were still a long way off being able to form a government in their own. Indeed, combined the two right wing parties (DNVP and the DVP) actually had 3 seats less than the two Social Democratic parties. The DNVP and DVP, who had worked closely together in a join opposition to the Weimar Coalition, therefore moved quickly to secure the backing of the ideologically scattered Centre Party. With the Centre Party on board the new National Coalition had some 275 seats, a slight majority but certainly enough to govern with so long as the Centre Party could maintain the loyalty of its more left wing members.
The right wing parties were forced into dropping their calls for a monarchical restoration, and indeed the restoring of the aristocracy to their former positions, they were also forced to accept the legitimacy of the Weimar Constitution. But beyond the basic protection of the the Republic the Centre Party made few demands of the Coalition, clearly eager to remain in government itself. With Oskar Hergt rising to become Chancellor, Gustav Stresemann of the DVP was to make foreign Policy his personal dominion as he looked to embark on a long battle to undermine the hated treaties forced upon Germany since the end of the War. On the other hand domestic policy was to see a retraction of government from social spending and an focus on bringing an end to the street violence and disorder that had plagued the Germans for so long.