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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.

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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.

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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.
 
What on Earth did Hugo Hasse do to lose his position to Kautsky? Truth be told it's not as improbable as I made it sound, if I remember correctly Hasse and Kautsky were co-Chairmen of the USPD Executive. But Hasse was the one with organizational and especially Parliamentary experience, while Kautsky was mainly a theorist and one who wanted to liquidate the UPSD back into the SPD at that.

Ominous last lines! Particularly since restricting social beneifts is going to be massively unpopular espeically in times of economic crisis. I smell a wave of repression that makes Summer 1919 look tame.

What was the turnout like in this election (and, come to think of it, the last election)? Knowing how many voters abstained would go a long way towards knowing just how much of a realignment this actually is. I hope turnout reports, as well as party rankings, become a feature of future election updates.1

1I suppose it's possible, given Weimar's system, to gague voter turnout by the number of seats there are in the Reichstag. I'd just rather not do the work. :p
 
Mmmh, the SPD has suffered a serious settback. Let's see how and when (or if) they recover.

And let's see too what the new government does and how Germany reacts to it.
 
Great stuff as usual, great to see you back aswell.


Shame the VSVR's story won't be concluded though :(

Thanks, and yeah, I loved the VSVR AAR too. :(

What on Earth did Hugo Hasse do to lose his position to Kautsky? Truth be told it's not as improbable as I made it sound, if I remember correctly Hasse and Kautsky were co-Chairmen of the USPD Executive. But Hasse was the one with organizational and especially Parliamentary experience, while Kautsky was mainly a theorist and one who wanted to liquidate the UPSD back into the SPD at that.

Ominous last lines! Particularly since restricting social beneifts is going to be massively unpopular espeically in times of economic crisis. I smell a wave of repression that makes Summer 1919 look tame.

What was the turnout like in this election (and, come to think of it, the last election)? Knowing how many voters abstained would go a long way towards knowing just how much of a realignment this actually is. I hope turnout reports, as well as party rankings, become a feature of future election updates.1

1I suppose it's possible, given Weimar's system, to gague voter turnout by the number of seats there are in the Reichstag. I'd just rather not do the work. :p

Haase died, a fair enough reason for losing the leadership. :p IRL he died in late 1919, so I decided to bump him off here too but forgot to mention it. I wasn't sure who to put in as the new leader so went for Kautsky simply because of his fame and his position on the party's right *spoilers* (which would make the emergence of a Left of USPD political force even more likely).

I hadn't thought about doing voter turnout stats but don't see the harm in trying to put them in in the future. I looked at the IRL Weimar turnouts and they were basically a slow decline through the 1920s from over 80% to just below 70% in 1930 before rising again a bit in the last elections before the Nazis seized power. So there were no really dramatic changes in turnout IRL and we can assume something similar would happen here.

Mmmh, the SPD has suffered a serious settback. Let's see how and when (or if) they recover.

And let's see too what the new government does and how Germany reacts to it.

The SPD has indeed faced a serious blow. It might recover to a stronger position, but it is unlikely to become as strong as it was in 1919 any time soon.
 
Thanks, and yeah, I loved the VSVR AAR too.

There's nothing stopping you from reviving it :) (or is there?)

The SPD has indeed faced a serious blow. It might recover to a stronger position, but it is unlikely to become as strong as it was in 1919 any time soon.

It's a little early, but any chance of a SAP type split within the SPD? That would certainly make things interesting.
 
Subscribified.
 
Tommy is back! Huzzah!

I thought you were dead...or something.

Anyways, dark times for Germany it would seem...the two almost-but-not-quite Nazi parties in power! I fear for democracy in Germany... :(
 
I love this AAR, but Russia has no chance of surviving with the monarchy intact. The Russians were holding the line in Poland IRL, until the people just snapped and the army lost all organization and morale. If the czar is still around, the Russians still want land reform and civil rights. And I doubt their economy is doing very well, either. The longest the czardom will last is until the Depression hits. If things get any worse for the peasants, the liberals and socialists will use them to institute a republic.