The Republic is evil, the Republic is death
1920-1925
1920 will go down along with the years 1869, 1887 and 1898 as one of the most significant dates in German history. In that year the Weimar Republic was to be condemned to the depths of history, the Free People’s Party that had dominated its governance would cease to exist and a swathe of reforms would be put in place that were to play a major role in the turmoil of the 1920s.
With a strong Anti-Republican majority within the Reichstag, the bitter business of finding a compromise between the Monarchist DZP, the DNVP and the DAP enveloped the government. The agreements between the three parties resulted in the infamous Imperial Act of February 1920. In the face of vicious protests from the Left, including violent demonstrations in many cities, the Papen’s government proclaimed a new German Empire – the Third Reich. Beyond a change of name and a resurgence of monarchist sentiment the Imperial Act actually changed shockingly little. The aristocracy were returned their titles (although neither the properties nor political privileges they had lost in 1898). The former Kaiser Wilhelm II was invited to return from exile and assume the title King of Prussia – his return to Berlin being the scene of a massive rally involving tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands. Not the be out done, Karl von Habsburg was granted the title King of Austria – holding an elaborate coronation ceremony in Vienna in which he promised to protect German democracy from its twin enemies of divisive Republicanism and authoritarian Reaction (a combative statement for a figure linked to a coalition with the far and extreme right). Of course, the issue of who should become the future Kaiser could not be resolved so long as the pro-Habsburg and pro-Hohenzollern factions remained in such close balance – President Hindenburg being appointed as Regent until the dispute could be settled once and for all (in practise a compromise heavily favouring the Prussians). Finally, and most controversially, the Imperial Bill placed certain limits upon freedom of speech and trade union activity – banning ‘revolutionary’ publications and all ‘political’ strike action, effectively measures aimed at combatting the expected resistance of the largely Republican labour movement.
By March 1920 all three leaders of the non-Socialist Republican parties had either resigned or been forced out of the leaderships of their respective parties in light of ruinous election results and the rise of the new German Empire. Despite the despondency amongst these parties, they had won 16.4% of the vote between them – and many believed that a united non-Socialist Republican movement could play a valuable role in the struggle against the Empire. Chief amongst these thinkers was Adam Stegerwald’s replacement at the head of the FVP – Matthais Erzberger. The 45 year old was to become the first leader of the verbosely named Republican People’s Party of Germany (RVPD) which unified the FVP, the DZP R (leaving the monarchist party to claim sole ownership of the name German Centre Party) and a minority of the DDP with 10 of the party’s 30 Reichstag deputies joining the new formation. Identifying itself as being a synergy of Christian Democratic and Liberal ideology the DRVD had emerged as the fourth force in German politics.
The rise of the Right to power ushered in a new wave of militarism. Although the Republican era had seen German construct a small and modern fleet, the navy was massively expanded with a number of enormous battleships forging Germany as a naval powerhouse. At the same time hundreds of thousands were recruited to bolster the ranks of the army – conscription being significantly expanded to accommodate the military build-up.
The paper hats, the paramilitaries of the German Workers’ Party, played an important role in stabilising the Empire. Their terrorisation of the Republican Left made it extremely difficult for the regime’s opponents to organise extra parliamentary opposition and kept many from associating themselves with the movement. Yet, the empowerment of the paper hats came at a price – their terrorism was not exclusively employed against Socialists and other Republicans, but also Jews and Polish migrants West of the Elbe. When in 1921 SED leader Scheidemann demanded that the government openly condemn the paper hats and take action against the organisation it caused a political crisis in government. Whilst many in the government were either ambivalent or actively supportive of Anti-Polish and Anti-Semitic attacks, Wilhelm of Prussia even praising the paper hats as true patriots, not to mention the paper hats’ assaults on their direct political enemies, the Chancellor was left in an unenviable position by the man he ostensibly represented in the Reichstag – Karl von Habsburg. The ‘King of Austria’ came out in opposition to the paper hats, claiming that the Fascists were both immoral and leading Germany towards civil war. With Papen realising any action against the Fascists would scupper his government, seeing the DAP leave and the DNVP alienated, his hands were tied – yet he was still left to face the wreckage caused by the Habsburg claimant’s comments with the confidence of his allies in him and his party being greatly shaken.
The period was, unsurprisingly, punctuated by intense and frequent industrial action. Not only was the labour movement militantly opposed to the Imperial regime and the Papen government, the period witnessed a drastic squeeze in the living conditions of the working class. After a final year of relatively strong growth in 1920 Germany descended into stagnation with an average industrial growth rate of less than 1% from 1921-1925. At the same time the high costs involved in the government’s large scale military expansion programme saw taxes rise, worse yet the period witnessed a steadily rising rate of inflation. With the economy struggle and incomes being hit hard strikes were inevitable. The scale they arrived on was quite shocking. Between 1921-1925 10 times as many work days were lost to strikes as in the last for years of the Republic in 1915-1919. With police frequently facing the threat of being overwhelmed the government deployed military units on several occasions to bolster police units in combatting strikers, all the while finding negotiations with the Socialist trade union leaderships nearly impossible.
Gustav Stresemann had been one of the great opponents of the Republic in the previous decade – leading the DNVP along a path that finally brought them to power in 1919 and defeated the Republic the following year. Long a supporter of the Hohenzollerns, Stresemann found himself increasingly isolated within his own party. For many the prolonged ‘regency’ of Paul von Hindenburg was a humiliation for the Empire, unable to agree upon a new Kaiser, nor a new constitution the Empire restored in 1920 existing in a bizarre state of limbo. Stresemann and his allies were determined to end this deadlock by coming to an agreement with Papen’s Centrists. Realising than Wilhelm could never appeal to the majority of the nation – being too closely associated with authoritarianism, the original Kaiserreich and anti-democratic movements – and being impressed by the behaviour of Karl von Habsburg since his emergence as a national figure the one time Chancellor attempted to build support within the DNVP for an abandonment of the old commitment to the House of Hohenzollern. Such a suggestion was unacceptable – Stresemann was expelled from the party along with a further 25 DNVP deputies in early 1924. Shortly after the expulsion the ex-DNVP deputies joined with the parliamentary DDP to form a new political party – the German National Liberal Party, a political formation committed to free market economics, constitutional monarchy and willing to support a Habsburg claimant. A small, extra parliamentary, faction of the old DDP splintered off to form what was little more than a radical quasi-anarchist think tank issuing a statement ''the Socialists are evil! the monarchists are the devil! Down with the statists!'' The group was little heard of ever again.
Just weeks before the formation of the DNLP in early 1924 (a party that remained firmly within the ranks of the Papen government) a coup had been launched in Prague that brought to power a faction closely aligned with the German state that desired ‘reunification’. In truth it was a cabal of German Nationalists and rapid Anti-Communists fearful of revolution in the country, funded and armed by Berlin. With Prague petitioning the German government for reunification the embattled government received a desperately needed groundswell of support.
By mid-1924, the Centre Party had come to similar conclusions to the newly reborn National Liberals; the experiment in a semi-authoritarian Empire without a Kaiser could go on no longer. Democratic reform was required to satiate the Left and a definitive solution to the Empire’s lack of a monarch and constitution achieved. Yet, without a shift of power within the Reichstag, the reformists within the coalition had no hope of achieving their aims. With this in mind Papen called for fresh elections for January 1925 – believing that if his own party and the National Liberals could not achieve a majority on their own, enough support would drain away from the hardliners on the Left and Right to make a shift towards constitutional monarchy finally possible.