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East Germany Problems of Parliamentary Politics
The Weimar Republic represented a compromise: German
conservatives and industrialists had transferred power to the
Social Democrats to avert a possible Bolshevik-style takeover;
the Social Democrats, in turn, had allied with demobilized
officers of the Imperial Army to suppress the revolution. The
January 1919 National Assembly elections produced the Weimar
coalition, which included the SPD, the German Democratic Party
(Deutsche Demokratische Partei--DDP), and the Center Party. The
percentage of the vote gained by the coalition (76.2 percent; 38
percent for the SPD) suggested broad popular support for the
republic. The antirepublican, conservative German National
People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei--DNVP) and the
German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei--DVP) combined
received 10.3 percent of the vote. The Independent Social
Democratic Party of Germany, which had split from the SPD during
the war, won 8 percent of the vote. But the lifespan of the
Weimar coalition was brief, and the Weimar political system,
which was achieving gains for both extreme left and extreme
right, soon became radicalized.
The future of the Weimar Republic was shaped during the
critical year separating the National Assembly elections and the
June 1920 Reichstag elections. German public opinion was
influenced by three major developments. First, the Treaty of
Versailles shocked German nationalists and seriously damaged the
republic's prestige. The treaty's provisions for Allied
occupation of the Rhineland and reparations were considered
unduly harsh. Second, German workers were disappointed by the
failure to achieve social reform. Third, the Kapp Putsch of March
1920, an attempted coup staged by disaffected right-wing army
officers, provided impetus for the political radicalization of
rightist and leftist elements. In the June 1920 elections, the
Weimar coalition lost its majority. An increase in votes (28.9
percent) for the DNVP and the DVP reflected German middle-class
disillusionment with democracy. SPD strength fell to 21.7 percent
as the German working class defected to the extreme left. The
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany split as most
members joined the Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische
Partei Deutschlands--KPD), formed in December 1918, and the
remainder reunited with the SPD.
The Weimar coalition never regained its majority. After 1920
the era of unpopular minority cabinets began. Postwar inflation
and Allied demands for reparations contributed to political
instability. In January 1923, French and Belgian troops occupied
the highly industrialized Ruhr district as a protest against
German defaults in reparations payment. The Weimar government
responded by calling upon the Ruhr population to stop all
industrial activity. In the summer of 1923, President Ebert asked
Gustav Stresemann, the DVP chairman, to form a new cabinet
coalition to resolve the crisis.
Data as of July 1987
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