Versailles and Weimar

After months of waiting, over 80 percent of the German men and women went to the polls on January 19, 1919, to elect 435 members of the National Assembly, each member representing 150,000 persons. In this election the German people rejected radicalism, casting 76.2 percent of their votes for the moderate parties, 37.9 percent for the Social Democrats, 19.7 percent for the Center, and 18.6 percent for the Democrats. Together these parties, which had Supported the Peace Resolution of 1917, formed the Weimar Coalition, which would dominate the Assembly and write the new constitution. The radical left wing Independent Socialists won only 7.6 percent of the vote, and the right gained only 14.7 percent, of which 4.4 percent was for the German People's party and 10.3 percent was for the Nationalists. The Communists boycotted the elections in protest of the failure of the revolution to create a Communist state.

On February 6, 1919, Friedrich Ebert opened the national assembly with a speech praising the accomplishments of the provisional government and proclaiming a new era of freedom and prosperity for the German people, who were free at last from the despotic rule of the monarchs. Ebert also asked for the loyal support of the people, stating that the day of the necessity of illegal acts had passed and called upon them to unite behind the new republic. The head of the provisional government sharply condemned any attempt by the Allies meeting in Paris to force the new republic to accept a repressive peace.

Instead of meeting in Berlin, a city full of unrest and associations with an imperial past that they were striving to forget, the leaders of Germany gathered in the peaceful city of Weimar, the home of Goethe. The National Assembly had three important tasks before it: the creation of a legal government, the making of peace, and the writing : of a constitution. The Central Council of the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils immediately resigned, granting its political authority to the Assembly, which became the new temporary government of Germany. On February II, 1919, the delegates elected Ebert head of state with the title "President of the Reich" and authorized him to form a cabinet. Ebert and his fellow Social Democrats offered the Independent Socialists a place in the ministry in return for their recognition of the National Assembly as the legitimate government and a denunciation of the use of force to seize power. However, the radical left valued their revolutionary ideology more than power and rejected Ebert's overtures. The president next turned to the Center and the Democratic parties, which agreed to form a ministry, with Philip Scheidemann as chancellor. With the first task accomplished, the new government began the difficult chore of negotiating with the Allies and of writing a new constitution.

While the representatives of the German people occupied themselves at Weimar , the representatives of the Allies met in Paris to discuss the terms of the peace treaty. Unlike the Congress of Vienna, which rebuilt Europe after the Napoleonic wars, the Paris Peace Conference refused to allow the vanquished to participate in its deliberations. Although the twenty-seven victorious nations sent seventy men to discuss the shape of Europe after the disastrous war, the real power lay in the hands of the "Big Four ," Georges Clemenceau, David Lloyd George, Vittorio Orlando, and Wilson.

Clemenceau, the premier of France, hoped to negotiate a peace that would leave Germany too weak ever to threaten his people again. He also sought approval for French annexation of the left bank of the Rhine, the coal-rich Saar Valley , and the former German colonies. Lloyd George, recently reaffirmed as the British prime minister by a smashing victory at the polls, had promised the English that he would make the Germans pay for the war and place the former kaiser on trial for war crimes. The English leader had no intention of supporting a settlement that would allow Germany to ever again menace the stability of the world. Vittorio Orlando, the prime minister of Italy, planned to win territory for his country by annexing the Italian-speaking areas of South Tyrol, Trieste, and Fiume. Woodrow Wilson, the idealistic president of the United States, arrived in Europe amid the cheers of thousands, who saw him as a deliverer from the injustices and wars of the past and the father of a new era of peace. Wilson responded to the praise by seeing himself as a man unfettered by the greed of his fellow statesman and as the representative not of one nation, but of all the oppressed peoples of Europe. He entered the negotiations with an air of moral superiority, as he condemned the old diplomacy and spoke of a foreign policy under the control of the people, through their parliaments, and of treaties achieved through open discussion rather than behind closed doors, as in the past. Wilson spoke loudly of self-determination for all and of a future when all nations would unite in an international organization that would achieve the solutions of problems through democratic procedures, making war obsolete. In the end, Wilson lost much of his glamour, as he abandoned his principles one after another under the influence of Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and, to a lesser extent, Orlando. Although the American president had pledged himself to the principle of open discussions of the peace terms in his speeches and in the famous Fourteen Points, he made no effort to fulfill this promise during the conference. Even the victorious nations had no real influence over the negotiations, as the "Big Four" met behind closed doors to hammer out the agreements. Wilson and his fellow delegates refused to follow the example of the more successful Congress of Vienna, which had allowed the defeated French to participate in its sessions, and they barred the Germans and their allies from even discussing the peace terms. Instead, the victors presented their demands to the defeated nations and demanded acceptance under threat of renewed fighting. The failure of Wilson to carry out his promise of open negotiations gave the Germans still another reason to feel betrayed.

When the sessions opened, Clemenceau immediately demanded a vengeful peace that would tear the left bank of the Rhine from Germany and give France the Saar Valley with its rich coal deposits. The French premier further demanded the occupation of the Rhineland by Allied troops for thirty years. Wilson, striving to fulfill at least part of his promises, insisted that the period of occupation be cut in half, to fifteen years, and that the Saar Valley be placed under the League of Nations for the same time, after which a plebiscite would be held to determine its future. Wilson, however, sought to placate the French by granting them title to the coal mines in the Saar as compensation for the French mines destroyed during the war. The French also demanded that the new Polish state receive the city of Danzig and the surrounding area as an outlet to the Baltic Sea. Lloyd George resisted this, arguing that the contested city should be placed under the man- date of the League of Nations. Although Poland would not receive the former German city, it would be given an outlet to the sea through the Vistula Valley and a guarantee of the right to trade through Danzig. Finally, Wilson sided with the British leader, thus ending the dispute. The "Big Four" also decided that the people of Upper Silesia, an area of mixed German and Polish population, would decide their fate through a plebiscite.

Wilson had yielded much to the French premier, but he hoped that the League of Nations would act to preserve the peace and bring about international understanding, thus achieving some of the promises of the rejected Fourteen Points. The new body would consist of two branches: an assembly in which each member state would have one vote and a council of nine members, five of which, France, England, the United States, Italy, and Japan, would be permanent; and four of which would be elected by the assembly. The League would sponsor the World Court and the International Labor Office. The Allies chose Geneva, in neutral Switzerland, as the site for the headquarters of the League. The assembly was to meet once a year and the council four times a year. All members would be required by the charter to submit all international disputes to arbitration or to the council for review. Finally, all decisions of the international body would have to be unanimous to take effect. Despite Wilson's dreams, the League of Nations would prove to be a weak organization, unable to save the world from the consequences of the failure of the Paris Peace Conference to solve the tensions that had led to the First World War.

On May 7, 1919, the shocked Germans received the terms of the peace treaty. The Reich would lose large areas, including Alsace- Lorraine, a few towns to Belgium, most of Posen and West Prussia, and all of the former colonial possessions. Furthermore, both the Saarland and Upper Silesia would be detached from Germany and property in the Allied countries was to be sold, with the proceeds going to the victors. Finally, the Germans had to internationalize all their rivers and to allow Allied warships to pass through the Kiel Canal. All in all, the Germans had to agree to deliver 20 billion gold marks worth of goods to the Allies by March 1, 1921. However, this would only be the beginning of the reparations, for the Allies reserved the right to set the total bill at a later date. The economic aspects of the treaty proved to be its most severe section. The Germans ended the First World War with a national debt of 144 billion gold marks. The burden of reparations in material and money harmed the already weak German economy, helping cause a serious inflation and leaving thousands of workers without jobs to earn the money to feed their starving families. The "War Guilt Clause" was clearly based on a total misrepresentation of the facts and unjustly made the Germans accept full blame for causing a war they did not cause. The Germans were certainly to blame for bloodshed, but so were the Serbs, the Russians, and the French.

The publication of the terms of the peace treaty struck the Germans like a thunderbolt. They had surrendered believing that the peace would be based on Wilson's Fourteen Points, only to receive a demand that they sign a treaty that rejected the spirit, if not the specific details, of Wilson's promises. The National Assembly met in special session in Berlin on May 12 to discuss the document. One by one the political leaders of all the parties, including the Independent Socialists, rose to strongly denounce the treaty and demand its revision. After the stormy session ended, the angry delegates stood to sing the German national anthem, "Deutschland uber Alles." Ebert frantically asked the Allies to reconsider and open negotiations, only to be told that Germany must sign the treaty by June 23 or else face even more severe action. The treaty led to a major political crisis, as no German politician wanted to be saddled with the blame for accepting its harsh terms. On June 19 the entire ministry resigned in protest. Ebert desperately turned to General Groner in hopes that the army could protect the fatherland from a possible attack. However, the head of the military informed the somber president that his forces were in no position to resist the stronger Allies. Groner also told Ebert that Germany had no choice but to sign the hated document and hope that in time its terms could be revised. A new coalition cabinet headed by Gustav Bauer finally accepted office and yielded to fate by recommending that the National Assembly approve the treaty. On June 23, only four hours before the Allied ultimatum expired, the Assembly voted 237 to 138, with 5 abstentions, to sign the treaty. A number of delegates refused to attend and to participate in the humiliation of the land they loved.

On June 28, 1919, the victors assembled in the Hall of Mirrors, where almost half a century before the German princes had proclaimed William I their emperor, to accept the German signatures. There amid the faded splendor of Louis XIV, as the sunlight danced between the mirrors and gilt of this monument to the era of baroque, Wilson and Clemenceau presided as thousands filled the room to watch the ceremony. The two German representatives, Dr. Muller and Dr. Bell, one who played second violin in a Brunswick orchestra and the other a university instructor, but both obscure politicians because no man with hope of a future in German government would ruin his career by signing the treaty, entered, pale and nervous, more like prisoners than diplomats. Clemenceau made a short statement. The tense Germans jumped up to sign, but they were told to sit down as it was not yet time. Finally, they put their shaky signatures on the fateful document and left the hall. Outside, fountains played amid the vast gardens, and the victors celebrated their triumph with toasts of the finest French champagne. Perhaps the best comment on the whole affair was made by Sir Harold Nicolson, a member of the British delegation, who wrote in his diary for that day, "To bed, sick of life."

The joyous Allies had little to celebrate because the treaty they had forced the Germans to accept proved to be the undoing of the peace. Within twenty years, Europe once again entered a war. The Second World War, in reality a conclusion of the First World War, left millions dead and much of Europe in rubble. The Treaty of Versailles, named for the place of its signing, more than any other factor led to the destruction of the Weimar Republic and the rise to power of a dictator. It left most Germans feeling that they had been tricked into surrender by Wilson's false promises. Had the American leader not made pledges he could not keep, much of the dissatisfaction of those who felt betrayed by the American president and the politicians who signed the armistice would not have developed. When the full impact of the treaty and the reparations were felt by the German nation, disillusionment with Wilson's broken word and the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles grew. Many vowed to revenge the disgrace and overthrow the leaders and the republic that had accepted its devastating terms. If the Allies had realized that the treaty would cripple the German economy and destroy any chance the Reich had of developing into a genuine democratic republic and had adopted more realistic terms, history might have been drastically changed, and the holocaust of the Nazi tyranny and the Second World War might have been avoided.

In the meantime, the National Assembly completed work on the constitution and formally approved it on July 31, 1919, by a vote of 262 to 75. The Weimar Constitution went into effect on August 14, 1919. It was a democratic document with long sections guaranteeing civil rights. The Parliament consisted of two houses: the Reichstag, representing the people and elected by universal, equal, direct, and secret ballot every four years; and the Upper House, representing the states. The delegates to the Reichstag would not be chosen by majority vote, but rather by a complicated system designed to give a political party the same percentage in the lower house as it received at the polls. This proved to be one of the major flaws in the document be- cause it made possible the entry into the Reichstag of many small groups that were unable to win a majority but could get enough votes to qualify. The multitude of political parties was one of the most serious problems of Weimar Germany. It made it very difficult for a ministry to be formed with the support of the majority of the Lower House, thereby causing a great deal of instability.

The states, which had been reduced from the prewar twenty-five to eighteen by the unification of eight small central states to form Thuringia, retained many of their old rights and chose representatives for the Upper House of the Parliament. However, the central government retained all executive, judicial, legislative, and financial power over matters of national concern and was superior to that of the provinces. Thus, the National Assembly rejected Preuss's proposal in favor of a form more acceptable to the state governments, which, like the royal governments they replaced, jealously guarded their rights.

The president was elected in direct popular election for a term of seven years and served as head of state of the new Germany. However, in an effort to prevent the president from becoming a republican kaiser, the constitution required that each action of the chief executive be countersigned by the chancellor or the cabinet officer concerned before it could take effect. The charter also gave the Reichstag the right to remove the president by a two-third's vote, subject to approval by a national referendum. The president's chief duty was to appoint the chancellor and the ministry, with the requirement that the cabinet enjoy the support of the majority of the Reichstag. Despite the limitations placed on the power of the president by the constitution, he received great privileges under Article 48. This section permitted the chief executive to use the military to force state governments to obey orders from the national government. He also had the right to suspend the civil rights guaranteed by the constitution and to use the military to restore order in times of serious crisis. Article 48 became the most dangerous provision of the new constitution, for it allowed the president to make himself a dictator and rule by decree. During the Weimar Republic, the various presidents used it over 200 times, thereby paving the way for Hitler's autocratic rule. Had the national assembly not made the fatal mistake of placing Article 48 in the constitution, Hitler's seizure of power would not have been as easy.

In 1919 the German people elected a constitutional assembly that provided them with a new frame of government and negotiated the final peace with the victorious Allies. However, the Treaty of Versailles did not successfully end the tensions that had erupted in war in 1914, but only laid the foundation for new conflicts that would plunge the world into a new and more terrible war in 1939. By insisting on vengeance instead of the justice and understanding promised by Woodrow Wilson, the Allies fed the resentment of the defeated Germans and crippled their already weak economy. During the next few years, the war reparations would prevent a full recovery from the chaos of the past and hamper any effort to restore economic stability. The Allies rejected self-determination for many Germans, placing them under foreign rule and driving a wedge between the bulk of the Reich and its eastern portion through the hated Polish Corridor. The German leaders, gathered in Weimar, did little to preserve the democratic republic they tried so hard to create. They allowed the many political factions to make their influence felt through the method of electing the Reichstag, dooming any possibility of stable government. They also gave the head of state such broad powers to meet emergencies through Article 48 that it took very little effort to turn the democratic government into a dictatorship. In truth, the mistakes of both the Allies and the Weimar National Assembly doomed the republic to failure before it even had a chance to obtain a foothold.

From: The Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany: Warren B. Morris; pp. 63-71

Questions:

1) List all the political parties that are mentioned as being part of the Weimar government.

2) Who was the leader of the ruling party and what was the ruling party?

3) Where were the Germans meeting to write this new constitution and what was the name of the group that was meeting?

4) List the "Big Four", what was the goal of each country at the Versailles negotiations?

5) What were the differences between the "Congress of Vienna" and the Versailles negotiations?

6) What was the only real goal of Wilson’s that was accomplished at this Paris Peace Conference.

7) Describe the League of Nations.

8)What were the terms of the Treaty? What were the territorial terms, military terms, economic terms, etc.

9) Why were the Germans so shocked by the Treaty?

10) Why did the Germans sign the Treaty?

11) Why is it called the Treaty of Versailles?

12) Describe the Weimar Constitution and the government it created.

13) What were the problems of the government?

14) Based on your knowledge of the First World War was the War Guilt Clause justified?

The War Guilt Clause

"The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies."