The second stage in the process was that Germany became a republic. In October 1918 a new government based on the Reichstag was formed. This was ‘a revolution from above’. The new republic government was led under Prince Max of Baden. Who had been appointed chancellor by Wilhelm II. With this new government Prince Max brought about some new reforms, but at these times in German society, they were not sufficient. This time as the Economy was in a terrible state and People were tired of the war this caused more problems amongst the people. The Germans had been promised, and expected, a great victory. When it had now become obvious that Germany had lost the war, the country exploded with conflict, which can be described as the ‘German Revolution’ of 1918-19, or the ‘revolution from below’. On 31 October the worst of troubles yet to come began. There was a lot of trouble at the naval bases of Kiel and Wilhelmshaven when sailors refused to obey an order to sail out to salvage German honour in a final battle. They used such methods as; putting out fires in the ships’ boilers and taking over Kiel so they could stop the fleet sailing. The news acquired from this commotion encouraged the establishment of a series of sailors’, soldiers’ and workers’ councils, making these such actions necessary. These councils began to challenge the authority the state governments had. In desperation, Prince Max saw he couldn’t handle a full scale revolution, and announced the Kaiser’s abdication on 9 November and handed over his chancellorship to the moderate socialist leader Friedrich Ebert. Creating the Parliamentary republic.
The limitation of the revolution marks a third stage. After Germany was now under chancellorship of Friedrich Ebert, he wanted Germany to be in the best possible condition it could after the results of the war. Ebert wanted to make quick action to find a way to keep Germany going strong and became very lucky in his path. On 10 November General Wilhelm Groener, Ludendorff’s successor, telephoned Chancellor. They had a very significant conversation. The supreme army command agreed to support the new government and to use troops to maintain the stability and security of the new republic. In return Ebert promised to go against the spread of revolutionary socialism and to preserve the authority of the army officer’s .This was called the ‘Ebert-Groener pact’. Only a few days after this pact was made, on 15 November, The leader of the trade unions, Karl Legien and the leader of the industrial employers, Hugo Stinnes had a heavy conversation such as the two before and also came up with a pact, their agreement was, in effect, a deal where the trade unions made a commitment not to interfere with private ownership and the free market, in return for workers’ committees, an eight-hour working day and full legal recognition. Ebert’s provisional government endorsed this because the German Trade unions were a powerful movement and traditionally closely tied with the SPD. Showing reasons for limited revolution.
The revolution was then suppressed and this marks a fourth stage. Ebert’s moderate policy soon generated opposition from the left wing. Firstly, members of the USPD withdrew from the coalition government in December 1918 when their more radical social reforms were not accepted. Secondly, the Sparticists decided to launch an armed uprising in January 1919 in Berlin. The objectives of the uprising were: to oppose the creation of a National Assembly and instead to give all industry; and to disarm the army and give power to militias of workers’ councils. The overall aim was to bring about a communist revolution in Germany and to establish a Communist state.
Finally the democratic republic was formally established. Despite the disturbances across Germany, the new republic was still able to hold its first elections for a National constituent assembly on 19 January 1919. Most political parties took the opportunity to rename themselves, but a new name couldn’t hide the fact that there was a considerable connection in the structure of the party system. The election results quickly led to the creation of the National Constituent assembly on 6 February. In many respects the results represented a major success for the forces of parliamentary democracy: the high turnout of 83 per cent in the election suggested faith in the idea of democracy. 76.1 per cent of the electorate voted for pro-democratic parties. The solid vote for the three main democratic parties, the SPD, the DDP and the ZP, made it straightforward to form a coalition government, which became known as the ‘Weimar Coalition’.
To conclude it can be seen that Germany as a country went through a lot of stages and problems to get from the title of being a constitutional monarchy to becoming a democratic republic. It can be seem that some stages had more effect than others and that some stages were just openings for other stages for Germany to get to the democratic stage. The toughest part wasn’t changing from a monarchy to a democratic republic, but the results and things that happened in between, such as things decided and moves made. Progress that can be seen going from when the monarchy was made to when the democratic republic was formed shows much hard work that Germany had to go though although it only took one year, the process was not as easy as it seems.
