Was Germany as a Nation Ready For a Democracy?
Was Germany as a Nation Ready For a Democracy?
The democratic Weimar Republic was set up in 1919, but was Germany ready for a democratic nation, where the people ruled the country indirectly through a government, instead of the autocratic system that they had been used to for so long?
At the end of the First World War Germany was one of the largest industrialised nations in the world, amongst the USA, France, Great Britain, Russia and Austria. Of these the USA, France and Great Britain were all democracies, whereas the other three were not. The democracies at the time appeared to be the nations achieving victories in wars. An example of this, outlined in Encarta 99 by an unknown author, was Britain in the Boer Wars (1899-1902) fought Dutch colonists for possession of gold and diamond mining areas of southern Africa. In January of 1901 it appeared Britain had won, but then fighting broke out again, to be restored to a compromise of peace in 1902. On the other hand, those countries who were not democracies were losing wars, for example Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905(information taken from Encarta 99, author not stated). Democracy seemed to be a key part of success. However, within the German public there was a firm built in belief that if democracy was brought into Germany it would mean defeat, partly due to the lack of experience Germany had with dealing with any kind of democratic government, having been ruled for so long by an autocratic government. Also, as the victors of the war were democratic, the public didn't want it to appear that they were not only losing to these countries and having to give them land and so on, but also changing their political system to be more like theirs.
Despite the point mentioned above of a public conviction that democracy led to defeat, there was a clear willingness within the population to move towards a more democratic system, through socialism. At the time the Socialist Party (the SDP) was the largest political party in the Reichstag(the lower house of the government). It had reached that position fairly rapidly due to its popularity within the working and middle classes of Germany, and represented the people's interests more than the upper classes' interests:
"The rapidly expanding industrial and urban working class - the proletariat - increasingly supported the Socialist Party (the SPD). SPD supporters wanted political reform to accompany Germany's economic growth....the SPD continued to grow. This reinforced social tendencies within the middle class."
(Hite, J. and Hinton, C., Weimar and Nazi Germany, 2000.)
However, there was a lack of understanding and comprehension in the German public. They didn't understand the reasons for defeat in World War 1, due to "the stab in the back" theory. In order to pass the public's blame on from himself, General Ludendorff, following ...
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"The rapidly expanding industrial and urban working class - the proletariat - increasingly supported the Socialist Party (the SPD). SPD supporters wanted political reform to accompany Germany's economic growth....the SPD continued to grow. This reinforced social tendencies within the middle class."
(Hite, J. and Hinton, C., Weimar and Nazi Germany, 2000.)
However, there was a lack of understanding and comprehension in the German public. They didn't understand the reasons for defeat in World War 1, due to "the stab in the back" theory. In order to pass the public's blame on from himself, General Ludendorff, following the end of the war, persuaded the Kaiser to hand power over to a civilian government supported by the Reichstag. This worked very well, thanks to the bitterness present in Germany because of its defeat.
"It was claimed that the German army had been "stabbed in the back" by unpatriotic and weak politicians. According to this view the German army had been a formidable fighting force until the end of the war and could have won. Germany had not been defeated on the battlefield but by pacifists and Socialists who had undermined the war effort."
(Hite, J. and Hinton, C., Weimar and Nazi Germany, 2000.)
This belief that the Socialists were largely to blame for Germany's defeat in the war also presented a block to the incoming democracy and civilian government, who, to the public, represented those who had caused Germany to fail.
"...the Weimar Republic inherited the unresolved social...conflicts of the Second Reich, which were exacerbated by the consequences of the lost war:...internal unrest..."
(Williamson, D.G., The Third Reich, 1985)
Germany's population in general had no real idea of what a democracy was, having never lived in one, and never having had a political system even close to a democracy. Many people wanted things to stay how they were, afraid of change.
The Government before the Revolution contained a large variation within itself. It had two houses, the Bundesrat(upper house) and the Reichstag(lower house). The Bundesrat was formed of the aristocracy, the landowners and state governors. The Reichstag was made up of a number of parties, and a number of these showed the way forward for democracy, for example the SDP, liberal parties (e.g.. DVP) and conservatives. The spectrum of variation within the government showed there was room for political change, with a large number of different views held within parties made up of different classes of people, all interested in benefiting different sectors of the population.
However, despite this contemporary willingness within the government for a move towards socialism and liberalism, previous political leaders had been very against both of these, and this attitude would have been drummed into the population, some of which would still have been remaining in them. For example, Bismarck had been very anti-socialist and liberalist, and was fearful of their increase in popularity in the Reichstag.
"Bismarck sought to restrict SPD support by repression, then by introducing social reforms to win the working class from socialism."
(Hite, J. and Hinton, C., Weimar and Nazi Germany, 2000)
Kaiser Wilhelm II was another example of a ruler who attempted to put down socialism and liberalism:
"The German ruling class also saw an aggressive foreign policy as a way to win over working-class support and so reduce the threat of revolution....this policy was called Weltpolitik, world policy."
(Hite, J. and Hinton, C., Weimar and Nazi Germany, 2000)
The modern improved transport and communication systems in Germany showed that the nation was moving forward(it had railways whereas other European countries did not, e.g.. France and Austria). This hinted at a way forward for a new political system also. Better transport also meant that it was easier for the nation to communicate as one, so a democracy, involving the nation running the country through a government, was now more plausible.
However, although these new communication means were encouraging, historically Germany had been very anti-democracy. The sole purpose of the Unification of Germany in 1871 had been to gain more power over the country for the Emperor.
"At Versailles on January 18th 1871 [Bismarck] persuaded a reluctant Wilhelm I to become head of the restored German Empire, the Second Reich."
(Harrington, J.F. and Merkl, P., Encarta Encyclopedia 99, 1999)
The liberals had failed in the past, and the country and retained the old system of "blood and iron" - imperialism, militarism and industrialisation.
At the time there was an unpopularity of policies being put forward by the standing government, such as the Naval laws, stating a large amount of money to be spent on Germany's Navy, which indicated the public wanted a new government who would be more likely to have policies and pass laws that were for the benefit of the nation, rather than the elites. However, following the First World War Germany was in a position of very great economic frailty, and a new political system would only serve to give the government even more to worry about in this time of great turmoil.
"Because of the inflationary means by which the imperial government had financed the war, the German mark in 1919 was worth less than 20% of its pre-war value....the economic impact of the Treaty of Versailles was crushing. Germany lost 13% of her territory, 10% of her population, 15% of her arable land, 75% of iron and 68% of zinc ore...."
(Rempel, Professor G., The Weimar Republic 1: Economic and Political Problems, 10th October 1998 - website)
Throughout German history one person had ruled the country, but changing to a democracy meant that the whole nation would, in effect, be ruling the country. This dramatic change could lead to extremism, with the autocracy fighting against communism.
Was Germany ready as a nation to become a democracy? Although democracy appeared to be working in other industrialised nations at the time, e.g. the USA, Germany was not ready for the system. Pockets of the population, e.g. the Socialists, wanted a democratic system, but a combination of factors meant the country was not prepared. Generally within the public, following the First World War, there was an anti-socialist feeling(because of the "stab in the back" idea which blamed the socialists for losing the war), and as socialists wanted democracy this turned the population against it. Economic frailty following the Treaty of Versailles made Germany weak and meant it was not a good time for a dramatic political change. If Germany had changed to a democracy a decade or so later, after the repercussions of World War 1 would have had time to ease and die down a bit, it would have been more likely to be successful, but at this point in history Germany was not ready to become democratic.
Megan Edwards 12HO
