Monarchism in the Weimar Republic

Dr. Walter Kaufmann

• Publisher: Arcole Publishing
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781789121087
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

"The present essay is a pragmatic study of monarchism as a political factor in Germany during the period of the Weimar Republic. It seeks to illuminate the history of that period by concentrating on the most powerful opposing force with which the democratic republic in Germany was confronted during the major part of its existence. It also aims at an answer to the question why the fall of the Weimar Republic did not bring about a restoration of the monarchy but, on the contrary, destroyed monarchism together with democracy."In tracing monarchism during the Weimar Republic, we shall distinguish two main periods. During the first, until 1923, monarchism was the core of a violent rightist opposition to the republican form of government. During the second, from 1923 to 1933, monarchism adopted a more moderate policy. It became an oppositional movement in the republican state in whose government it participated at various times, while it gradually became outflanked by a non-monarchistic rightist movement—National Socialism."

PART ONE—MONARCHISM AS OPPOSITION AGAINST THE REPUBLIC (1918-1923)

“Thank God, we are not in this Government. We shall never enter any parliamentary government. We do not recognize this constitution, on the contrary, we want to fight it with all our power. We want the national revolution.”

(“Die Deutschnationalen und Wir,” Flugschriften der Deutschen Volkspartei, Folge 44, p. 12)

CHAPTER ONE—THE BACKGROUND AND OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION

1. The War and the Social Democracy

When war came, Emperor and Government had to admit the failure of their previous policy, which drew a separating line between the State and the bourgeois society on the one side, and the Socialists on the other. The Emperor’s exclamation on the eve of the war that he recognized parties no more, but only Germans, was, in fact, an invitation to the prodigal sons of the Social Democracy to return into the fold of the nation. This reversal of the prevailing attitude occurred in answer to the exigencies of the hour. Only a united people could successfully respond to the strains of the war effort.

The Reichstag, once more the reliable indicator of the nation’s sentiment, rallied to the Crown’s peace offer with its pledge to maintain a Burgfriede {59}for the duration of the war, burying all inter-party disagreements in the interest of national unity and strength.

There remained, however, a certain uneasiness hovering over this rather precarious arrangement, in spite of the initial appearance of unity. On the surface it seemed that the SPD had acquiesced to the existence of the dynastic-conservative state, and that this state was willing to regard the Socialists no longer as a potential source of threat and danger. The budgetary additions which had become necessary with the outbreak of the war were being voted for by all members of the social democratic Reichstag faction present. Social Democracy and Junkerdom seemed to have ended four decades of bitter feuding and to have joined together in the defense of the fatherland.

Unity, however, had not reigned in the Social Democratic party caucus that preceded the plenary session. There, fourteen deputies had opposed the acceptance of the war budget. But in the plenum, although the Socialist deputy Kuhnert demonstratively absented himself{60} when the budget was voted on, the others, including Karl Liebknecht and Hugo Haase, cast a positive vote.{61}

It is extremely difficult to assess correctly to what extent the social democratic Reichstag faction represented the true sentiments of its electorate. The worker responded to the call to the colors with the same alacrity as his elected representatives, and with the same patriotic enthusiasm that pervaded the entire German people in August, 1914. In order to understand this fresh response it must be recalled that the war started in the East as the result of the mobilization of Czarist Russia; this, at least, was all that the workers knew. The official party-line had long inspired them against the dangers from Czarism and Russian imperialism. But most of the workers were sent to the Western Front to fight against French workers, who, in turn, had been sent into battle against Kaiserism and German imperialism.

The heat of patriotic passion in the summer of 1914 softened the internationalistic superstructure of the worker’s movements. International solidarity became, for the broad masses, an anemic theory, which could not withstand the powerful appeal to nationalistic sentiments. The shots which killed Jean Jaures had sounded the death-knell for the utopian worldwide alliance of the “toilers.”

Only a few German Social Democrats were not caught in the current of the patriotic tide. In December, 1914, Karl Liebknecht was the first Social Democrat to vote against additional war funds. In the Reichstag he denounced Germany’s “imperialistic” war and demanded an open discussion of a problem which was utterly taboo: German war aims.

In the Prussian Diet the few Socialists who had been elected under the discriminatory provisions of the three-class election system had, from the very beginning, shown greater reluctance to join their inhospitable state’s war effort. In the session of February 9, 1915, the small social democratic faction was authorized by only a scant majority of the party caucus to join in a pledge of loyalty.

In March 1915, the SPD Reichstag deputy Rühle joined Liebknecht in opposition against the first regular war budget—until then, appropriations of war funds had been attached in the form of amendments to the general budget—while thirty other Socialists left the session demonstratively before the vote.{62} Approximately one year later, the Reichstag’s debate of an emergency budget led to a break in the Social Democratic Party which was never healed again. Under the leadership of Hugo Haase, the pacifistic left wing formed a Social Democratic work-union (Arbeitsgemeinschaft). With this step, the anti-war faction freed itself from stifling control and restrictions of the collaborative majority. At the same time, Liebknecht organized a clandestine movement outside of Parliament with the telling name of “International Socialists of Germany.” {63}

The pacifist movement in Germany received immediately support from abroad. Several expatriated Germans formed a number of organizations in sympathy with the struggle of the dissident Socialists in Germany. Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster in Switzerland organized a “Union of German Republicans,” and Julius Koettgen in the United States of America founded the “Society of the Friends of German Democracy.” {64} These and many similar organizations in various countries{65} issued a great number of publications, in which with appealing eloquence the Monarchy was equated with war, and the Republic with peace.

2. The Chauvinist Opposition

The small, if vociferous, Socialist opposition in the Reichstag was, however, relegated more or less to the sidelines of political action. A much graver threat to national unity and the precarious Burgfriede in the German Parliament arose from the unscrupulous attitude of German chauvinism. In the course of the war, discussion of such vital questions as parliamentary reforms, submarine warfare and war aims could no longer be restrained by appeals to patriotism and vague promises for the future. The passionate presentation of antagonistic viewpoints on these problems plunged the parties anew into bitter struggles. This development was precipitated by the fact that chauvinist sentiment determined the actions and attitudes not only of members of the Right, but also of the liberal and center factions. Their foremost criticism was levelled against the alleged laxity in the pursuit of the war. And although the august person of the Emperor was sacrosanct to them, they attacked viciously and relentlessly the Imperial Government, and especially Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, to whom they came to attach habitually the odium of slackness. The prime-mover of this predatory impatience and of a megalomania which dreamed of a Teutonic world hegemony, was the pan-German League (Alldeutscher Verband).

The origin of this notorious organization dated back to 1886 and was inspired by the expanding colonial policy of that era. Delegates of its two parent organizations, the Westdeutscher Missionsverband (Western German Mission League) and the Zentralverein für Handelsgeographie (Central League for Trade Geography) had met then at the “First General German Congress for the Promotion of Overseas’ Interests” under the chairmanship of the explorer Dr. Karl Peters. Out of this Congress grew the Allgemeiner Deutscher Verband zur Förderung Überseeischer Deutschnationaler Interessen, a programmatic name meaning in essence: a German nationalistic league for the promotion of overseas interests. Its program{66} called for expansion and greater utilization of Germany’s colonial possessions, for increased German emigration to its colonies, for increase of German exports, preservation of German language, culture and way of life, and for a strengthening of the bond between Germans at home and abroad.

In 1890, the league received the shorter and more convenient name of Alldeutscher Verband. Wislicenus, Hasse, Hugenberg, and Class subsequently followed Dr. Peters in the leadership of the organization.{67} A Verein Deutscher Studenten became the league’s mouthpiece in German universities.

In 1891, a new constitution{68} added strong racist and anti-Semitic sentiments to the League’s imperialist character. It assumed that pure blood was necessary for the revitalizing of the nation’s patriotic feelings and for the demonstration of German strength and vitality at home and abroad. The slogans “Germany Awaken!” and “Remember that you are a German”—later literally and effectively used by the Nazis—became the war cries of the pan-Germans.

The membership of the League was never large,{69} nor did it aspire to a large membership. Rather than turning the organization into a mass-movement, the League wanted to represent the political elite, consisting of prominent politicians, professors, influential members of the arts and professions, and wealthy merchants. In the Reichstag, the League’s adherents could be found mostly in the Conservative and anti-Semitic camps, but also among the National Liberals, who saw their own colonial program and ambitions reborn with a new tempo and emphasis. Bassermann and Stresemann belonged to those liberal leaders who “followed with particular passion”{70} the pan-German ideology and belonged, for instance, to ...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• PREFACE
• INTRODUCTION-THE POLITICAL SCENE IN GERMANY ON THE EVE OF WORLD WAR I
• PART ONE-MONARCHISM AS OPPOSITION AGAINST THE REPUBLIC (1918-1923)
• PART TWO-MONARCHISM AS OPPOSITION IN THE REPUBLIC (1924-1933)
• PART THREE-SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
• APPENDIX-THE DEMOCRATIC ARGUMENT FOR MONARCHY
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER