The Council of the People's Deputies (German: Rat der Volksbeauftragten, sometimes translated as "Council of People's Representatives" or "Council of People's Commissars") was the provisional government of Germany during the first part of the German Revolution, from 10 November 1918 to 13 February 1919. Formed initially by three members each from Germany's two main socialist parties, it shaped the transition from the Empire to the Weimar Republic.
The Council took over the functions of head of government (chancellorFriedrich Ebert served as chairman of the Council) and issued decrees in place of legislation (Reichstag). In its first days, it introduced a number of important social reforms such as the eight-hour workday and universal suffrage that for the first time gave women the right to vote.
Following the quick and almost bloodless collapse of the political system of the authoritarian Empire, the revolution became violent as it wrestled with the question of whether Germany was to become a soviet republic, as the more radical elements wanted, or a parliamentary democracy. Under Ebert's leadership, the Council defeated the radical Left, but it was at the cost of bloodshed that permanently split Germany's socialists. The Council also found it necessary to keep many right-wing, anti-republican elements in power in the administration, judiciary and military.[1]
Erich Ludendorff in 1918. He made the initial decision to have the democratic parties in the Empire take the blame for the lost war.
At the end of September 1918 when the German Army was facing inevitable defeat in World War I, the Supreme Army Command (OHL) under Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff called on the government to offer a ceasefire to the Entente powers and to amend the German constitution so that the Empire would become a parliamentary monarchy. They hoped that by doing so, Germany's opponents would grant more favourable terms and that they could save the Army and its "honour" by shifting responsibility for the lost war to democratic politicians.[2]
Emperor Wilhelm II appointed the liberal Prince Maximilian von Baden as chancellor. Baden brought members of the Reichstag's majority parties into the government for the first time, initiated the democratisation of the Reich with the October constitutional reforms, which among other changes made the chancellor dependent on the confidence of the Reichstag rather than the emperor, and asked US president Woodrow Wilson to mediate a ceasefire. It was clear from Wilson's reply notes that the Entente powers were willing to negotiate only with a democratic German government and implicitly demanded the Emperor's abdication.[3]
The leadership of the largest party in the Reichstag, the Majority Social Democrats (MSPD), and especially its chairman Friedrich Ebert, saw the party's main goal as already having been achieved by the constitutional reforms and believed that the Empire's elites would come to terms with democratisation if Germany remained a monarchy.[4] Then on 29 October, sailors at Kiel mutinied against orders to sail out for a final battle against the British Navy. They set up workers' and soldiers' councils in Kiel that took control from the military and the civilian government. From Kiel they spread the German Revolution rapidly across the country, reaching Berlin on 9 September.[5] The leaders of the MSPD feared that the supporters of both the Independent Social Democrats (USPD) and the Marxist Spartacus League were leaning towards Bolshevism.[6] In order to retain the initiative and keep control of the revolutionaries during the rapidly developing events, the MSPD also began to call for the Emperor's abdication.[7]
On 9 November, the day the revolution reached Berlin, Baden on his own authority announced that the Emperor had abdicated and then, without the constitutional authority to do so, handed the chancellorship to Ebert. A few hours later, also acting on his own, Philipp Scheidemann of the MSPD, standing on a balcony of the Reichstag building, declared that Germany was a republic. Ebert planned to quickly "steer the revolution into orderly channels"[8] and published an appeal to the people which he signed as "Reich Chancellor". He spoke of a new (and at that point not yet formed) government that had taken over in order to save the people from civil war and famine. He also invoked the danger of anarchy in order to gain the support of the civil servants, the majority of whom – including the state secretaries (equivalent to ministers) – had chosen to stay in office.[9]
It was of great importance for the MSPD to form a coalition with the USPD in order to maintain its acceptance by the revolutionary workers and soldiers.[10] Although the USPD did not have the masses of workers in Berlin and elsewhere under its control either, the MSPD's position was tenable only in alliance with the USPD.[11] The revolutionary workers' and soldiers' councils that had formed throughout the country following the sailors' uprising were in any case made up primarily of supporters of the MSPD and USPD and wanted unity between the two workers' parties. The moderate wing of the USPD around Hugo Haase was also interested in an alliance because otherwise power in the big cities was in danger of falling to the USPD's left wing around Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and the Spartacists.[12] The two parties differed above all on the question of whether the new government should move forward at once to create the conditions for a socialist reorganization of Germany, such as the immediate nationalisation of large estates and certain key industries, or if it should instead leave such decisions to a constituent national assembly (constitutional convention).[13]
On the evening of the ninth, the MSPD received word that the Berlin workers' and soldiers' council, called together by the Revolutionary Stewards, had decided to elect new councils the next morning and then have them meet in the afternoon to elect a provisional government. In an attempt to put themselves in a position to control the newly elected councils, the MSPD relented on its earlier stand and accepted the USPD's conditions for joining the government.[13] The workers' and soldiers' councils were to be given "political power" and meet "as soon as possible", as called for by the USPD and the Spartacists, but the MSPD was able to avoid the more specific expression "executive, legislative and judicial power" that the other groups had wanted. The MSPD for its part had to accept that the national assembly would be discussed only "after a consolidation of the conditions created by the revolution".[14]
Formation
Hugo Haase, the USPD co-chair of the original Council of the People's DeputiesFriedrich Ebert, nominal co-chair with Haase of the Council, but in actuality its leader
The provisional revolutionary government was formed in the late afternoon of 10 November. The USPD originally wanted to call it the "Council of the People's Commissars", but it was established as the "Council of the People's Deputies".[15] The Council consisted of Friedrich Ebert, Philipp Scheidemann and Otto Landsberg from the MSPD, and Hugo Haase, Wilhelm Dittmann and Emil Barth of the USPD. Ebert and Haase were to be equal chairmen. Scheidemann emphasised the equal rights of all members and called the Council of the People's Deputies a "six-man chancellor."[16] Ebert, however, enjoyed special trust among the state secretaries and civil servants because the Emperor's last chancellor had handed the office to him. At times he continued to use the title of chancellor, which raised him above Haase in the eyes of the Supreme Army Command and the public.[17]
It suited Ebert that the USPD had sent two moderates, Haase and Dittmann, along with a representative of the left wing, Barth, through whom Ebert hoped to be able to win over the radical revolutionaries as well. The "bourgeois ministers" (state secretaries) remained in office as "technical assistants". Each was to be joined by one MSPD and one USPD member as "political undersecretaries of state" to keep watch over them.[18]
On 10 November 1918, the three thousand delegates of the workers' and soldiers' councils who had been elected earlier in the day met at the Circus Busch auditorium in Berlin. Contrary to the expectations of the Independents, the MSPD dominated the meeting as a result of its extensive party organisation and ability to mobilise the unions. Together with the right wing of the USPD, it constituted the majority in the Council Assembly, which readily confirmed the membership of the Council of the People's Deputies. The approval of the councils at the Assembly was critical in that it gave the deputies the credibility they needed to function effectively.[19]
The Assembly also set up the Executive Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils of Greater Berlin under the leadership of Richard Müller, the head of the Revolutionary Stewards.[20] It consisted of 14 representatives each from the workers and soldiers. The workers' representatives came equally from the MSPD and USPD, while the soldiers' representatives were mostly politically independent. Although it was intended to monitor the Council of the People's Deputies, the latter in fact controlled the overall council organisation through the Greater Berlin Executive Council rather than the other way around. The Council of the People's Deputies was able to take the dominant position because it was made up of the important party leaders, and the effective power lay with them. In the words of legal historian Ernst Rudolf Huber, "The party-political parity in the Executive Council as well as in the Council of the People's Deputies was a clear indication that it was not the 'council state' but the party state that prevailed in the revolution. The council organisation remained a mere tool for establishing the rule of the two socialist parties."
The basic configuration did not change in the following weeks and months. To the disappointment of the radical Left, the council organisation did not develop into a body that took the road to a council state and a dictatorship of the proletariat. The Reich Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils, which met in Berlin from 16 to 21 December and was also dominated by the MSPD, was in favour of having Germany's future determined by a national assembly. A council state with constant monitoring of the elected representatives by the masses was something the majority of workers did not want, and the election of a national assembly met with approval from all social classes.[21] The Reich Congress also passed a resolution on the military called the Hamburg Points, which contained revolutionary demands that were strongly opposed by the military. Supreme command was to be with the Council of the People's Deputies, disciplinary authority to reside with the soldiers' councils, officers were to be elected and there were to be no rank insignia and no requirement to salute officers when off-duty.[22] The demands were never implemented.
On 18 December 1918, the Council decided in principle to socialise "suitable" industries. No concrete steps were taken to accomplish it, however, since the MSPD members were not eager to enact any initiatives that were likely to further disrupt the strained food supply or negatively affect industrial productivity. The Council had its hands full with demobilising and reintegrating eight million soldiers, withdrawing three million of them across the Rhine and ensuring a sufficient supply of coal and food to last the winter. There were also threats to the Reich's integrity from separatist movements in the Rhineland and from Polish territorial expansion.[23]
Late in December, members of the People's Navy Division (Volksmarinedivision), which had been formed to protect the revolutionary government in Berlin, rose up over the issue of back pay owed to them. After the Ebert government used military force against them during the 1918 Christmas crisis, the USPD accused Ebert, Scheidemann and Landsberg of betraying the revolution and supporting the old, anti-revolutionary forces. The USPD members resigned from the Council of the People's Deputies on 29 December and were replaced by two additional representatives of the MSPD, Gustav Noske and Rudolf Wissell.[24]
Historian Heinrich August Winkler noted that "a good degree of democracy" had been achieved before 9 November 1918. Universal suffrage for men had been in place since 1871, and parliamentary government had been introduced in October. The political system of the authoritarian state had collapsed in November 1918, with only a minority still standing behind it. The monarchists and army command resisted the change of regime, which meant that the revolution could not retain the old state institutions without danger to the new system.[25]
In spite of the revolution, the administration continued to function, the judiciary and education systems had scarcely been touched, and after the Ebert–Groener Pact of 10 November, the Supreme Army Command and the Council of the People's Deputies were in tacit agreement to support each other.[26] On the other hand, the MSPD and USPD had differing ideas about how Germany should develop and were under great time pressure to act. When the two parties formed their alliance, the Council chose to govern outside the imperial constitution. It instructed the Reichstag not to reconvene and decreed that the existing Federal Council of the states (Bundesrat) should exercise only its administrative functions, not its legislative powers.[27]
As a result, none of the top executive or legislative bodies of the Empire remained in power. The state secretaries, who under the imperial constitution had been subject to the chancellor's instructions, became independent heads of their departments, in effect ministers in the modern sense. The government, which was controlled by the Council, exercised the former roles of the emperor, chancellor, Bundesrat and Reichstag. The Council began working according to rules of procedure on 12 November. The rules prohibited unauthorised intervention in the administration by individual members of the Council. Its instructions to the state secretaries had to be issued collectively and only as guidelines, not for individual cases.[28]
Actions
On 10 November 1918, just hours before the Council of the People's Deputies was formed, the cabinet of Chancellor Ebert approved the Armistice of Compiègne, which came into force the following day and ended World War I. The Council then had to deal with the consequences of the agreement, including the handover of Alsace–Lorraine, the withdrawal of the German military from all French and Belgian territories and the German region west of the Rhine, plus the surrender of the fleet and other war equipment to the World War I Allies.[29]
On 12 November, two days after it had convened for the first time, the Council issued an appeal "To the German People". The following points of the "socialist programme" immediately went into effect:[30]
The state of siege was lifted.
The right of association and assembly was no longer subject to any restrictions, including for civil servants and state workers.
Censorship, including of the theatre, was abolished.
Expression of opinion in speech and writing was made free.
Freedom of worship was guaranteed.
Amnesty was granted for all political offences. Pending proceedings for such offences were dismissed.
The wartime Auxiliary Services Act was repealed, with the exception of the provisions relating to the settlement of disputes.
Servants' regulations were repealed, as were the exceptional laws against agricultural labourers.
The labour protection provisions repealed at the beginning of the war were reinstated.
In the same document, the Council also promised to introduce the eight-hour workday and other social and political reforms by 1 January 1919. They included the creation of jobs, unemployment assistance that would distribute the burden between Reich, state and municipality, a raise in the earnings ceiling for health insurance, more housing to relieve the shortage, a better food supply, the continuance of orderly production, the protection of property against private infringement and the safeguarding of personal freedom and safety. Future elections, including that for the constituent assembly, were to be held under a franchise that would be equal, secret, direct and universal, based on proportional representation and open to all men and women aged 20 and above.[30] The decree on elections was issued on 30 November.[31]
Over the next two months, the Council issued a large number of decrees, some of which formalised points made in "To the German People". On the same day it was announced, a decree established the Reich Office for Economic Demobilisation,[32] with the purpose of carrying the German economy over "to peace conditions". On 22 November, a regulation was issued by the Reich Food Office for election to "peasants' and workers' councils" which were subscribed to "by all agricultural associations".[33] On 23 November, the Reich Office for Economic Demobilisation issued twelve regulations which set forth rules governing duration of the working day, sick leaves, paid vacations, "and other aspects of labour relations within the German economy".[34] A decree of the Office for Economic Demobilisation made on 9 December provided that the state governments "should require the communes and communal unions to establish departments for general vocational guidance and for placement of apprentices".[35]
In December, the income limit for entitlement to health insurance coverage was raised from 2,500 to 5,000 marks.[36] Protections for homeworkers were improved[37][38] and housing provision was increased.[39] A decree of 23 December regulated wage agreements, laying down that a wage agreement that had been concluded in any branch of employment between the competent trade union authority and the competent employers' authority had absolute validity, meaning that no employer could enter into any other agreement of his own initiative. In addition, arbitral courts were set up to decide all disputes. A decree of 4 January 1919 compelled employers to reinstate their former labourers on demobilisation, while measures were devised to safeguard workers from arbitrary dismissal. Workers who felt that they had been treated unfairly could appeal to an arbitration court, and in case of necessity, the demobilisation authorities "had the power to determine who should be dismissed and who should be retained in employment".[40] On 29 November 1918, the denial of voting rights to welfare recipients was repealed.[41]
A government proclamation of December 1918 ordered farmers to re-employ returning soldiers "at their former working place and to provide work for the unemployed",[42] while an important decree was issued that same month in support of youth welfare.[43] In December , the government provisionally granted the continuation of a maternity allowance introduced during the Great War,[44] while a decree issued in January mandated the employment of disabled veterans.[45] A Settlement Decree was issued by the government on 29 January[46] "concerning the acquisition of land for the settlement of workers on the land"[47] that foresaw "the possibility of expropriating estates over 100 hectares to facilitate settlement". However, only just over 500,000 hectares were freed by 1928, benefiting 2.4% of the farming population.[48]
In addition, Ebert's government got food supplies moving again[39] and issued various decrees related to the promotion of civil aviation[49] and restrictions on firearm possession.[50]
Philipp Scheidemann, minister president of Germany during the period of the Weimar National Assembly
The Council did not tackle fundamental reforms in the military. Before the Council's formation, Ebert had promised the new head of the OHL, General Wilhelm Groener, that military command would remain with the professional officer corps (see Ebert–Groener pact). In return, the army command promised to support the new republican government.[51]
The general elections to the Weimar National Assembly took place on 19 January 1919. On 10 February, it passed the Reich Law on Provisional Power, a kind of interim constitution, which stated in its first article that "The constituent German National Assembly has the task of adopting the future Reich constitution as well as other urgent Reich laws." In accordance with the Reich Law, the National Assembly was to elect the interim Reich president,[52] and it chose Friedrich Ebert on 11 February. He in turn selected Philipp Scheidemann to form a government. The Scheidemann cabinet, which was a coalition of three centre-left parties because the SPD had won only 38% of the votes,[53] was introduced on 13 February. Germany then had both a parliament and a government that were democratically legitimised, and the Council of the People's Deputies was dissolved. The Assembly went on to draft and approve the Weimar constitution, which established Germany as a parliamentary republic on 14 August 1919.[54]
Evaluation
There has been considerable discussion about whether the Council of the People's Deputies could have acted more courageously and whether the important transitional phase could have been used to bring about more far-reaching changes in state and society. Its co-operation with the civil service and the military was unavoidable, but the regime could have built up its own troops, which would have been loyal to the Republic. The Social Democrats around Ebert later insisted that they lacked the necessary expertise to replace civil servants on a large scale. The MSPD's fundamental belief in democracy also did not allow it to make decisions about Germany's future form of government on its own or as representative of the working classes only. It needed the legitimisation of a democratically elected body such as the National Assembly before it was willing to make substantial changes.[55]
Related Research Articles
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was a historical period of Germany from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclaimed itself, as the German Republic. The period's informal name is derived from the city of Weimar, which hosted the constituent assembly that established its government. In English, the republic was usually simply called "Germany", with "Weimar Republic" not commonly used until the 1930s. The Weimar Republic had a semi-presidential system.
Friedrich Ebert was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925.
Philipp Heinrich Scheidemann was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the first quarter of the 20th century he played a leading role in both his party and in the young Weimar Republic. During the German Revolution of 1918–1919 that broke out after Germany's defeat in World War I, Scheidemann proclaimed a German Republic from a balcony of the Reichstag building. In 1919 he was elected Reich Minister President by the National Assembly meeting in Weimar to write a constitution for the republic. He resigned the office the same year due to a lack of unanimity in the cabinet on whether or not to accept the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
Gustav Adolf Bauer was a German Social Democratic Party leader and the chancellor of Germany from June 1919 to March 1920. Prior to that, he was minister of labour in the last cabinet of the German Empire and during most of the German Revolution that preceded the formal establishment of the Weimar Republic.
Hermann Müller was a German Social Democratic politician who served as foreign minister (1919–1920) and was twice chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic.
The German revolution of 1918–1919, also known as the November Revolution, was an uprising started by workers and soldiers in the final days of World War I. It quickly and almost bloodlessly brought down the German Empire, then, in its more violent second stage, the supporters of a parliamentary republic were victorious over those who wanted a Soviet-style council republic. The defeat of the forces of the far left cleared the way for the establishment of the Weimar Republic. The key factors leading to the revolution were the extreme burdens suffered by the German people during the war, the economic and psychological impacts of the Empire's defeat, and the social tensions between the general populace and the aristocratic and bourgeois elite.
Hugo Haase was a German socialist politician, jurist and pacifist. With Friedrich Ebert, he co-chaired of the Council of the People's Deputies during the German Revolution of 1918–19.
The 1918 Christmas crisis was a brief battle between the socialist revolutionary Volksmarinedivision and regular German army units on 24 December 1918 during the German Revolution of 1918–19. It took place at the Berlin Palace, the main residence of the House of Hohenzollern.
The Ebert–Groener pact was an agreement between the Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert, at the time the Chancellor of Germany, and Wilhelm Groener, Quartermaster General of the German Army, on November 10, 1918. This occurred on the day after the German Revolution had brought Ebert to power.
The Free State of Prussia was one of the constituent states of Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it continued to be the dominant state in Germany during the Weimar Republic, as it had been during the empire, even though most of Germany's post-war territorial losses in Europe had come from its lands. It was home to the federal capital Berlin and had 62% of Germany's territory and 61% of its population. Prussia changed from the authoritarian state it had been in the past and became a parliamentary democracy under its 1920 constitution. During the Weimar period it was governed almost entirely by pro-democratic parties and proved more politically stable than the Republic itself. With only brief interruptions, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) provided the Minister President. Its Ministers of the Interior, also from the SPD, pushed republican reform of the administration and police, with the result that Prussia was considered a bulwark of democracy within the Weimar Republic.
The Weimar National Assembly, officially the German National Constitutional Assembly, was the popularly elected constitutional convention and de facto parliament of Germany from 6 February 1919 to 21 May 1920. As part of its duties as the interim government, it debated and reluctantly approved the Treaty of Versailles that codified the peace terms between Germany and the victorious Allies of World War I. The Assembly drew up and approved the Weimar Constitution that was in force from 1919 to 1933. With its work completed, the National Assembly was dissolved on 21 May 1920. Following the election of 6 June 1920, the new Reichstag met for the first time on 24 June 1920, taking the place of the Assembly.
During the First World War (1914–1918), the Revolutionary Stewards were shop stewards who were independent from the official unions and freely chosen by workers in various German industries. They rejected the war policies of the German Empire and the support which parliamentary representatives of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) gave to the policies. They also played a role during the German Revolution of 1918–19.
The Scheidemann cabinet, headed by Minister President Philipp Scheidemann of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), was Germany's first democratically elected national government. It took office on 13 February 1919, three months after the collapse of the German Empire following Germany's defeat in World War I. Although the Weimar Constitution was not in force yet, it is generally counted as the first government of the Weimar Republic.
The Spartacist uprising, also known as the January uprising or, more rarely, Bloody Week, was an armed uprising that took place in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919. It occurred in connection with the German revolution that broke out just before the end of World War I. The uprising was primarily a power struggle between the supporters of the provisional government led by Friedrich Ebert of the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD), which favored a social democracy, and those who backed the position of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, which wanted to set up a council republic similar to the one established by the Bolsheviks in Russia. The government's forces were victorious in the fighting.
The Spartacus League was a Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. It was founded in August 1914 as the International Group by Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, and other members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who were dissatisfied with the party's official policies in support of the war. In 1916 it renamed itself the Spartacus Group and in 1917 joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), which had split off from the SPD as its left wing faction.
The Bremen Soviet Republic, also translated as the Bremen Council Republic, was an unrecognised revolutionary state in Germany formed during the German revolution of 1918–1919 in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. Although not formally declared until 10 January 1919, the regime it represented presided in the industrial port city of Bremen from 14 November 1918 until its suppression on 4 February 1919 by army and irregular forces engaged by the provisional revolutionary government in Berlin.
The Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany was the name officially used by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) between April 1917 and September 1922. The name differentiated it from the Independent Social Democratic Party, which split from the SPD as a result of the party majority's support of the government during the First World War.
The Volksmarinedivision was an armed unit formed on 11 November 1918 during the November Revolution that broke out in Germany following its defeat in World War I. At its peak late that month, the People's Navy Division had about 3,200 members. In the struggles between the various elements involved in the revolution to determine Germany's future form of government, it initially supported the moderate socialist interim government of Friedrich Ebert and the Council of the People's Deputies. By December of 1918 it had turned more to the left and was involved in skirmishes against government troops. In March 1919, after the success of the Ebert government in the elections to the National Assembly that drew up the Weimar Constitution, the People's Navy Division was disbanded and 30 of its members were summarily shot by members of a Freikorps unit.
The proclamation of the republic in Germany took place in Berlin twice on 9 November 1918, the first at the Reichstag building by Philipp Scheidemann of the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD) and the second a few hours later by Karl Liebknecht, the leader of the Marxist Spartacus League, at the Berlin Palace.
The German workers' and soldiers' councils of 1918–1919 were short-lived revolutionary bodies that spread the German Revolution to cities across the German Empire during the final days of World War I. Meeting little to no resistance, they formed quickly, took over city governments and key buildings, caused most of the locally stationed military to flee and brought about the abdications of all of Germany's ruling monarchs, including Emperor Wilhelm II when they reached Berlin on 9 November 1918.
References
↑ Winkler, Heinrich August (2002). Der lange Weg nach Westen. Deutsche Geschichte 1806–1933[The Long Road to the West. German History 1806–1933] (in German). Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. p.375. ISBN978-3893314638.
↑ Haffner, Sebastian (1991). Die deutsche Revolution 1918/1919[The German Revolution 1918/1919] (in German). Munich: Knauer. p.32. ISBN978-3426038130.
↑ Winkler, Heinrich August (1993). Weimar 1918–1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie[Weimar 1918–1933. The History of the FIrst German Democracy] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. pp.23–25. ISBN3-406-37646-0.
↑ Kotulla, Michael (2008). Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte. Vom Alten Reich bis Weimar (1495–1934)[German Constitutional History. From the Old Empire to Weimar (1495–1934)] (in German). Berlin: Springer. p.581. ISBN978-3540487074.
↑ Huber, Ernst Rudolf (1978). Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Band V: Weltkrieg, Revolution und Reichserneuerung: 1914–1919[German Constitutional History since 1789 Vol 5 World War, Revolution and Renewal of the Reich: 1914–1919] (in German). Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer. p.709.
↑ Machtan, Lothar (2018). Kaisersturz. Vom Scheitern im Herzen der Macht[The Fall of the Emperor. Failure at the Heart of Power] (in German). Darmstadt: wbg Theiss. p.272. ISBN978-3806237603.
↑ Sturm, Reinhard (2011). "Weimarer Republik". Informationen zur Politischen Bildung (in German). 261. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung: 11, 13.
↑ Gallus, Alexander (13 September 2018). "Die deutsche Revolution 1918/19"[The German Revolution 1918/19]. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (in German). Retrieved 7 April 2024.
↑ Wunderlich, Frieda (1961). Farm Labor in Germany, 1810–1945: Its historical development within the framework of agricultural and social policy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p.47.
↑ Altmann, Gerhard; Schweinoch, Oliver (2 August 2018). "Die Nationalversammlung"[The National Assembly]. Deutsches Historisches Museum (in German). Retrieved 11 April 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
