In the fourteen years the Weimar Republic was in existence, some forty parties were represented in the Reichstag . This fragmentation of political power was in part due to the use of a peculiar proportional representation electoral system that encouraged regional or small special interest parties [1] and in part due to the many challenges facing the nascent German democracy in this period.
After the Nazi seizure of power, they used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to effectively eliminate their chief adversaries, first the Communists (March 1933) and then the Social Democrats (22 June 1933) through arrests, confiscation of assets and removal from office. Other parties were pressured into disbanding on their own or were swept away by the "Law Against the Formation of Parties" (14 July 1933) which declared the Nazi Party to be Germany's only legal political party. [2]
All vote numbers in thousands.
6/6/1920
includes by-elections in Schleswig-Holstein and East Prussia (20/2/1921) and Upper Silesia (19/11/1922) Eligible 35,920 Turnout 28,196 % Voting 78.4 (Party, Votes, Seats) KPD 590 4 USPD 5047 83 SPD 6104 103 Centre 3910 64 BVP 1173 21 DDP 2334 39 WP 219 4 DVP 3919 65 DNVP 4249 71 Regional 709 5 Splinter 161 0 Total 28415 459
4/5/1924 Eligible 38,375 Turnout 29,282 % Voting 76.3 (Party, Votes, Seats) KPD 3693 45 USPD 235 0 SPD 6009 100 Centre 3914 65 BVP 947 16 DDP 1655 28 WP 530 10 DVP 2728 45 DNVP 5697 95 NSFP 1918 32 Regional 608 5 Rightist 666 10 Splinter 682 4 Total 29282 455
7/12/1924 Eligible 33,987 Turnout 30,290 % Voting 77.7 (Party, Votes, Seats) KPD 2709 45 USPD 99 0 SPD 7881 131 Centre 4092 69 BVP 1134 19 DDP 1920 32 WP 639 17 DVP 3049 51 DNVP 6206 103 NSFB 907 14 Regional 708 4 Rightist 545 8 Splinter 401 0 Total 30290 493
20/5/1928 Eligible 41,224 Turnout 30,754 % Voting 74.6 (Party, Votes, Seats) KPD 3265 54 SPD 9153 153 Centre 3712 61 BVP 946 17 DDP 1479 25 WP 1388 23 DVP 2680 45 DNVP 4382 73 NSDAP 810 12 Regional 956 3 Rightist 1025 23 Splinter 958 2 Total 30754 491
14/9/1930 Eligible 42,958 Turnout 34,971 % Voting 81.4 (Party, Votes, Seats) KPD 4592 77 SPD 8578 143 Centre 4128 68 BVP 1059 19 DDP 1322 20 WP 1362 23 DVP 1578 30 DNVP 2458 41 NSDAP 6383 107 Regional 683 3 Rightist 2373 46 Splinter 455 0 Total 34971 577
31/7/1932 Eligible 44,211 Turnout 36,882 % Voting 83.4 (Party, Votes, Seats) KPD 5283 89 SPD 7960 133 Centre 4589 75 BVP 1193 22 DDP 372 4 WP 147 2 DVP 136 7 DNVP 2177 37 NSDAP 13769 230 Regional 219 0 Rightist 552 9 Splinter 185 0 Total 36582 608
6/11/1932 Eligible 44,374 Turnout 35,471 % Voting 79.9 (Party, Votes, Seats) KPD 5980 100 SPD 7248 121 Centre 4230 70 BVP 1095 20 DDP 336 2 WP 110 1 DVP 661 11 DNVP 2959 52 NSDAP 11737 196 Regional 353 1 Rightist 510 10 Splinter 252 0 Total 35471 584
5/3/1933 Eligible 44,665 Turnout 39,343 % Voting 88.1 (Party, Votes, Seats) KPD 4848 81 SPD 7181 120 Centre 4425 74 BVP 1074 18 DDP 334 5 DVP 432 2 DNVP 3137 52 NSDAP 17277 288 Regional l246 0 Rightist 384 7 Splinter 5 0 Total 39343 647
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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. In his capacity as foreign minister, he was one of the German signatories of the Treaty of Versailles.
The Centre Party, officially the German Centre Party and also known in English as the Catholic Centre Party, is a Christian democratic political party in Germany. Influential in the German Empire and Weimar Republic, it is the oldest German political party in existence. Formed in 1870, it successfully battled the Kulturkampf waged by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck against the Catholic Church. It soon won a quarter of the seats in the Reichstag, and its middle position on most issues allowed it to play a decisive role in the formation of majorities. The party name Zentrum (Centre) originally came from the fact that Catholic representatives would take up the middle section of seats in parliament between the social democrats and the conservatives.
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The Bavarian People's Party was a Catholic political party in Bavaria during the Weimar Republic. After the collapse of the German Empire in 1918, it split away from the national-level Catholic Centre Party and formed the BVP in order to pursue a more conservative and particularist Bavarian course. It consistently had more seats in the Bavarian state parliament than any other party and provided all Bavarian minister presidents from 1920 on. In the national Reichstag it remained a minor player with only about three percent of total votes in all elections. The BVP disbanded shortly after the Nazi seizure of power in early 1933.
The Weimar Coalition is the name given to the coalition government formed by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the German Democratic Party (DDP) and the Catholic Centre Party (Z), who together had a large majority of the delegates to the Constituent Assembly that met at Weimar in 1919, and were the principal groups that designed the constitution of the Weimar Republic. These three parties were seen as the most committed to Germany's new democratic system, and together governed Germany until the elections of 1920, when the first elections under the new constitution were held, and both the SPD and especially the DDP lost a considerable share of their votes. Although the Coalition was revived in the ministry of Joseph Wirth from 1921 to 1922, the pro-democratic elements never truly had a majority in the Reichstag from this point on, and the situation gradually grew worse for them with the continued weakening of the DDP. This meant that any pro-republican group that hoped to attain a majority would need to form a "Grand Coalition" with the conservative-liberal German People's Party (DVP), which only gradually moved from monarchism to republicanism over the course of the Weimar Republic and was virtually wiped out politically after the death of their most prominent figure, Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann in 1929.
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Carl Wilhelm Severing was a German union organizer and Social Democratic politician during the German Empire, Weimar Republic and the early post-World War II years in West Germany. He served as a Reichstag member and as interior minister in both Prussia and at the Reich level where he fought against the rise of extremism on both the left and the right. He remained in Germany during the Third Reich but had only minimal influence on reshaping the Social Democratic Party after World War II.
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.
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