Free State of Saxony-Gotha

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Free State of Gotha
coat of arms flag
Coat of arms of the Free State of Gotha Flag of the Free State of Gotha
Situation in the German Reich
Localization is missing, location maps are possibly still in progress.
Arose from Duchy of Saxe-Gotha
Incorporated into State of Thuringia
Data from 1919
State capital Gotha
Form of government republic
Consist 1918-1920
surface 1,415 km²
Residents 189,200 inhabitants
Population density 134 people / km²
Religions 98.5% Ev.
1.0% Roman Catholic
0.5% others
Reichsrat 1 vote
License Plate CG
administration 3 districts
map
Map of the Free State of Gotha

The Free State of Saxony-Gotha , initially also known as the Republic of Gotha , emerged from the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha after the First World War . It existed from November 1918 to May 1, 1920: It united with six other countries to form Thuringia .

history

Revolution 1918

On November 9, 1918, the Gotha Reichstag deputy Wilhelm Bock ( USPD ) proclaimed the Gotha Republic on the Gotha main market and declared Duke Carl Eduard to be deposed. Five days later, on November 14th, the joint Landtag of Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha had a meeting in Gotha for the last time. On this, the Duke announced his resignation. Finally, the state parliament dissolved itself. The two former duchies went their separate ways on subsequent political developments.

The Executive Committee of the Gotha Workers 'and Soldiers' Council , headed by Otto Geithner, took over the Duke's responsibilities in Gotha. After a delegates' conference of the workers' and soldiers' councils on November 30, the executive was taken over by three “People's Representatives for the State of Gotha”, who signed “State Ministry, The People's Representatives”. These were Wilhelm Bock , Emil Grabow and Adolf Schauder , whereby Bock resigned at the beginning of February and was replaced by Albin Tenner . State minister von Bassewitz headed the state administration until May 1919.

Election of the national assembly

On January 23, 1919, they set February 23 as the election day for the Gotha State Assembly. The USPD won an absolute majority. The election campaign was overshadowed by the occupation Gotha's Reichswehr units of General Maercker on 18 February 1919. This was triggered by military preparations against the meeting of the National Assembly in Weimar. The workers 'movement responded to the occupation with a general strike, which in turn sparked a citizens' strike. On March 26, 1919, the people's representatives Schauder, Grabow and Tenner were confirmed as members of the government by the newly elected state assembly with 10 against 8 votes.

On April 12, 1919, the separation of Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Coburg was completed with the "State Treaty on the Administration of Community Affairs of the Free States of Coburg and Gotha". After Carl Eduard had rejected an offer of compensation in the amount of 15 million marks for the loss of his possessions, on July 31, 1919 the "Law on the confiscation of the Gothaische Hausfideikommiss, the Lichtenberger Fideikommiss, the Ernst-Albert-Fideikommiss, the Schmalkaldener Forsten and des Hausallods ”passed by the national assembly. It was the only expropriation of princes in Germany and was later overturned by a judgment of the Reichsgericht dated June 18, 1925. The “Community Agreement on the Union of the Thuringian States” was approved by all parties on May 28, 1919. The decision on a constitution based on a draft by Hermann Brill was the last Thuringian state to take place on December 23, 1919 with the “Law for Provisional Government in the Republic of Gotha”, after a first draft involving the council system did not come into force in the summer .

Conflicts with the Empire

On the occasion of the Kapp Putsch in Berlin in March 1920, a general strike was called in the Free State of Gotha by the USPD-led state government. The workers armed themselves and stormed, among other things, the Gotha prison. In response, a Reich Defense Unit was sent from Erfurt to Gotha on March 13, 1920. As a result, there were civil war-like clashes in Gotha with more than 100 dead, whereupon the decimated Reichswehr Association withdrew to Erfurt on March 18. On March 20, a Marburg unit was relocated to Gotha, which drove 15 workers to the village of Mechterstädt near Gotha during the Mechterstädt murders and shot them there.

Another general strike followed from March 26 to 31. The eight members of the bourgeois parties in the state assembly demanded the resignation of the state government due to the events and finally resigned their mandates in order to force new elections by lack of a quorum. Since the state assembly with the USPD members continued to meet, a complaint was made by the opposition on March 31st to the Reich Minister of the Interior about the unconstitutional conditions . This, as well as the executive committee to which the people's representatives had submitted, were the trigger for the Reich execution against Saxony-Gotha on April 10, 1920, which meant the imposition of a state of emergency, the appointment of Reich Government Commissioner Wilhelm Holle and later the dissolution of the state assembly and new elections.

Since the people's representatives were not prepared to cooperate with the Reich Commissioner, a civil servants' government was set up on May 10, 1920 with the State Councilors Wilharm and Muther . In the new elections on May 30, the USPD lost its majority in the state parliament. On June 15, a bourgeois state government was formed with the people's representatives Max Heyn (Landbund), Otto Liebetrau (DDP) and Friedrich Pfeffer (DVP).

Transition to the state of Thuringia

The national assembly elected on May 30th, however, was dissolved again on January 7th, 1921, as the members of the USPD began to boycott the sessions of the national assembly in July and render parliament incapable of acting by resigning their mandates. On March 6, 1921, the new elections for the regional representation took place. The Gothaer Heimat Bund, an association of the bourgeois parties, regained the majority and provided the regional government with Max Heyn (Landbund), Otto Liebetrau (DDP) and Johannes Rasch (DVP) until March 30, 1923.

With the establishment of the state of Thuringia on May 1, 1920, the Free State of Saxony-Gotha formally ceased to exist as a sovereign federal state, but the Gotha state government was still an important institution until the election of the Thuringian state government on November 10, 1920. The “Law on the Administration of the Former Thuringian Lands in the Transitional Period” of December 9, 1920 finally transformed the Free State of Gotha into a higher-order municipal association with regional representation and regional government, which was repealed on April 1, 1923.

Election for the first national assembly

  • Election date: February 23, 1919
  • Seats in the state parliament: 19
Political party percent Seats
Landbund 4.0 1
DDP 21.0 4th
DNVP and DVP 15.0 3
SPD 9.3 1
USPD 50.7 10

Election for the second national assembly

  • Election date: May 30, 1920
  • Seats in the state parliament: 19
Political party percent Seats
Landbund 23.9 5
DDP 8.7 1
DNVP 4.7 1
DVP 14.6 3
SPD 4.6 -
USPD 43.5 9

Election for regional representation

  • Election date: March 6, 1921
  • Total number of seats: 15
Political party percent Seats
Gothaer Heimatbund
(Landbund, DDP, DNVP, DVP) 		52.3 8th
SPD 5.4 1
USPD 10.5 1
KPD 31.8 5
  • Regional government: Max Heyn (Landbund), Otto Liebetrau (DDP), Johannes Rasch (DVP)

literature

  • Joachim Bergmann: The domestic political development of Thuringia from 1918 to 1932 . Europaforum-Verlag, Lauf an der Pegnitz 2001, ISBN 3-931070-27-1 , ( Culture and history of Thuringia 16 = 19).
  • Jörg Siegmund: Between Consensus and Blockade Policy: The Transitional Parliaments in Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Coburg. In: Harald Mitteldorf (Red.): The forgotten parliaments. State parliaments and regional representations in the Thuringian states and territories 1919 to 1923 . Published by the Thuringian Parliament. Hain, Rudolstadt u. a. 2002, ISBN 3-89807-038-7 ( writings on the history of parliamentarism in Thuringia  19).
  • Franz Hammer : Free State of Gotha in the Kapp Putsch : According to documents and memories of old combatants. New Life Publishing House , Berlin 1955.
  • Ulrich Heß: The Saxony-Coburg and Gotha State Ministry 1858–1918 . In: Yearbook of the Coburger Landesstiftung 7, 1962, ISSN  0084-8808 , pp. 13–92 (also: special print).

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