Peace resolution
The peace resolution was a resolution adopted by the German Reichstag on July 19, 1917 , which called for a mutual agreement to end the First World War .
background
With the resumption of unlimited submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, the target predicted by the military of forcing England to peace within six months had not been achieved. According to Bismarck's constitution, the Reichstag was entitled to classic parliamentary rights such as the passing of Reich laws (Art. 5, Paragraph 1, together with the Bundesrat), the right to initiate legislation (Art. 23) and the passing of the budget. Therefore, among other things, he was entitled to approve the war loans . In the main committee of the Reichstag, on July 6, 1917, Matthias Erzberger , member of the Center, suggested that the unlimited submarine war should be stopped and the war continued, but the search for a peace of understanding , which was in particular contrast to the far-reaching annexation plans of the Pan-Germans . By supporting this policy already represented by the SPD and the Progressive People's Party (FVP), the consent of the Social Democrats to the war credits to be approved should also be ensured.
This led to the peace resolution that was worked out by the newly founded Intergroup Committee (IFA), which included representatives of the parliamentary groups of the SPD, FVP, the center and, initially, the National Liberals. It was the first time that the Reichstag actively attempted to intervene in political events during the war. It represented an attempt to document the readiness of the Reich for peace with other countries, especially with the peace-pushing ally Austria-Hungary .
content
The wording of the peace resolution:
“The Reichstag declares: As on August 4, 1914, the word of the throne speech also applies to the German people on the threshold of the fourth year of the war: 'We are not driven by a desire for conquest.' Germany has taken up arms in defense of its freedom and independence, for the integrity of its territorial possessions. The Reichstag strives for a peace of understanding and lasting reconciliation between peoples. Forced land acquisition and political, economic, or financial rape are incompatible with such peace. The Reichstag also rejects all plans based on economic isolation and hostility to the peoples after the war. The freedom of the seas must be ensured. Only economic peace will prepare the ground for friendly coexistence among peoples. The Reichstag will actively promote the creation of international legal organizations. However, as long as the enemy governments do not enter into such a peace, as long as they threaten Germany and its allies with conquest and rape, the German people will stand together like one man, persevere and fight until their and those allies' right to life and development is secured . In their unity, the German people are insurmountable. In this the Reichstag knows that it is one with the men who protect the fatherland in heroic struggle. The undying thanks of the whole people are certain to them. "
The resolution brought in by MPs Erzberger , David , Ebert and Scheidemann was adopted with 216 votes from the SPD , Center and Progressive People's Party , against 126 votes from the USPD , the National Liberals and the Conservatives . Their supporters were the parties that had had a majority in the Reichstag since 1912 and were later to form the Weimar coalition in the Weimar Republic .
Meaning and consequences
Opposition Michaelis'
However, given the given political framework, the peace resolution of the Reichstag was doomed to failure. The peace resolution was passed five days after Georg Michaelis was appointed Reich Chancellor . The new Chancellor Michaelis was internally an opponent of the peace resolution: "I was aware that the resolution in this form could not be accepted by me."
An open conflict did not take place, however, as Michaelis "hypocritically accepted" the resolution. On the one hand, he presented it as a useful framework in his inaugural address, but on the other hand spoke of the "resolution as I understand it" . The policy of the peace resolution was "stillborn" under a Chancellor Michaelis.
Significance for the German war aims
Nevertheless, the peace resolution did not mean renouncing war aims ; even the initiator of the peace resolution of 1921 for the signing of the Armistice of Compiègne and his insistence on signing of the Versailles Treaty as a fulfillment politician ostracized Allied and murdered Center Chairman Erzberger, said German interests in Belgium and in the East are not affected. In addition, the practical significance and implementation of the peace resolution was called into question from the start by Michaelis' subsequent speech in the Reichstag with the demand to secure the German borders for all time, also within the peace resolution, "as I understand it".
The "best chance during the war to come to a mutual peace" passed unused because in August and September 1917 no negotiations based on the peace resolution and with the proposed mediation of the Pope (→ Pope Benedict XV's appeal for peace ) were started.
Effects
Erich Ludendorff attributed the change in the attitude of the majority parties to the question of the war objective to a "relapse in mood" and an "outpouring of international, pacifist, defeatist thinking". As a direct counter-reaction to the peace resolution, the annexionist, völkisch-nationalist German Fatherland Party was founded with Ludendorff's participation , next to the German Conservative Party the most important predecessor of the German National People's Party founded at the end of November 1918 .
Despite the adoption of the peace resolution, the majority in the Reichstag and the Supreme Army Command (OHL) did not face each other as two opposing political camps. Rather, the newly formed "war target majority" in the Reichstag, in cooperation with the OHL and the Reich government, succeeded in pushing back the offers of the peace resolution in the following period. The creation of a relationship of dependency between the neighboring countries and the German Reich, in which as few rights as possible had to be granted to them vis-à-vis the German administration - without direct affiliation, no representation in the Reichstag - was made more difficult by the peace resolution, but by no means made impossible.
Exacerbated by annexation fanaticism and the "Fatherland Party" on the one hand, war fatigue , hunger and the Independent Social Democrats (USPD) on the other, the social and political confrontation became more and more irreconcilable at the beginning of the last year of the war: the antagonisms of German class society intensified.
After the war, the peace resolution was seen by the radical right as part of the "stab in the back" against the German army.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from: Herbert Michaelis, Ernst Schraepler (Ed.): Causes and consequences. From the German collapse in 1918 and 1945 to the state reorganization of Germany in the present. A collection of certificates and documents on contemporary history . Volume 2: The Military Collapse and the End of the Empire . Berlin 1958/1959, p. 37f. See Wolfdieter Bihl (Hrsg.): German sources on the history of the First World War. Darmstadt 1991, ISBN 3-534-08570-1 , p. 296f. (Doc. No. 150).
- ^ Wilhelm Ribhegge: Peace for Europe. The policy of the German majority in the Reichstag 1917/18 . Berlin 1988, pp. 183-185.
- ^ Georg Michaelis: For state and people. A life story. Berlin 1922, p. 326 .
- ↑ sösi .: "A new Germany" - Inaugural address by the Chancellor. In: FAZ.net . Retrieved October 13, 2018 .
- ^ Klaus Epstein : The Intergroup Committee and the Problem of Parliamentarization 1917-1918 . In: HZ 191 (1960), pp. 562-584, here p. 576.
- ^ Georg Michaelis: For state and people. A life story . Berlin 1922, p. 328f.
- ^ Klaus Epstein: The Intergroup Committee. P. 581.
- ↑ Erich Ludendorff: Warfare and Politics. Berlin 1922, p. 243.
- ↑ Germany's fate on Erzberger's Spinnrocken (leaflet of the German Fatherland Party against Matthias Erzberger's peace plans), Dresden, November 1917; in the DHM , Berlin.
- ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler: The German Empire 1871-1918 . Göttingen 1977, p. 207.
- ^ The German Center Party (center). LEMO - Living Museum Online from June 8, 2011.
Web links
- Peace resolution of the majority parties , July 19, 1917.