Easter message

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In his Easter message of 1917, Wilhelm II promised democratic reforms.

At the beginning of the First World War , the war was still supported by most groups and parties within the framework of the truce . After the split in the SPD , the truce became more unstable and the pressure for democratic reforms, which should increase the political weight of the workers, increased. The speech delivered on April 7, 1917, also under pressure from the Supreme Army Command , which at that time de facto ruled the country, was written by Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg . In the speech the emperor stated that after a “happy end of the war” constitutional changes were planned and that the three-class suffrage in Prussia should be replaced by a secret and direct suffrage . At the beginning an equal right to vote was provided. The announced reforms fell short of the expectations of democratic forces. There was no mention of women's suffrage.

Since the reforms were announced but not implemented, the declaration angered all political camps and therefore probably contributed more to the destabilization. Only when Germany's military defeat was in sight did the conservative forces agree to the parliamentarization of the empire in the so-called October reforms . In 1919 Germany became a democratic republic with the Weimar Constitution after the November Revolution of 1918.

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