Referendum to dissolve the Prussian state parliament

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The referendum on the dissolution of the Prussian state parliament on August 9, 1931 was triggered by a referendum launched by the anti-republican Stahlhelm in the spring of the same year . The organization was supported by several right-wing parties, the NSDAP and the KPD . The plan failed in a referendum at 93.93% "yes" votes and a shareholding of 39.21% inauthentic on quorum , which provided for a 50% -Mindestbeteiligung.

prehistory

After the Reichstag elections of 1930, Prussia was considered a bulwark of democracy in Germany. For this reason, the attacks against Otto Braun's government have intensified since then . At pressure from Heinrich Brüning and Joseph Wirth , after a previous ban, the steel helmet was re-approved in Prussia in the summer of 1930. On the “Reichsfrontsoldatentag” on October 4th in Koblenz , which was attended by over 100,000 supporters, the leader of the steel helmet, Franz Seldte, sharply attacked the “Marxist” Prussian government. He announced a referendum for the premature dissolution of the Prussian state parliament .

Referendum

A corresponding application was approved on March 4, 1931 by the Prussian Minister of the Interior, Carl Severing . The referendum was supported by the DNVP , the DVP and various small parties. Shortly before the start of the registration period, Adolf Hitler also called for support on behalf of the NSDAP.

At the end of the registration period, 5.96 million voters had voted in favor of the referendum. That was only a little more than the necessary 20% (5.27 million). The result was disappointing for the initiators because it remained well below the result of the 1930 Reichstag elections in Prussia.

The Prussian state parliament debated the referendum on July 8th and 9th, 1931. The proposed state parliament dissolution was rejected by the coalition parties SPD , Zentrum and German State Party (229 votes) against the votes of the NSDAP, DNVP, KPD, DVP, the German parliamentary group, the economic party and the Christian Social People's Service (190 votes in total). A referendum on the subject was thus scheduled for August 9th.

Support from the KPD

After the announcement of the referendum by the Stahlhelm in October 1930, the KPD initially refused to support it. This is despite the fact that, according to Comintern documents, the option of overthrowing the Social Democratic Cabinet Braun by referendum was discussed long before the summer of 1931, regardless of Moscow's guidelines, and Executive Committee member Hermann Remmele at a KPD leadership meeting in January 1931 suggested that it should now be the right-wing one To forestall parties with their own referendum to dissolve the state parliament. The reason for the hesitant attitude was the lack of support from the KPD district secretaries, who wanted to show consideration for the social democratic workers. Given the relatively low turnout in the referendum, the republican forces were able to look forward to the referendum with relative confidence. This changed on July 22, 1931, when the KPD also announced its support. This decision reflects the priority of the communists at the time in the fight against the SPD, which was reviled as " social-fascist ". This was entirely in line with the line set by the Comintern Executive Committee in the spring of 1931. The KPD's decision was backed by the then chairman Heinz Neumann , the Comintern and Stalin , who also had a considerable influence on the decision.

Referendum

On August 6, 1931, shortly before the vote, the Prussian government addressed the public: “Anyone who wants a Soviet Prussia or a Fascist Prussia and thus fratricidal war in their own country should vote yes to the referendum; Anyone who is in favor of the social and democratic expansion of the German Republic and the Free State of Prussia should stay away from the referendum. "

The referendum of August 9, 1931 failed. The count resulted in 9.8 million votes in favor. This corresponded to 37.1% of the voters. 13.4 million votes or more than 50% of the electorate would have been required. In particular, numerous communist voters did not take part in the vote.

The democratic camp celebrated this as a success for the republic.

In retrospect, the official historiography of the Central Committee of the SED in 1966 described the participation of the KPD as a fatal error.

literature

  • Wilhelm Ribhegge: Prussia in the West. Struggle for parliamentarism in Rhineland and Westphalia . Münster, 2008 (special edition for the State Agency for Civic Education North Rhine-Westphalia) pp. 488–491
  • Heinrich August Winkler : The way to catastrophe. Workers and the labor movement in the Weimar Republic 1930 to 1933 . Bonn, 1990. ISBN 3-8012-0095-7 , pp. 385-391

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Hoppe, Bert (2007): In Stalin's Followers. Moscow and the KPD 1928-1933. Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag. P. 206
  2. Hoppe, Bert (2007): In Stalin's Followers. Moscow and the KPD 1928-1933. Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag. P. 206