People's State of Württemberg

This article deals with the People's State of Württemberg (1918–1933) with an outlook on further developments. For the history of the territory since the 11th century see Württemberg .

People's State of Württemberg

coat of arms	flag
( Details )
Situation in the German Reich
Arose from	Kingdom of Württemberg
Incorporated into	Württemberg-Baden ; Württemberg-Hohenzollern
Today (part of):	Baden-Württemberg
Data from 1925
State capital	Stuttgart
Form of government	Parliamentary democracy
Head of state	President
Constitution	Constitution of Sept. 25, 1919
Consist	1918 - 1933 / 1945
surface	19,508 km²
Residents	2,580,235 (1925)
Population density	132 inhabitants / km²
Religions	68.0% Ev. 30.9% Roman Catholic 0.4% Jews 0.73% others
Reichsrat	4 votes
License Plate	III A, III C, III D, III E, III H, III K, III M, III P, III S, III T, III X, III Y,III Z
administration	1 District 63 (61) Oberämter 1,875 municipalities
map

The free people's state of Württemberg was a state of the German Empire during the Weimar Republic . At the end of the First World War , the November Revolution - bloodless in Württemberg - transformed the Kingdom of Württemberg into a people's state . The borders remained unchanged, as did the state administration . According to the new constitution of 1919, which replaced that of the Kingdom of 1819, Württemberg was still a member state of the German Empire and now had the form of a democratic republic , which was described in the constitutional text as a free people's state .

The country's political development in the turbulent Weimar years was characterized by continuity and stability. Unlike the Reichstag , the three legislative periods of the Württemberg state parliament from 1920 to 1932 each reached the duration of four years provided for by the constitution. In contrast to neighboring Baden, the Social Democrats lost their influence on government policy early on. A conservative coalition ruled Stuttgart from 1924 to 1933 . Despite the crises, economic development in Württemberg was more favorable than in other German countries in the 1920s. The state capital Stuttgart was an up-and-coming cultural and economic center.

Through the takeover of the National Socialists in 1933 was also in democracy eliminated Wuerttemberg and lifted the constitutional order of the country. The constitution of Württemberg as a free people's state thus only lasted from 1919 to 1933. The state continuity of the state ended in 1945. The states of Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern that were formed afterwards merged in 1952 in what is now the state of Baden-Württemberg .

geography

The state of Württemberg was part of the German Reich. The total area was 19,508 km². The outer border had a total length of 1,800 kilometers with a variety of territorial features . In the east, Württemberg bordered the Free State of Bavaria , in the north and west on the Republic of Baden and in the south on the Hohenzollern Lands , which belonged to the Free State of Prussia , and Lake Constance . Due to the Hessian exclave Wimpfen , Württemberg also shared a border with the People's State of Hesse . The geographical conditions of the People's State of Württemberg were otherwise the same as in the times of the kingdom and are described in more detail in the chapter Geography (Kingdom of Württemberg) .

history

Emergence

The People's State of Württemberg came into being at the end of the First World War through the abolition of the existing constitution of the Kingdom of Württemberg . The state continuity of the country was not interrupted, but some of the previous self-government rights were subsequently transferred to the German Reich. At the end of the 1880s, representatives of the Württemberg People's Party were already thinking about "The Redemption of the Crown", as a title in the Observer , the People's Party's newspaper, was entitled to . The author of this article was Karl Mayer . In 1907, Conrad Haussmann again represented the idea of ​​a Württemberg republic, but did not find much approval in his party. Even the Württemberg Social Democrats were not as decided on this issue as had been expected. In the Stuttgart SPD party newspaper Schwäbische Tagwacht number 160 of July 13, 1906, under the heading “Democracy or Monarchy”, it was stated that instead of a republic in Württemberg, a parliamentary monarchy could well be imagined. However, this did not become a reality in the liberal Württemberg until November 1918.

The prehistory of the Württemberg revolution

After more than four years of war there was great dissatisfaction and bitterness in large parts of the population in Germany, especially since the Supreme Army Command had to admit at the end of September 1918 that the war was lost. Up until that point in time, the public had always been given the prospect of a victorious outcome of the world war for the Central Powers .

When it became clear that four years of hardship, hardship and suffering had been in vain, the people of Württemberg also took a clearly negative mood. On October 26, 1918, around half of the 8,000 workers in the armaments industry around Friedrichshafen gathered on the market square there to demonstrate for peace. On October 30, 1918, a rally organized by the USPD took place in Stuttgart , at which the Reichstag member Ewald Vogtherr and the Stuttgart Spartakist leader Fritz Rück spoke in front of 5,000 people. Then a manifesto of the Spartakusbund was read out calling for the dissolution of the Reichstag and all state parliaments. A people's parliament consisting of soldiers, workers and peasants should take their place. The rally was followed by a march, but only 2,000 people attended.

On November 3rd, over 3,000 people gathered on the Cannstatter Wasen in anticipation of a speech by Karl Liebknecht . The announcement turned out to be a disappointing false report for those waiting, since Liebknecht was not in Stuttgart. On November 4, 1918, on the initiative of the Spartacists, there was a large demonstration in Stuttgart, during which over 10,000 workers marched through the city center and heard a speech by Fritz Rück on the Schloßplatz in which the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and also of Württemberg's King Wilhelm was challenged. On that day a workers and soldiers council was formed in Stuttgart . As of November 5, its organ was the newspaper Die Rote Fahne .

While things remained calm in Stuttgart until November 9, there was a general strike in Friedrichshafen on November 5 and 6. A USPD spokesman called for an immediate ceasefire in front of an audience of 4,000. On November 5th, a workers 'and soldiers' council was also formed in Friedrichshafen. As a result of these events, the previous Württemberg government under the national liberal Prime Minister Karl von Weizsäcker resigned on November 6, 1918 to make way for a parliamentary government.

Order of the King

King Wilhelm II of Württemberg
monument by Hermann-Christian Zimmerle in front of the Wilhelmspalais in Stuttgart

The new royal state ministry under the democratic-liberal Theodor Liesching ordered a constituent state assembly in the name of King Wilhelm II on November 9, 1918, which, after a general, equal, direct and secret election by all citizens of Württemberg who had reached the age of 24 should be chosen. The task of the assembly was to draw up a constitution on a democratic basis. In this way, the future form of government in Württemberg should be decided. In the order it is stated by the king, who had been very popular with the people, “... that his person will never be an obstacle to a development demanded by the majority of the people, as he has seen his only task in this until now To serve the well-being and the wishes of his people. ”This announcement, probably made under the impression of the revolution that broke out on November 7th in Munich , Braunschweig and other major German cities , was intended to prevent a revolution in Stuttgart. The order was already wasted on the day of its publication, because on this November 9th, under the impression of the news from Berlin that afternoon, the revolution also broke out in Stuttgart . The People's State of Württemberg was formed.

The revolution on November 9, 1918 in Stuttgart and its consequences

On the morning of November 9th, a large demonstration sponsored by the MSPD and USPD took place in Stuttgart . Among others, Wilhelm Keil (MSPD) spoke in the morning on the Schloßplatz in front of an audience of almost 100,000 and announced a “Social Republic”. The Spartakists were in a weakened position on November 9th, as their leaders Fritz Rück and August Thalheimer had been arrested in Ulm on the evening of November 6th while they were on their way from Stuttgart to Friedrichshafen. They were not released until late evening on November 9th.

In the morning some revolutionaries, against the will of the demonstration leadership, entered the king's residence, the Wilhelmspalais , and hoisted the red flag on the building in place of the royal house standard. An officer on watch who opposed the intruders was knocked down. According to contemporary witnesses, this remained the only act of violence in the otherwise bloodless demonstration in Stuttgart.

A provisional socialist Württemberg government made up of members of the MSPD and USPD was formed in the Württemberg state parliament on the afternoon of November 9, 1918, after it became known that Scheidemann had proclaimed the republic in Berlin . This formation of a government was the real revolutionary act in Württemberg. The king left his palace in the evening and was brought to Tübingen , to Bebenhausen Castle . The head of the provisional government was the majority Social Democrat Wilhelm Blos . The presiding representative of the USPD, Arthur Crispien , soon took a back seat to Blos. Two days later, an all-party government was formed from the provisional government with the admission of the bourgeois ministers Theodor Liesching ( democrat ) and Johannes Baptist von Kiene ( center ), who had belonged to the last government of the kingdom, as well as the national liberal deputy Julius Baumann .

After the events in Stuttgart became known, further local councils emerged, for example on November 9th in Heilbronn and Ludwigsburg and on November 11th in Ulm. In the workers 'and soldiers' councils, radical elements lost their influence early on, so there was neither a civil war-like situation in Württemberg nor a soviet republic. The majority of the Stuttgart workforce also supported the MSPD.

Consolidation of the provisional state government

On November 16, 1918, the head of cabinet of the royal government released all civil servants from their oath of service to the king on behalf of the king in a letter to the provisional government . The bureaucratic apparatus, which was not changed and thus ensured the continued existence of the administration, was an important pillar of the provisional government in the fight against the radical forces. The councils were limited to control functions which could not seriously disturb the administration. The government of Blos quickly enjoyed the trust of state officials, teachers and clergy. There was a saying that not much has changed in Württemberg: "In the past, only Wilhelm ruled, now Wilhelm Blos."

In an announcement to the people of Württemberg on November 30, 1918, King Wilhelm II voluntarily laid down the crown and thanked everyone who had served him and Württemberg loyally during his 27-year reign. With the abdication of the throne , he assumed the title of Duke of Württemberg.

The later Lord Mayor of Ulm, Theodor Pfizer , summed up the Württemberg revolution in the following words:

“The end of the monarchy brought a turning point, but not a deep break in the development of the country and its capital. The court, uniforms and medals disappeared, but the state apparatus and civil servants remained bound to their task even in the new regime ... The men of the new era like the Social Democrats Blos and Keil were not turned to extremes. Perhaps too little new space was given in the bloodless revolution, too much was taken over unchanged. But a profound change of heart was hardly necessary in Württemberg. The country's loyal, conservative citizens were, like the king, tolerant, politically liberal, like the father was, even when they voted for conservatives, and beneficially anointed with the often invoked democratic oil. One remained loyal to the Reich, even though one often cursed the Prussians and forgot that in Württemberg, behind the desks and counters, were South Prussians who meticulously carried out the laws that were devised in Berlin and laughed at in Bavaria. "

On December 8, 1918, the first state assembly of the Württemberg workers' councils was held, in which about 120 delegates took part. The regional committee formed there consisted mainly of members of the MSPD.

On December 11, 1918, the election regulations for the constituent Württemberg state assembly with the election date January 12, 1919 were enacted.

On December 28, 1918, a meeting of the four South German Prime Ministers Wilhelm Blos (Württemberg), Kurt Eisner (Bavaria), Anton Geiß (Baden) and Carl Ulrich (Hessen), all of whom belonged to the SPD and USPD, took place in Stuttgart. In their Stuttgart declaration, despite some reservations from Bavaria, they stated that the southern German states were holding onto the Reich.

Born in Baden, Wilhelm Blos was the first Württemberg state president after the abolition of the monarchy. Here you can see a picture of the relief on his tombstone in the Pragfriedhof in Stuttgart.

First attempted coup by the Spartakists in January 1919

In the days before the election of the state constituent assembly, Wilhelm Blos, with the help of the security forces set up by Lieutenant Paul Hahn, put down an uprising of the Spartacists in Stuttgart inspired by the events in Berlin . The unrest lasted from January 4 to 12, 1919. However, the form and course did not come close to the severity of the acts of violence that were to be lamented in other parts of Germany. Nevertheless, there were dead and injured when firearms were used in Stuttgart. During these January riots, the government went to safety in the tower of the half-finished Stuttgart Central Station . As the USPD supported the uprising of the Spartacists, Arthur Crispien and Ulrich Fischer were dismissed from the government on January 10, 1919.

The National Constituent Assembly

On January 12, 1919, the election to the constituent assembly of the state was carried out without any incidents worth mentioning and brought victory to parliamentary democracy. The majority Socialists represented by Blos received 52 mandates, the Democrats and National Liberals together 38 and the Center 31 mandates. The three party groups of the so-called Weimar coalition , which supported the government, were thus able to unite four fifths of all MPs. The camp of opponents of the republic included the farmers 'union , the vineyard association and the citizens' party, consisting of the monarchist right with 25 seats and the radical left of the USPD with only four seats. 13 of the 150 members of the state assembly were women.

During this eventful time, the possibility of a unification of the states of Baden and Württemberg was discussed. On January 17, 1919, Theodor Heuss gave a lecture at a party event of the DDP in Stuttgart, where he proposed the unification of Baden and Württemberg. The lecture received wide press coverage. The topic was later discussed in the constitutional state assembly of Württemberg and by members of the Baden and Württemberg national assembly in Weimar. These talks did not lead to any practical result, but in the state's press, such as the Stuttgarter Neue Tagblatt or the Heilbronner Neckar-Zeitung, there were repeatedly reflections on a federalism reform that involved the dissolution of the overpowering Prussia and the Amalgamation of smaller German countries - especially Baden, Württemberg and the Hohenzollernsche Lande - to form larger ones .

On January 23, 1919, the constituent assembly elected on January 12 met for the first time. On January 29, 1919, she confirmed the previous provisional government in office and commissioned Blos as Prime Minister to continue exercising government business. On February 14, 1919, the Provisional Government was renamed State Government by a resolution of the Assembly . On March 7, 1919, the previous Prime Minister was elected President with 100 of 129 votes. Soon some bourgeois politicians in the state assembly demanded the dissolution of the councils in Württemberg, but initially without success. One of the first important laws was a new municipal code on March 15, 1919.

Second attempted coup by the Spartakists in April 1919

Since the king’s officials set the tone in the administration practically unchanged and there were no democratic reforms in this area, a disapproving mood grew among the population. As a result, the Spartakists won new supporters, but there was also increasing dissatisfaction among supporters of the MSPD. Then there was the assassination of the Bavarian Prime Minister Kurt Eisner (USPD), which acted as an additional signal for the Spartakists that something had to be done. The action committee of the united proletariat decided to call a general strike.

From March 31 to April 10, 1919, the Württemberg government violently fought this general strike in Stuttgart and the surrounding area by declaring a state of siege . About 400 Spartakists had holed up on the Wangener Höhe and Abelsberg and took the state road - today's Ulmer Strasse in Stuttgart - under fire. The government countered this with the use of guns. 16 people were killed in the fighting and around 50 were wounded. The Spartakists were rolled up by the Württemberg military and brought to court martial . An official combat report was issued. Clara Zetkin later criticized the government's brutal crackdown on the Spartacists at a session of the state constituent assembly.

The government not only restored peace and order in Württemberg, but also sent Württemberg troops in April 1919 to remove the Munich Soviet Republic to Bavaria , where they were deployed together with Prussian associations and the Freikorps operating there. The Württemberg SPD state chairman, Friedrich Fischer, was against sending Württemberg troops to Munich, but found no approval for his position in the government.

Adoption of the constitution of the People's State of Württemberg

The new Württemberg constitution was passed on April 26, 1919 and came into force on May 20, 1919. On April 28, 1919, Reich President Friedrich Ebert gave a speech in Stuttgart in which he expressed his commitment to federalism in the following words: “The unification of the Reich and the preservation of the tribal characteristics in our German districts are not mutually exclusive. They can very well be combined. ”Since the Württemberg constitution contradicted the constitution of the German Reich, which came into force on August 14, 1919, in some points, it had to be revised. The contradictions arose in particular from the elimination of the Württemberg reserve rights in the military as well as in the postal and railway operations (see section State structure and administration). Finally, the final constitution of Württemberg came into force on September 25, 1919, exactly one hundred years after the promulgation of the first constitution of Württemberg on September 25, 1819. With the entry into force of the constitution of the people's state, the workers 'and soldiers' councils that supported the revolution of 1918 were established , but had now lost their political importance, also formally canceled. On October 4, 1919, President Blos was sworn in on the new constitution of Württemberg.

Wilhelm Blos later wrote about the emergence of the people's state:

“On November 9, 1918, the wave of a mighty revolution carried me to the head of the new Württemberg government, where I stayed until June 23, 1920. After all relationships had dissolved, the task was to save the country from the threatening anarchy and dictatorship of a violent minority. A democratic republic was to be built on the ruins of an old monarchy, in which the people of Württemberg could determine their own future. Together with the workers 'and soldiers' councils, it was possible to overthrow the Spartacist coups of winter and spring. Likewise, the Bolshevik danger threatening from Munich was happily warded off by Württemberg. "

Political development in the early twenties

Stuttgart as a refuge for the Reich government during the Kapp Putsch

The relatively stable political conditions in Württemberg compared with other areas of the German Reich allowed the Blos government to host the Reich President Friedrich Ebert and the ministers of the Reich government in Stuttgart from March 15 to 20, 1920, and give them a safe place during the Kapp Putsch To provide residence. General Haas of the 5th Division of the Reichswehr in Stuttgart had agreed to support the Reich government and the Reichstag after the initially unsteady attitude. The commanding General Maercker in Dresden, where Ebert and the Reich government had initially fled, had not given this promise. On March 18, 1920, the German National Assembly met in the Stuttgart art building .

Formation of the Hieber minority government (Democrats and Center)

During the unrest in January and April 1919 and in the summer of 1920, the government temporarily holed up in the tower of Stuttgart's new main train station .

In the first regular state elections on June 6, 1920, the majority Social Democrats and the Democrats each suffered a significant defeat. Thereupon the state executive of the SPD decided not to belong to the new government, which Blos and Keil disagreed with, but ultimately bowed to the will of the party, which was also no longer represented in the new government . After his election, the democrat Johannes Hieber , who succeeded Wilhelm Blos as President of Württemberg, paid tribute to the services of the predecessor in overcoming the great problems after the lost World War .

From 1920 to 1924 the Democrats and the Center formed the Hieber cabinet . Actually, as the strongest party in the state parliament, the center would have been entitled to the office of state president. The center refrained from asserting this claim. This was justified by the fact that a Catholic state president did not yet appear reasonable to the majority of the Protestant population of Württemberg at this point in time. The Protestant candidate Hieber from the DDP was therefore given precedence. The Hieber cabinet temporarily became a minority government tolerated by the Social Democrats. Only from November 7, 1921 to June 2, 1923 was the Weimar coalition in Württemberg complete again, as the Social Democrat Wilhelm Keil was a member of the Hieber government as labor and nutrition minister. The reason for the SPD's entry into the Württemberg government was also that, with the Wirth cabinet , a Weimar coalition ruled again at the Reich level from May 1921.

Despite the relative political stability in Württemberg, this government had to do with the enormous problems of post-war inflation and the hyperinflation triggered by the war in the Ruhr in 1923 . When in the summer of 1920 Communist-influenced workers in the factories of Daimler , Bosch and the Esslingen machine factory demonstrated against the newly introduced wage tax deduction, the Württemberg government had these factories occupied by police on the morning of August 26, 1920. The radical workers' councils responded by calling for a general strike. The police, led by the tried and tested Red Rooster , loyal to the government , were able to put down the general strike within 14 days , supported by many volunteers (especially students led by Eberhard Wildermuth ). During this crisis, the government holed up again in the tower of the new Stuttgart main station.

Years under the influence of political assassinations

In August 1921, the murder of the Württemberg center politician Matthias Erzberger shook the public. On June 9, 1922, Chancellor Joseph Wirth and Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau , the negotiator of the Rapallo Treaty , came to Stuttgart. Rathenau gave a speech to invited guests of the Württemberg Society and met with the Württemberg government for talks. Two weeks later, news of his murder came out. The Deutschvölkische Schutz- und Trutzbund was associated with the assassination and banned in 1922 on the basis of the Republic Protection Act in most of the German states, but not in Württemberg. The fact that no bans against ethnic and anti-republican organizations were imposed in Württemberg can be attributed, among other things, to the fact that the state police office recorded only a small number of followers in its reports for these associations in Württemberg and came to the judgment that they should be regarded as consistently harmless. In addition, for legal reasons, the State Ministry refused to intervene against the right-wing extremist associations that were banned in other countries. The Minister of the Interior only issued a decree of September 13, 1922, in which the higher offices were requested to pay special attention to the NSDAP, the Association of Nationally Minded Soldiers and the Schutz- und Trutzbund.

Despite some activities in Württemberg in the twenties, the Völkisch and the National Socialists were not granted any major success, which was not changed by Hitler's eleven visits to Stuttgart from 1920 to 1932. During the Hitler putsch in Munich in November 1923, the population of Württemberg was generally calm.

The SPD leaves the government in May 1923

In October 1922, the SPD gained strength in the Württemberg state parliament through reunification with parts of the USPD. The greater political weight encouraged the Social Democrats to lay claim to the appointment of an SPD minister to the interior ministry that had become vacant when the center minister Eugen Graf died in May 1923. This was rejected by the center, which is why the SPD returned to the opposition. During her participation in government she had also failed to achieve her main goals in the area of ​​social policy. For example, the eight-hour working day could not be generally enforced, an expansion of the trade and industry supervision was not possible, and a tax reform to upgrade communities with high industrialization was prevented by the coalition partners. The introduction of the generally binding eighth school year had also not been achieved.

Emergency note from 1923, issued by the Württemberg Central Bank

The hyperinflation

The hyperinflation of 1923 , which destroyed financial assets and devalued current wages, lasted until the currency reform, which took place in November 1923 with the introduction of the Rentenmark . While the big entrepreneurs and landowners were mostly able to capitalize on the hyperinflation, the thrifty urban petty bourgeoisie and the working population became impoverished in the course of 1923. In Württemberg, the crisis was milder as many residents, in addition to their work as employees, still had connections to the Had agriculture, partly as part-time farmers and partly through family ties. Full-time farmers were significantly less affected by the crisis. In addition, the Württemberg economy was generally more medium-sized, less centralized in large cities and, due to vehicle construction and electrical engineering, more export-oriented than elsewhere in the empire.

The failure of the government Hieber

The minority government in Stuttgart failed in the spring of 1924 not because of opposition from the tolerant SPD or because of the huge domestic, foreign or economic policy issues, but rather because of an attempt at administrative reform. In order to be more economical in the public budgets after the end of the inflation, the administrative structure of Württemberg from the beginning of the 19th century should be significantly leaner. However, since the state parliament refused to give its consent including the center involved in the government and only succeeded in abolishing the four district governments, the DDP withdrew its ministers from the government. One month before the elections in April 1924, the Hieber government gave way to the Rau interim government . One of the most important achievements of the failed government was the separation of the church from the state in the church law of March 1924, which also ended the centuries-old integration of the Protestant church with the Württemberg state. A comprehensive district reform was carried out in 1938 under the National Socialist dictatorship.

Between inflation and the global economic crisis

The state election campaign in 1924

In the state election campaign of 1924, which was still under the shock of the inflation events of the previous year, the citizens 'party (the Württemberg DNVP ) and the farmers' union cleverly used the failed plan of the Hieber government to dissolve the seven smallest higher offices and the Hall district court for propaganda purposes . With the help of a mass of leaflets, the topic was presented in a populist way, as if the old government wanted to destroy living organisms by dissolving higher offices. The election campaign of these conservative parties was directed in sharp words against democracy and made use of both the stab in the back and anti-Semitic slogans. The state election on May 4, 1924 led to a clear shift to the right. The parliamentary group of the Citizens' Party with the Farmers and Vineyards Association was the strongest parliamentary group in the state parliament , and they managed to win the center over to join a coalition government. The time of the Weimar coalition in Württemberg was over. The SPD always remained in opposition, in particular the deputy to Kurt Schumacher excelled, who was from 1924 to 1931 the Diet.

Conservative coalition with the center

On June 3, 1924, the DNVP politician Wilhelm Bazille was elected as the new Württemberg state president. Bazille, a conservative anti-democrat and monarchist, had until then led the opposition in the state parliament and, in addition to the state ministry, also took over the management of the cultural and economic departments. Bazille ruled until 1930 in a coalition of the Württemberg Citizens' Party (the regional DNVP offshoot), which was stable for the time, with the also Protestant Württemberg Farmers and Vineyards Association and the Catholic Center Party . The collaboration between Catholics ("blacks") and Protestant conservatives ("Prussian blue") - sometimes referred to in literature as the "black-blue" coalition - began in Württemberg in 1906 and is considered to pave the way for the later establishment a non-denominational Christian Democratic party - the CDU .

Much to the astonishment of many contemporaries, the former demagogue Bazille turned into a statesman with dignity and prudence in the state offices, although his thoughts and actions were still shaped by the fear of the Bolshevik revolution. The time of the Bazille government falls into the era of the so-called Roaring Twenties .

With the death of President Ebert and the election of Hindenburg as the new Reich President, there was an overall shift in political weight to the right in Germany. On November 11, 1925, the new Reich President made a state visit to Württemberg and was received by Lord Mayor Karl Lautenschlager in the Stuttgart City Hall and by President Bazille in Villa Reitzenstein .

In 1925, President Bazille moved the headquarters of the Württemberg State Ministry from Königstrasse to Villa Reitzenstein, which today serves as the official seat of the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg. Here is a view of the west side of the villa in the park.

The Villa Reitzenstein was the new headquarters of the Württemberg State Ministry after Bazille had arranged the move from the previous location in Stuttgart's Königstrasse to the new address on Gänsheide. The amalgamation of the state parliament, ministries and central authorities in one government district was discussed but rejected as impracticable. Further plans of the government to record the historically grown and sometimes difficult to survey legal regulations of Württemberg in a code and to simplify the structure of the state did not lead to any visible results. Only the Oberamt Weinsberg was dissolved during this time.

In matters of foreign policy, the government in the Reichsrat showed a fluctuating picture. In August 1924, under pressure from the center, Württemberg voted for the Dawes Plan , although the DNVP was strictly against it. However , Württemberg was unable to find a unified position on the results of the Locarno Conference in autumn 1925 because Bazille considered the Locarno Treaty to be acceptable, but his cabinet colleague and party friend Alfred Dehlinger, in line with the DNVP position, rejected it. With regard to economic policy, Bazille was able to emphasize in the state parliament at the end of 1927 that Württemberg had the lowest unemployment in the German Reich . In the question of the relationship between the states and the Reich, which was open during the entire period of the Weimar Republic, Bazille took a position aimed at maintaining the independence of the states and saw himself as the guardian of the interests of Württemberg. Bazille was the main target of the opposition parties in the election campaign for the Reichstag and state elections on May 20, 1928. Communists, social democrats and liberals strongly criticized the fact that Bazille, as minister of culture , had prevented the introduction of an eighth year of primary school. The SPD politician Fritz Ulrich described the "regime of the French-born Bazille" as alien to the Swabians.

The formation of the Bolz government

The state elections of May 20, 1928 brought the Conservatives a heavy defeat, while the center was able to maintain its number of seats. The absolute majority of the previous coalition was lost. Since the center, under the leadership of Eugen Bolz , did not want a new edition of the Weimar coalition with the SPD, which was deemed incapable of government , and the DDP refused to join the government with the DNVP, the Bolz minority government was formed. The keeping of the SPD away from the Württemberg government by the politicians of the center and the conservative parties can be explained under the following aspect. The SPD, which has been the strongest political force in the state parliament since the new elections, should not be able to assert its relatively heavy weight as a ruling party. The politically fragmented bourgeois-conservative camp in Württemberg wanted to prevent this at all costs, while at the Reich level the Müller cabinet came into being under the leadership of the SPD. A specific reproach made by the governing parties to the SPD in Württemberg was that the SPD had no state political program and that it was far too “Unitarian” thinking only of its politics at the Reich level. A particularly weighty argument in favor of maintaining the coalition of the center, the citizens 'party and the farmers' union was the adherence to the denominational elementary schools in Württemberg. The SPD wanted to introduce mixed denominational elementary schools, so-called simultaneous schools.

In the state parliament session on June 8, 1928, Eugen Bolz was elected as the new President of the State with 39 of 80 votes based on the current rules of procedure. The SPD sued the State Court of Justice against this, whereby it was to be established that the Bolz Ministry and in particular the Minister Bazille had come into office unconstitutionally. Another charge against the SPD was the rules of procedure used in the state parliament, which rated abstentions in the case of no-confidence votes as a “no”, which, in the SPD's view, also violated the state constitution. It was not until February 18, 1930 that the State Court decided to reject the SPD's complaints. At that time, however, these were already politically outdated, because in January 1930, with the entry of Reinhold Maier from the DDP as the new Minister of Economics and State Councilor Johannes Rath from the DVP, a stable parliamentary majority in the Bolz government was established. This entry into the government was connected with the planned approval of the Württemberg government for the Young Plan in the Reichsrat. Since the DNVP under Alfred Hugenberg was strictly against approving the Young Plan, there was a risk that the Württemberg government would not have a quorum. By January 1930, the government had only four ministers: Bolz and Beyerle from the Center and Bazille and Delinger from the DNVP. Bazille in particular came increasingly into conflict with his party's Hugenberg line on this issue. The plebiscite against the Young Plan , which the right-wing extremist parties started in the summer of 1929, led to a referendum that was held on December 22, 1929. In Württemberg, only 11.6% of voters spoke out in favor of rejecting the Young Plan. The Reich average for this rejection was 13.5%. This paved the way for the Bolz government to give its approval in the Reichsrat. After Reinhold Maier joined the Württemberg government, the Young Plan was approved in quick succession. The representatives of the anti-republican parties (NSDAP, DNVP, KPD) called the behavior of the Bolz government treacherous towards the German people, as they had been exposed to the capitalist exploitation of foreign tributaries for decades. In the opinion of these opponents, the Württemberg government should not have bowed to the will of the Reich government.

An important topic for the Württemberg government was the question of imperial reform , which was pending throughout the years of the Weimar Republic , with which federalism in the German Reich was to be placed on a more homogeneous and thus healthier basis. The political weight of Württemberg in the Reichsrat and thus its influence on Reich politics was small. The Prussian state, on the other hand, had an overwhelming status, and the office of the Prussian Prime Minister was comparable to that of the Reich Chancellor. In order to strengthen the influence of the south-west German states, the Württemberg cabinet discussed the question of a merger between Württemberg and Baden on February 10, 1930 . Despite considerable reservations on the part of the two DNVP members, the ministers agreed that Württemberg would have been ready to merge the states. The result of this government decision was made public during the budget consultation in the Württemberg state parliament. Since President Bolz imagined the greater advantages of such a merger in Baden, he expected an initiative from Karlsruhe , but this did not happen.

In Württemberg, too, the SPD dealt intensively with the question of whether the SPD Reich ministers should have approved the budget for the construction of new armored cruisers . Kurt Schumacher was a staunch opponent of the new armored cruisers and was thus in line with the party base, while Wilhelm Keil and the SPD state chairman Erich Roßmann expressed understanding for the attitude of the Reich government. Kurt Schumacher always criticized the republic's inadequate clout and advocated that the Reichswehr must first be won over to the ideas of the republic before any thought could be given to rearmament. Schumacher saw the republic threatened by both National Socialism and Communism . On March 25, 1930, the last Chancellor of Weimar to stand up for democracy, Hermann Müller , spoke on the 10th anniversary of the failed Kapp Putsch in the Stuttgart Liederhalle, which led to a social democratic mass meeting. Two days later, Müller resigned from his office because the SPD parliamentary group did not approve a coalition compromise on unemployment insurance. This marked the end of the Müller II cabinet , the last parliamentary government of the Weimar Republic.

The last years of the People's State of Württemberg

Country of stable conditions at the beginning of the global economic crisis

Eugen Bolz , shown here on a postage stamp, was the state president of Württemberg for almost five years before he had to give way to his successor Wilhelm Murr in 1933 under the violence of the National Socialists .

When Eugen Bolz took office as President of the State on June 8, 1928, he had been Württemberg Minister without interruption from July 24, 1919, first as Minister of Justice until June 2, 1923 and then as Minister of the Interior, which he continued until March 11, 1933 stayed. As Minister of the Interior, Bolz had made the Württemberg police responsible for the state, as they had previously been subordinate to the municipal authorities following an old tradition. With the help of his police, Bolz tried to keep state life in Württemberg stable. Bolz believed he had to see the main opponents of the order to the left of the political center. The right-wing parties and groups he apparently saw a lower risk, and that, as the erosion of parliamentary relations in the Kingdom during 1930 even after the global economic crisis was already in full swing.

The SPD took offense at the Wuerttemberg police leadership, which was German-national and applied the emergency decrees of the Reich President of March 31, 1931 to combat political riots unilaterally restrictive against the left-wing parties SPD and KPD and acted much too mildly in the obvious offenses of the NSDAP. In autumn 1931, the SPD parliamentary group set up a committee of inquiry into the political orientation of the Stuttgart police leadership. On January 5, 1932, the police confiscated the issue of the SPD party newspaper Schwäbische Tagwacht , because the Reich Court's slow investigations against the author of the Boxheim documents , Werner Best , were criticized there. The Stuttgart police leadership justified the confiscation of the Tagwacht edition with the fact that the Reichsgericht had been made "maliciously insulted and contemptible". Wilhelm Keil emphasized in a speech in the state parliament on February 16, 1932 that the article in the Swabian Tagwacht had been a completely justified criticism of the Reichsgericht and criticized the fact that stricter censorship was applied than during the First World War.

Another example of the politically one-sided approach of the Stuttgart police leadership was the arrest of the police leader of the Württemberg KPD, Josef Schlaffer , on November 8, 1931. On November 7, 1931, the KPD held a ceremony to commemorate the Russian in the Stuttgart city hall October Revolution held and, according to the regulations, no political speeches, but only a sporting and artistic program that ended with the singing of the International . Only then did Josef Schlaffer give a short closing remarks, which gave rise to his arrest and sentencing to three months imprisonment in an express trial. Kurt Schumacher then criticized the Stuttgart Police President for violating Schlaffer's immunity as a member of the Reichstag.

In addition to his controversial police regime, Bolz also ensured a well-founded policy in the area of ​​social services, infrastructure development and energy supply, which contributed to the stability of the Württemberg state during the global economic crisis.

The American journalist Hubert R. Knickerbocker was impressed during his trip through Germany at the height of the global economic crisis that there was “no external sign of depression to be seen” in Württemberg's capital. The "city shining in its glow of lights" and "its new public and private buildings speak more clearly of prosperity". Knickerbocker also said, "In the streets of Stuttgart you can see more well-dressed people than in any other" German city he knows.

The state parliament is unable to act

On April 24, 1932 the election for the new Landtag took place, from which the NSDAP emerged as the strongest parliamentary group with 23 seats. The National Socialist Christian Mergenthaler became the new President of the State Parliament . None of the eight candidates for the office of President received the absolute majority required. Jonathan Schmid from the NSDAP received 22 and Eugen Bolz only 20 votes. The new state parliament with an absolute majority of the opponents of the Weimar Republic, which include the NSDAP and KPD as well as the DNVP (citizens' party) and the WBWB, was unable to act. There were constant noisy heckling and tumultuous scenes between the members of the NSDAP and the KPD . There could be no doubt that these parties did not value a functioning parliament. Since a new president was not elected, the Bolz government remained in office and, following the example of the Brüning government , switched to governing with emergency ordinances , largely excluding the state parliament.

In June 1932 Bolz and his counterparts Josef Schmitt from Baden and Heinrich Held from Bavaria tried in vain to persuade Reich President Paul von Hindenburg to prevent the so-called Prussian strike, as this would lead to a tremendous weakening of federalism and apart from that constituted a breach of the constitution. Three days after the Prussian strike, on July 23, 1932, Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen met with the Prime Ministers of the southern German states in the Reitzenstein villa to discuss how a dictatorship by Hitler could be prevented and to assure that the southern German states would remain intact should stay. This Stuttgart meeting remained ineffective overall.

The way to dictatorship

Memorial at the Königsbau in Stuttgart in memory of Eugen Bolz

After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor on January 30, 1933, the decline of statehood in the German states began. The attempt to hold back developments in Berlin with the help of a general strike in Mössingen remained a courageous individual action in the Württemberg province. The Reichstag was dissolved and new elections were scheduled for March 5th. The election campaign was accompanied by street terror on the part of the NSDAP. On February 4, 1933, the imperial government's emergency decree restricted freedom of the press and assembly. On February 15, 1933, Hitler gave a speech in Stuttgart. Opponents of the National Socialists succeeded in interrupting the radio broadcast by cutting a transmission cable .

In the 1933 Reichstag election , the NSDAP in Württemberg only achieved 41.9% of the vote and thus remained slightly below the 44% at the Reich level, but this no longer played a role. The Bolz minority government came under increasing pressure. On March 8th, the Reich government appointed Dietrich von Jagow as Reich Commissioner for Württemberg. As a result, many members of the opposition were arrested and taken to the Heuberg concentration camp near Stetten on the cold market .

With the votes of the Württemberg Citizens' Party and the Württemberg Farmers and Vineyards Association, the Württemberg Gauleiter of the NSDAP, Wilhelm Murr , was elected as the new state president in the state parliament on March 15, 1933. Thirty-six MPs voted for Murr, the Center and the DDP abstained with 19 votes, while the 13 SPD MPs voted against. The communists had already been expelled from the state parliament.

The Enabling Act of March 24th and the Act on bringing the Länder into line with the Reich of March 31st led to the factual insignificance of the Länder. The Württemberg state parliament was reorganized according to the result of the Reichstag election on March 5. The offices of Reichsstatthalter were created by the second law for the conformity of the federal states of April 7, 1933 . The previous President Wilhelm Murr became Reich Governor for Württemberg. In this position he was superordinate to the new state government under the Prime Minister, Christian Mergenthaler, and was only responsible to the Reich Chancellor. The last session of the Württemberg state parliament took place on June 8, 1933. The Enabling Act passed here suspended the Württemberg constitution of 1919 and transferred the legislation to the state government. The Reich Law of January 30, 1934 repealed all German state parliaments and transferred the sovereign rights of the states to the Reich. Like the other state governments, the Württemberg state ministry had thus become a central authority of the Reich. The planned conversion of Württemberg into a Reichsgau was not carried out.

The dictatorship and its consequences

History of Württemberg from 1933 to 1945

Main article: Württemberg at the time of National Socialism

The Nazi rule in Württemberg was shaped until 1945 by the permanent dualism of the Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalters Murr and the Prime Minister Mergenthaler, who was formally subordinate to him. Both officials mistrusted each other in principle, but Hitler never lifted this dualism despite repeated attempts on the part of Wilhelm Murr. After the seizure of power, Hitler very rarely came to Württemberg. At the height of his popularity, shortly after the annexation of Austria to the now Greater German Reich , the Führer and Imperial Chancellor paid the Stuttgarters a long-awaited visit. On April 1, 1938, he drove to great joy in an open car from the main train station via Königstrasse to the town hall, where he was received by Mayor Karl Strölin and Reichsstatthalter Murr. In the evening he gave a speech in the town hall.

As in the rest of the Reich , Jews were persecuted and murdered, the opposition was eliminated, the administration was brought into line and the administration emigrated. The ranks of particularly notorious Nazi criminals from Württemberg included, for example, the head of the special court in Stuttgart, Hermann Cuhorst , the SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger , the SS brigade leader Walter Stahlecker and the NS district leader of Heilbronn, Richard Drauz . Resistance fighters from Württemberg were, for example, Georg Elser , the siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl , the brothers Berthold and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg , Fritz Elsas and Eugen Bolz . Active resistance against National Socialism remained the exception in Württemberg - as in the Reich as a whole.

During the Second World War , the native of Württemberg Field Marshal acquired Erwin Rommel high reputation. In the bombing war that began in 1943, the cities and towns of Württemberg suffered from increased bombing. Stuttgart had a total of 4,562 dead in 53 air raids , Heilbronn, which was destroyed on December 4, 1944 , around 6,500 dead. The cities of Ulm , Reutlingen and Friedrichshafen also suffered particularly severe damage . During the ground fighting in the course of the capture of Württemberg by American and French troops in 1945, the cities of Crailsheim , Waldenburg and Freudenstadt were almost completely destroyed.

Post-war history 1945 to 1952

Main articles: Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern

After the Second World War, the northern part of Württemberg became part of the American zone , the southern part of the French zone . The southern border of the American occupation zone was chosen in such a way that the Karlsruhe-Munich motorway, today's A 8 , lay within the American occupation zone for the entire route. The boundaries were the respective district boundaries. The military governments of the zones of occupation founded the states of Württemberg-Baden in the American zone and Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern in the French zone in 1945/46 . These countries were in the wake of the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany on 23 May 1949 to countries of the Federal Republic.

The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany enabled measures to reorganize the three countries through Article 118. In the course of this, on April 25, 1952, the states of Württemberg-Baden, Baden (that is, southern Baden) and Württemberg-Hohenzollern merged to form the state of Baden-Württemberg. Further details on this topic and the further history are listed under Baden-Württemberg .

State building and administration

The constitution of the free people's state of Württemberg

The draft constitution came from the Tübingen professor Wilhelm von Blume (lawyer) . The constitution of the People's State of Württemberg, which came into force on September 25, 1919, was that of a parliamentary republic. This constitution was de facto overridden by the synchronization laws of the German Reich of March 31, 1933 and April 7, 1933, as well as the Reich law on the rebuilding of the Reich of January 30, 1934. The constitution was divided into 9 sections with a total of 67 paragraphs.

Section 1 of the first section of the constitution laid down the form of government as that of a free people's state within the German Reich. The formulation of a free people's state meant the form of a democratic republic without these words themselves being used in the entire constitutional text. In § 2 the national territory was determined which corresponded to that of the Kingdom of Württemberg .

The second section of the constitution described state authority in three paragraphs. According to § 3, all state authority emanated from the people. New features in the constitution were the proportional representation system, the now common right to vote for women throughout Germany and the lowering of the minimum age for participation in elections to 20 years. The procedure for referendums was laid down in Section 5.

The third section regulated in 20 paragraphs the formation and the tasks of the state parliament, which consists of only one chamber, as legislator and control body of the state government. Section 11 provided for a legislative period of four years. Noteworthy is the right mentioned in § 16 that the state parliament could be dissolved prematurely by referendum, which, however, never happened in practice.

The fourth section dealt in 15 paragraphs with the state management and the state authorities of the country. In accordance with Section 27, the state parliament elected the Prime Minister with the official title of State President. The Württemberg state president appointed and dismissed the ministers who together with him formed the Württemberg government and thus the executive. Pursuant to Section 28, the Landtag had the opportunity to express its mistrust in the government and thus to recall the government or to demand the dismissal of individual ministers. The President had no authority to issue guidelines. The government took its decisions in accordance with Section 31 by voting in the College of Ministers.

The fifth section of the constitution regulated the legislation in seven paragraphs and stipulated in which cases a referendum was planned. The sixth section described finance in eight paragraphs. The seventh section comprised three paragraphs, which regulated the competences of the State Court. In the eighth section three paragraphs were provided for the state control of economic life, and in the ninth section six paragraphs contained so-called “final and transitional provisions”.

Loss of Württemberg reservation rights to the Reich

The constitution of the Weimar Republic transferred some important sovereign rights that were still held by the southern German states to the Reich. For Württemberg this meant the loss of its own railway , which came to the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920 with a route length of 2173 kilometers , the loss of its own postal administration to the Deutsche Reichspost and the transfer of the Württemberg army to the Reichswehr , so that the Württemberg War Ministry from June 1919 could be resolved. In the Reichswehr, the 5th Division made up military district V with soldiers from Württemberg, Baden, Hesse and Thuringia . A state commander represented the military interests of Württemberg. In addition, the empire now administered the customs duties and VAT itself and set up the necessary authorities for them. The employment agency was also taken over by the Reich in 1927.

Tasks that remained with the state were carried out by the ministries of the interior, justice, economy and culture. The Ministry of Finance succeeded in keeping the Württemberg state budget in order despite all the crises. However, the relationship to the Reich remained an unsolved question in constitutional reality.

Judicial system

In addition to the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court , there were eight regional courts and a local court in each higher office . The administrative court in Stuttgart was responsible for administrative jurisdiction , also known as extraordinary jurisdiction, since 1876 in Württemberg.

administration

Map of the upper offices, as of 1926

The People's State of Württemberg was divided into the city district of Stuttgart and 61 (1920: 63) regional offices with a total of 1,875 communities . Until April 1, 1924, Württemberg was still divided into the four districts of the Donaukreis ( Ulm ), Neckarkreis ( Ludwigsburg ), Jagstkreis ( Ellwangen ) and Black Forest ( Reutlingen ). In 1938, the 61 upper offices that still existed and the Stuttgart city directorate were merged into 34 rural districts and three urban districts. A detailed description can be found under administrative structure of Württemberg .

National emblem

The constitution passed in 1919 initially made no changes to the country's coat of arms and flag. In § 41 (3) it only stipulated that state colors and state coats of arms were to be determined by law. The national coat of arms, valid since 1817, as well as the black and red national colors remained in use for the time being. The law provided for in the constitution was passed by the state parliament on December 20, 1921 and came into force on February 20, 1922. Black and red were retained as the national colors, while the coat of arms changed. It was now square, whereby fields 1 and 4 were gold with three black stag poles lying down, fields 2 and 3, however, divided three times by black and red. Two golden stags acted as shield holders, and instead of the previously usual royal insignia, the coat of arms was replaced by a people's crown inflated. In 1933, after the National Socialists came to power, the style of the coat of arms was changed.

See also: coat of arms of Württemberg

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  Larger coat of arms until 1922

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  Coat of arms from 1922

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  Country flag

Parties

The spectrum of parties was diverse, but only three of the important parties were firmly rooted in the Weimar constitution: the SPD , the left-liberal democrats and the left wing of the center .

The social democracy

During the years of the Weimar Republic, the SPD was in political competition with the KPD, which seriously weakened its strongholds in many parts of the German Reich. In Württemberg, regions with a high proportion of industrial workers were to be found, especially in Stuttgart and along the cities on the Heilbronn – Stuttgart – Ulm railway line. In Stuttgart, the proportion of SPD and KPD voters was at times almost equal at 15 to 20% each. Apart from Stuttgart, there was no industrial proletariat worth mentioning in Württemberg in the classic sense. Most of the SPD voters were artisans or workers who were often small farmers as part-time jobs. Heilbronn was a special stronghold for the SPD. Up to the beginning of the 1930s, the SPD's share of the vote there was up to 40%, while the KPD hardly achieved any results worth mentioning. In rural regions with a lack of social democratic milieu, the SPD found it difficult to mobilize voters. There the farmers' union dominated in the Protestant higher offices and the Center Party in the Catholic ones. In the field of education policy, two major goals of the Württemberg SPD remained unattainable. On the one hand, these were the overcoming of the traditional separation into denominational elementary schools in favor of standardized schools. These elementary schools, also known as simultaneous schools, for all denominations had been the norm in the neighboring state of Baden since 1876. On the other hand, the SPD wanted to increase compulsory schooling in Württemberg from seven to eight years, but this was blocked by the conservative Minister of Culture Bazille during his entire term in office from 1924 to 1933.

The SPD owned a dense network of 12 daily newspapers in Württemberg. The leading newspaper by a clear margin was the Swabian Tagwacht published in Stuttgart and its headers Neckarpost in Ludwigsburg, Volkszeitung in Esslingen, Freie Volkszeitung in Göppingen, Schwarzwälder Volkswacht in Schramberg and Freie Presse in Reutlingen. In Heilbronn the party paper Neckar-Echo appeared , in Schwenningen the Volksstimme and its head page, the Tuttlinger Volkszeitung . The Donauwacht appeared in Ulm with the headers Heidenheimer Volkszeitung and Geislinger Allgemeine Anzeiger .

The state chairmen of the Württemberg SPD were Friedrich Fischer (1913–1920), Otto Steinmayer (1920–1924) and Erich Roßmann (1924–1933). However, the two leading parliamentarians Wilhelm Keil and Kurt Schumacher clearly towered over them. Under the pressure of National Socialism, the Württemberg state executive committee of the SPD dissolved itself on May 10, 1933. With the law against the formation of new parties , the SPD had been banned in the entire German Reich since July 14, 1933.

Liberalism

Left-wing liberalism had a long tradition in Württemberg in the form of the Württemberg People's Party , which had existed since 1864, but which could only remain a people 's party as long as socialist or denominational client parties did not bind the voters to themselves. The People's Party, which is so attractive for ordinary people, came under increasing pressure from the nineteen-nineties onwards from the SPD, Zentrum and Bauernbund parties, which were now also organizing in Württemberg. Although left-wing liberalism was once again strengthened in Württemberg after the November Revolution of 1918, when many former National Liberals converted from the German Party to the newly formed German Democratic Party , the DDP also lost more and more rural voters in the Swabian homeland from 1919 to 1933, so that from the beginning 25% in the end only 2% of the voters remained in the DDP. This remainder of the electorate was mainly part of the urban upper class. The DDP in Württemberg was involved in the government from 1918 to 1924, and since 1920 with the Hieber cabinet even at the top of the government. From 1924 to 1930, the DDP, together with the SPD, was in sharp opposition to the black-blue coalition of the center and conservatives, before it decided in 1930, together with the DVP, to participate again in the conservative government. Reinhold Maier's entry into the Bolz cabinet prompted the nestor of Württemberg liberalism, Friedrich von Payer , to leave the DDP in protest against this rightward swing. The state chairmen of the Württemberg DDP were Conrad Haußmann (1918–1921) and Peter Bruckmann (1921–1933). On June 28, 1933, the party disbanded.

In 1918 the National Liberals from the former German Party were divided between the newly formed DDP and the Württemberg Citizens' Party, as it initially became apparent that the liberal split could be overcome. With the new German People's Party , however, a weakened successor organization emerged for the national liberal voters. The DVP initially rejected the republic, but with Gustav Stresemann, for reasons of common sense, it was willing to cooperate constructively in the new form of government. The state chairmen of the Württemberg DVP were Gottlob Egelhaaf (1919–1920), Theodor Bickes (1920–1927) and Johannes Rath (1927–1933). The organizational strength and the electoral successes of the DVP in Württemberg were comparatively low. On July 4, 1933, the party disbanded.

Political Catholicism

The center had only existed in Württemberg since 1895. The reason for its late founding was that the Catholics in the Kingdom of Württemberg, unlike in the neighboring state of Baden or in Prussia, were not exposed to any disadvantages. The long-time royal prime minister Hermann von Mittnacht was himself a Catholic, and a culture war could not arise. The political Catholic party was strongly represented in the almost homogeneous Catholic areas of Neuwuerttemberg . In the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, a sizeable Catholic community had developed in Stuttgart due to immigration, but it was still part of the diaspora there.

Since only about 30% of the residents in Württemberg were Catholic, the center could not become a political force comparable to that in the neighboring state of Baden, where the proportion of Catholics was almost 60%. During the Weimar Republic, the Weimar coalition was able to last until 1932 in Baden because the comparatively strong center there was able to accept the SPD as a junior partner. In Württemberg, the SPD was in the opposition from 1923 onwards, with almost the same political strength as in Baden, because the weaker bourgeois parties (the center, the citizens 'party and the evangelical farmers' union) were not prepared to accept the SPD's influence in a Württemberg government. The center in Württemberg was therefore more conservative than in other German countries. State chairmen of the Württemberg center were nominally Alfred Rembold (1895-1919) and Josef Beyerle (1919-1933). The real leading figures of the Württemberg center were Adolf Gröber , Johann Baptist Kiene , Matthias Erzberger , Eugen Bolz and Lorenz Bock . On July 5, 1933, the center dissolved under the pressure of National Socialism.

The conservatives

The conservative parties were opponents of what they saw as the “half-baked emergency building in Weimar”. These anti-republic parties included the Württemberg Citizens' Party as a regional association of the DNVP and the Bauernbund , which had appeared in Württemberg as an independent political party since 1895 and was an exception compared to the other countries. Although there were farmers 'associations in all German states that were organized in the Reichslandbund and were mostly politically close to the DNVP, only in Württemberg was the farmers' association an independent political party. When the urban citizens 'party and the rural farmers' union were involved as conservative elements in the Württemberg government from 1924 to 1933, the paradoxical situation arose that the parent party DNVP steered an extremely anti-republican course at the level of the Reich, but in Württemberg it did so in a certain way because of its government responsibility Became part of the Weimar system. On March 18, 1933, under the impression of the rule of National Socialism, the Württemberg farmers' union deleted the claim to be a political party from its statutes. On June 27, 1933, the German National Front , as the DNVP was last called, dissolved.

Bourgeois splinter parties

After 1928 the party landscape was split up because many voters increasingly wanted their own interests to be served. Württemberg pietists gave the CSVD their vote, and in Reichstag elections the Economic Party and the People's Rights Party could also unite votes.

The extreme left

Street scene in Stuttgart in 1929, on a chimney an advertisement for the KPD for May 1st

The extreme left rejected parliamentary democracy on ideological grounds. She envisioned a state modeled on the Soviet Union . This made them appear very threatening in the eyes of the bourgeois and conservative classes. The extreme left was initially represented by the USPD , whose protagonists in Württemberg had already renounced the majority Social Democrats in 1915. From the beginning of the twenties, it was the KPD that advocated extreme left-wing politics in Germany. The Süddeutsche Arbeiterzeitung , published in Stuttgart, functioned as the organ of the KPD in Württemberg .

From 1919 to 1920 Edwin Hoernle was the head of the Württemberg party organization of the KPD . In 1924 the political head of the KPD in Württemberg, Johannes Stetter , was ousted. When Stetter published "Revelations about the KP swamp" after being expelled from the party in 1926, the KPD in Württemberg shrank considerably in terms of personnel and organization. In 1929 the so-called Brandler-Thalheimer faction was excluded from the KPD by the “ultra-left” turn of the KPD at the Reich level. The Communist Party Opposition (KPO) emerged as a right-wing split, which in Württemberg published the daily workers' tribune. Among the members of the KPO was, for example, Willi Bleicher . At the beginning of 1932 Walter Ulbricht came to Stuttgart to take care of the removal of the Württemberg KPD leadership duo Schlaffer and Schneck. The two had dared to attack the NSDAP in the political dispute instead of, as desired in Berlin and following the doctrine of the social fascism thesis, seeing the SPD as the main enemy. The division of the workers' movement into the anti-republic KPD and the state-sponsoring SPD also made itself felt in the development of the Stuttgart forest homes, which were badly affected by the conflict. Since March 8, 1933, the Nazi Reich Commissioner Dietrich von Jagow had massively persecuted and interned KPD members in Württemberg .

The extreme right

The National Socialism in Württemberg had it despite local strongholds such as in Nagold to choose hard for a long time because the Bauernbund stronger than in other German states held as a political force to be 68% Protestant population of them, Hitler's party. After the NSDAP was banned , the Völkisch-Soziale Block took a corresponding position in the Württemberg state parliament from 1924 to 1928 with three mandates.

Although the re-admitted NSDAP initially failed in the state elections in 1928, Christian Mergenthaler succeeded in June 1929 in getting a mandate through a judgment of the State Court in Stuttgart. The state elections in the spring of 1932 then led to the landslide-like success of the radicals, which gave the NSDAP 23 seats and thus also heralded the beginning of the end of democracy in Württemberg.

elections

Elections and the resulting election campaigns dominated everyday political life in the Weimar Republic. From 1918 to 1933, five state elections took place in Württemberg, if the election to the constituent state assembly is included. During the same period, there were nine Reichstag elections, which was due to the fact that none of the Reichstag reached the planned end of the legislative period provided for by the Weimar constitution. There was always an early dissolution of the Reichstag with the associated new elections. In addition, there were two ballots each for the election of the Reich President in 1925 and 1932. There were particularly violent disputes and wing battles in various votes on referendums, for example on the question of the expropriation of the princes in 1926, in which the SPD first tried to act together with the KPD. In Württemberg and Hohenzollern, 34.1% of voters finally spoke out in favor of expropriating the princes without compensation. In addition to the elections at the national and regional levels, there were also local elections.

State elections

From the elections on January 12, 1919 for the constituent state assembly , the majority Social Democrats , the DDP , which is in the tradition of the Württemberg People's Party , the center and bourgeois regional parties emerged as the strongest parliamentary groups. A total of 150 seats were up for grabs, with the Weimar coalition of these parties having an overwhelming majority of 121 members.

By a new state election law passed on May 8, 1920, the number of members of the state parliament to be elected in the future was set at 101. The first regular state parliament election on June 6, 1920, with a total of 55 seats, again led to an absolute majority for the Weimar coalition, although this was only narrowly maintained and the parties that rejected the Weimar Republic received over 43% of the votes. Although the SPD only took part in the government temporarily, it was not in direct opposition to government policy until 1924.

The law of April 4, 1924 reduced the number of seats in the Landtag to a total of 80. After the state elections on May 4, 1924, the Weimar coalition shrank to 39 MPs, which narrowly missed an absolute majority. The vote share of the opponents of Weimar was over 46%. Since then, the SPD in Württemberg has played the role of the opposition.

In the state elections of May 20, 1928, the Weimar coalition would have once again had an absolute majority with 47 seats. The opponents of the republic fell to 33% of the vote. Nevertheless, the SPD remained in the opposition. Exploratory talks took place between the Württemberg state chairman of the center, Josef Beyerle , and Wilhelm Keil from the SPD, but the center, under the decisive influence of Eugen Bolz , eventually continued a coalition with the citizens 'party and the farmers' union and an alliance with the SPD, which had been found incapable of government in front. The central politicians also feared that a farmers' union that had been relegated to the opposition might then have won over the rural electorate of the center.

The state election of April 24, 1932 had a devastating effect. For the first time, the vote share of the opponents of the republic (NSDAP, DNVP, WBWB and KPD) exceeded the absolute majority. The NSDAP became the strongest political force in the country with 23 seats, but the KPD was also able to grow.

The following overview shows the results of all state elections in Württemberg during the Weimar Republic :

year	SPD	DDP	center	WBP from 1924: DNVP / WBP 1932:  DNVP	WBB	USPD	WKWB	WBWB	DVP	KPD	VSB	CSVD	NSDAP
1919	34.5% 52 seats	25.0% 38 seats	20.8% 31 seats	7.4% 11 seats	5.8% 10 seats	3.1% 4 seats	2.7% 4 seats	-	-	-	-	-	-
1920	16.1% 17 seats	14.7% 15 seats	22.5% 23 seats	9.3% 10 seats	-	13.3% 14 seats	-	17.7% 18 seats	3.4% 4 seats	-	-	-	-
1924	16.0% 13 seats	10.6% 9 seats	20.9% 17 seats	10.4% 8 seats	-	-	-	20.2% 17 seats	4.6% 3 seats	11.7% 10 seats	4.0% 3 seats	-	-
1928	23.8% 22 seats	10.1% 8 seats	19.6% 17 seats	5.7% 4 seats	-	-	-	18.1% 16 seats	5.2% 4 seats	7.4% 6 seats	-	3.9% 3 seats	1.8%
1932	16.6% 14 seats	4.8% 4 seats	20.5% 17 seats	4.3% 3 seats	-	-	-	10.7% 9 seats	-	9.4% 7 seats	-	4.2% 3 seats	26.4% 23 seats
1933	15.0% 9 seats	2.2% 1 seat	16.9% 10 seats	5.2% 3 seats	-	-	-	5.4% 3 seats	-	9.3% 6 seats	-	3.2% 2 seats	42.0% 26 seats

The reorganization of the state parliament, which now has only 60 seats, was carried out in accordance with the provisional law on bringing the states into line with the Reich of March 31, 1933 in accordance with the result of the Reichstag election of March 5, 1933. The KPD's seats were ineffective from the start due to the same law. which led to the absolute majority of the NSDAP with the DNVP in the state parliament. The DNVP had entered the Reichstag election on March 5, 1933 under the name Kampffront Schwarz-Weiß- Rot. The only session of the state parliament took place on June 8, 1933. The seats of the SPD became ineffective with the ordinance on the security of government of July 7, 1933. The legislative period ended on October 14, 1933. With the law on the reconstruction of the Reich , the state parliament was abolished on January 30, 1934, like all other state parliaments in Germany.

Reichstag elections

The following table shows how the people of Württemberg voted in Reichstag elections during the Weimar Republic :

election day	KPD	USPD	SPD	center	DDP from 1930: DStP	DVP	CSVD	WBP from 1924: DNVP / WBP 1932:  DNVP	BdG	VRP	WP	WBWB	NSDAP	Others
January 19, 1919	-	2.81%	35.93%	21.54%	25.37%	-	-	14.09%	-	-	-	-	-	0.26%
June 6, 1920	3.25%	13.05%	16.05%	22.53%	14.49%	3.88%	-	9.05%	-	-	-	17.70%	-	-
May 4, 1924	11.48%	-	16.00%	20.63%	9.48%	4.43%	-	10.10%	2.48%	-	0.68%	19.66%	4.23%	0.85%
December 7, 1924	8.23%	-	20.60%	22.31%	10.92%	5.80%	-	11.08%	-	-	0.52%	18.02%	2.16%	0.36%
May 20, 1928	7.33%	-	23.95%	19.20%	9.66%	5.61%	-	6.31%	-	3.70%	1.31%	17.58%	1.89%	4.45%
September 14, 1930	9.48%	-	20.47%	20.53%	9.87% (with DVP)	List with the DDP	6.67%	3.97%	-	2.11%	2.83%	13.01%	9.38%	1.68%
July 31, 1932	11.18%	-	17.96%	20.70%	2.45%	0.96%	3.67%	3.89%	-	-	0.18%	7.01%	30.53%	1.47%
November 6, 1932	14.64%	-	15.51%	19.47%	3.05%	1.51%	4.35%	5.38%	-	-	0.10%	8.15%	26.46%	1.39%
March 5, 1933	9.33%	-	15.03%	16.94%	2.17%	0.70%	3.18%	5.17%	-	-	-	5.38%	42.00%	0.10%

In the elections for the National Constituent Assembly on January 19, 1919, the WBP and the WBWB formed a joint list. In the election on May 4, 1924, the WBP (DNVP) and the United Patriotic Associations entered the list of patriotic-ethnic rights . The NSDAP was banned in both Reichstag elections in 1924 . On May 4, 1924, the given election result is in the NSDAP column for the VSB (Völkischsozialer Block) list and on December 7, 1924 for the NSFB ( National Socialist Freedom Movement ) list.

In all elections to the Reichstag, the results of the NSDAP were well below the overall results in the Reich. This effect is due to various factors. The general economic situation in Württemberg was somewhat better than in the rest of the empire. The bond between the Catholic minority and the center as its interest group was particularly strong in Württemberg, but the bond between the Protestant rural population and the Württemberg farmers 'and vineyards' association also proved to be particularly robust. The strict Pietists remained loyal to the Christian Social People's Service . It was not until 1933 that voting behavior turned in favor of the National Socialists.

The following table compares the proportion of votes cast by the NSDAP in Reichstag elections in Württemberg and in the entire Reich:

election day	May 20, 1928	Sept. 14, 1930	July 31, 1932	Nov 6, 1932	March 5, 1933
Württemberg	1.9%	9.4%	30.5%	26.5%	42.0%
German Empire	2.6%	18.3%	37.3%	33.1%	43.9%

The Reichstag election, which was carried out on November 12, 1933, with a Nazi unity list, was just a farce. Anyone who stayed away from the election or cast a negative vote was considered a traitor. On the same day it was possible to vote for the withdrawal of the German Reich from the League of Nations . On April 10, 1938, in connection with the referendum on the annexation of Austria , the NS standard list for the new Greater German Reichstag was also chosen. Officially, over 99% of voters vote “yes”.

Elections for the office of the Reich President

Only in 1925 and 1932 did the German people have the opportunity in their history to elect their head of state directly in free and secret elections, and in both cases they voted for Paul von Hindenburg .

The two tables below show how the voters in Württemberg and Hohenzollern voted in the decisive second ballot in 1925 and 1932 compared to the entire population of the Reich :

2nd ballot on April 26, 1925	Wahlbe- pation	Ernst Thalmann	Wilhelm Marx	Paul von Hindenburg	Others
Württemberg and Hohenzollern	73.4%	4.8%	49.4%	45.7%	0.1%
German Empire	77.6%	6.4%	45.3%	48.3%	0.0%

The fact that the representative of the People's Bloc , Wilhelm Marx, won the victory over the representative of the anti-republican Reichsblock , Hindenburg , in the voting area of ​​Württemberg and Hohenzollern , should not hide the fact that Württemberg made a certain contribution to Hindenburg's victory. In Württemberg it was not only the Protestants loyal to the Church and conservative monarchists who, as expected, gave Hindenburg their vote, but also a large number of anti-Catholic liberals. With this attitude of refusal towards the Catholic Marx, the Württemberg liberals deviated significantly from the behavior of voters in other classic areas of liberalism, where mostly Marx, not Hindenburg, won.

2nd ballot on April 10, 1932	Wahlbe- pation	Ernst Thalmann	Paul von Hindenburg	Adolf Hitler	Others
Württemberg and Hohenzollern	78.5%	7.6%	63.1%	29.3%	0.0%
German Empire	83.5%	10.1%	53.1%	36.8%	0.0%

The KPD's election motto for its candidate Ernst Thälmann in 1932 was: “Whoever votes for Hindenburg, votes for Hitler. Whoever votes Hitler, votes for war. ”A large majority of voters in Württemberg and Hohenzollern decided in favor of the previous incumbent. Reich President Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor on January 30, 1933. After Hindenburg's death on August 2, 1934, there was a referendum on August 19 to merge the office of Reich Chancellor and Reich President in the person of Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. 89.9% of those entitled to vote in the German Reich confirm the unification of offices.

Economic development

Agriculture and industry

Until the second half of the 20th century, it was typical for Württemberg that industrial workers also ran a small farm on the side, or that farmers who could no longer support their families from the income of their small businesses also worked in industry. Therefore, the number of small businesses remained high. It even increased at the beginning of the 20th century when industrialization took hold in Württemberg.

However, these small businesses were not very productive and the degree of mechanization remained low. Since they were used for social security, this was less important. The hidden unemployment in the country was high and was accepted. After the inflation, many companies were largely deprived of their operating resources or realizable reserves, were often heavily indebted and were hardly able to restore their functionality on their own. Agriculture in Württemberg was at an absolute low in 1932. Because of the part-time farming, workers in Württemberg were less willing to follow suit. They preferred to commute to their workplaces. The entrepreneurs were also forced to set up their businesses where there were workers. The industrial structure in Württemberg was rather decentralized. Industrial companies were also located in rural areas, and there were many so-called industrial villages. This decentralized structure made the industry in Württemberg more stable against the crises during the Weimar Republic. Many unemployed people could rely on a basic supply from part-time farming, which is why they were less prone to political radicalization - one of the reasons why the NSDAP achieved poorer election results in Württemberg than in the Reich as a whole.

Inflation and its consequences

A model of the Maybach Zeppelin from 1930; the company Maybach engine GmbH was created after the First World War in Friedrichshafen as the successor to the aircraft engine construction GmbH, which could no longer be able airship engines because of the Versailles Treaty.

The early years of the republic were tough years of crisis due to inflation, which ended at the end of 1923. This drove numerous Württemberg residents to emigrate from Germany. Small pensioners and owners of money in particular suffered from inflation. They were not taxpayers and instead burdened the public budget as beneficiaries. In order to rehabilitate this, the officials had to accept severe wages. With the stabilization of the currency in late 1923, there was a general shortage of capital and credit, which led to a sharp rise in bankruptcies . While there were only 13 company failures in Württemberg in 1923, there were a total of 318 bankruptcies in 1924, followed by 473 bankruptcies in 1925 and 597 bankruptcies in the following year. The number of bankruptcies only declined from 1927 to 1929, but rose again as a result of the global economic crisis.

Despite the crisis, several companies, some of which are still important today, were established in Württemberg after the war. The companies Bauknecht , Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH , Läpple , Mahle , Silit , Balluff , Chiron , Delmag, Dornier , Hugo Boss and Trumpf were founded in the years up to hyperinflation (1918–1923) . The construction company Züblin moved its headquarters to Stuttgart in 1919, and in 1921 the Schwäbische Hüttenwerke was renamed. The trading company Kriegbaum in Böblingen was also established directly after the First World War .

Economic recovery

Although there were numerous bankruptcies, an upward trend in the economy began in the mid-1920s, making Württemberg a leading country in the manufacturing industry. This made it possible in Württemberg to bring the state budget back into order. In the 19th century, Württemberg was in a worse economic position than the neighboring state of Baden because of its more unfavorable topographical and climatic conditions , but this turned into the opposite after the First World War . The topographical disadvantages of Württemberg had already been overcome in the kingdom with the construction of the railway. The number of people employed in agriculture steadily decreased and in industry it increased, so that the harsher climate in Württemberg became less and less important. Baden, on the other hand, suddenly became a German border region with the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to France in 1918. It suffered badly from the constant threats from Paris that outstanding reparations payments from the Reich could be answered with military occupation of Baden territory. This finally happened in February 1923 in Offenburg and Appenweier when French troops marched in and led to the blockade of the Rhine Valley Railway, with considerable negative consequences for the economy. This did not encourage investors to maintain or expand industrial sites in Baden.

The construction of the French Maginot Line from 1929 to 1932 and later the German West Wall had an equally unfavorable effect on Baden's industry . To be on the safe side, some entrepreneurs - in order to get out of the field of fire of enemy artillery - relocated production entirely or partially from the Upper Rhine axis to the central Neckar area. The publicist Karl Moersch understands the merger of Benz & Cie. in Mannheim with the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in Stuttgart to Daimler-Benz AG in 1926, also in this sense, which led to a reduction in jobs at the Gaggenau and Mannheim locations, while the Stuttgart-Untertürkheim and Sindelfingen locations were greatly expanded, which was shown in the number of employees. Important company foundations in Württemberg at the time of the Golden Twenties (1924–1929) were, for example, the Hirschmann GmbH , Metabo , Festo , Marquardt , Gutbrod , Stihl Maschinenfabrik , Maico , and Eberhard Bauer companies Werke , the company Kress Elektrowerkzeuge and the company Wohlhaupter .

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin back in Germany; During the circumnavigation of the world from August 1 to September 4, 1929, LZ 127 covered a total of 49,618 km within 35 days.

The moderate economic growth in Württemberg in the mid-twenties was based on automotive engineering, mechanical engineering, precision mechanics and electrical engineering. The driving forces behind these industries were Daimler and Bosch . In addition, the traditional textile and clothing industry, breweries, sparkling wine factories, the furniture industry, housing and publishing played an important role. From 1923 to 1935 the Neckar from Mannheim to Heilbronn was expanded as a major shipping route. In 1925, Böblingen Airport went into operation, which can be considered the predecessor of Stuttgart Airport , which only started in 1936 .

Initially, however, the pride of the skies was not so much aircraft, but mainly the zeppelins built in Friedrichshafen . In October 1924, Captain Hugo Eckener crossed the Atlantic for the first time in an airship . The Zeppelin LZ 126 had to be brought from Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst in the USA as a reparation payment . This successful ocean flight with an airship gave the impetus for the ocean flights, which took place in airplanes from 1927, and which began with the American Charles Lindbergh . From July 1928 the new airship LZ 127 sailed under the German flag, in October 1928 to America and back again, later more often to Latin America and all parts of the world; always with a large presence in the print media and the newsreel . The tragic accident of the Zeppelin Hindenburg in 1937 practically marked the end of the great myth of German airship travel.

The fact that the corresponding patents from the time of the Kingdom of Württemberg were available for a large number of products had a positive effect on the economy . The proverbial Swabian inventor spirit came into play here. Württemberg became a country of immigration for workers. The climate between employees and employers was generally friendlier in Württemberg than elsewhere in Germany, as a lack of qualified workers forced entrepreneurs to keep their employees as long as possible in bad times so that they were available seamlessly in times of economic recovery. However, in times of crisis, this behavior forced short-time working, sometimes drastically, with corresponding wage cuts.

The following table shows the distribution of the Württemberg workforce across the various economic sectors :

year	Agriculture and forestry	Industry and construction	Commerce, transport and hospitality	Others (public service, liberal professions, etc.)
1925	33.0%	40.0%	11.6%	15.4%
1933	27.7%	40.3%	12.8%	19.2%

Those who could afford it took part in the ongoing modernization of everyday life. This included, for example, status symbols such as the constantly growing number of automobiles. The telephone found its way into households as well as electricity . The rail network was expanded during the years of the Weimar Republic to include additional branch lines.

Agriculture had its traditional focus on arable and vegetable cultivation, cattle breeding, as well as viticulture and fruit growing. The mechanization and motorization of agriculture got under way. There were eight chambers of commerce and industry and four chambers of crafts in Württemberg. The Reichsbank had a main office in Stuttgart and Ulm. Important banks were the Württembergische Hypotheken-, Noten- und Vereinsbank and the Württembergische Landessparkasse. Important insurance companies were the Allgemeine Rentenanstalt Actien-Gesellschaft and the Württembergische Privat-Feuer-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft .

The Great Depression

There was no growth comparable to the West German economic miracle of the 1950s in the Weimar Republic. The times of crisis were too long and the recovery period from 1924 to 1929 too short. The world economic crisis led from 1930 to 1934 to another dramatic economic downturn. In particular in the core regions of the Württemberg industry around Stuttgart , Heilbronn , Esslingen , Reutlingen and Schwäbisch Gmünd, the unemployment figures swelled.

The following table shows the annual average number of unemployed in Württemberg based on the years 1929 to 1933:

year	1929	1930	1931	1932	1933
Unemployed	38.015	62,108	99.286	119.412	97.764

In the rural regions of Hohenlohe and Upper Swabia , unemployment was less of a problem, but agriculture also fell into crisis because prices fell due to a lack of purchasing power. The trades suffered from a dramatic decline in orders and poor payment behavior on the part of the remaining customers. Because of the special mix of the various branches of industry and the closer interdependence of the population with the world of farmers, the labor market crisis in Württemberg was less than the national average, but the economic failure of the Weimar Republic was ultimately criticized in this country, too, for politicians with a sense of parliament Election results showed.

Even in these crisis years (1930–1933) companies were founded, for example the Porsche company in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen , the Lidl & Schwarz KG trading company in Heilbronn and the L. Hermann clothing factory in Künzelsau . The example of the Württemberg motorcycle factory in Rottenburg shows that the companies often did not have long success .

The upswing after 1934

The economy recovered quickly during the Nazi dictatorship. The industry in Württemberg in particular benefited from the armaments contracts that were soon to come. In 1934 the construction of the highways began . On March 21, 1934, the groundbreaking ceremony for the motorway between Plieningen and Bernhausen took place . By the end of the Second World War , the Karlsruhe-Stuttgart-Ulm and Stuttgart-Heilbronn routes were opened. In addition, the expansion of the Neckar to a large shipping route from Mannheim to Heilbronn was completed in 1935 and further expansion to Plochingen began. Due to the course of the war, the production volume of the Württemberg industry in the winter of 1944/45 fell to half of the previous year's level and came to a complete standstill with the invasion of the Allies in 1945.

Population development

Both the 71,641 fallen Württemberg soldiers in the First World War and the victims of the Spanish flu from 1918 to 1920 as well as the general economic emergency in the early years of the national state, caused by inflation and the global economic crisis from 1929, played a role in the population development of Württemberg Role. If during the period of inflation there was still emigration (1923: 12,706 people) mainly to the USA , this was no longer possible after 1929 because the USA was also affected by the global economic crisis and restricted further immigration.

The following table lists the results of the censuses from the years 1919, 1925 and 1933 for Württemberg:

date	population total	Male population	Female population
October 8, 1919	2,520,000	1,190,000	1,320,000
June 25, 1925	2,580,000	1,240,000	1,340,000
June 16, 1933	2,700,000	1,310,000	1,390,000

In May 1939 Württemberg had 2,907,166 inhabitants, of whom 1.84 million were Protestant Christians and 0.94 million Catholics.

Culture

Many elements of the culture of the Kingdom of Württemberg continued to have an effect in the people's state, in particular with regard to the Swabian and Franconian national character and dialect, religiosity as well as customs and club life. However, cultural life in the Weimar Republic was heavily influenced by the consequences of the First World War . The streets of the post-war years were shaped by the image of numerous war veterans. A whole generation of young men had been brutalized by the war years and, in some cases, socially completely uprooted. They tended to join politically extreme views and groups. In large parts of society, there was a lack of awareness that the outbreak of the First World War was largely due to the leadership of the German Empire and the spirit of the leading class at the time. Their misguided policy and strategy in conducting the war were the main reason for the defeat. After the end of World War II , things were very different. The question of guilt and all of its consequences were obvious to everyone in the end. The origins and belief in the stab in the back are related to the state of consciousness after 1918 . In addition, the lack of foresight of the victorious powers ensured that the weight of the Germans who advocated peaceful politics and democracy was permanently weakened by the “ Dictate of Versailles ”. In Württemberg there were only a few who mourned the emperor who had fled to the Netherlands. But the fact that the Kingdom of Württemberg and especially its last very popular monarch belonged to the past, nourished the longing for the good old days, which were believed lost. This had to give way to the black market, surreptitious trade, food shortages, inflation and the "decay of morals" in the post-war years. It was the time of Oswald Spengler's great book success, Der Untergang des Abendlandes . When the former King Wilhelm II died in Bebenhausen in October 1921 , more than 100,000 people lined the path of the funeral procession to the burial in Ludwigsburg. A year later, the royal art collections were auctioned and many of them migrated to the USA, which is strong in foreign currencies . During the years of the Weimar Republic, a deep gulf opened up between the cultural avant-garde in the big cities, especially in Stuttgart in Württemberg, and the traditional way of thinking in the small towns and villages in the rural areas. For large parts of the population, religion and especially membership of one of the denominations still played a major role.

religion

Evangelical regional church

The collegiate church in Stuttgart has been the main church of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg for centuries

Under the impression of the lost war, many Protestants from Württemberg gathered in the Evangelical People's League in search of a new orientation since Pentecost 1919 . Its aim was to bring Christian values ​​back into the general consciousness and to counteract the widespread turning away from the Christian faith. The question was, how could God be spoken of in the face of the battles of World War I? In 1922 there were already 225,000 members and 738 local associations in Württemberg. The Evangelical Volksbund was a very strong lay organization in addition to the official church.

In Article 137, the Weimar Constitution provided for a separation of church and state. The church law passed on March 3, 1924 during the Hieber government carried out this separation. The close ties between the state and the Evangelical Church , which had existed in Württemberg since the Reformation , were thus broken as a prerequisite for their self-constitution and self-administration, and after the decision of the regional church assembly, the former king was replaced as regional bishop by a church president, who from 1933 on Title regional bishop led. The Protestant Church had become a corporation under public law. The two Protestant church presidents during the time of the People's State of Württemberg were Johannes von Merz and Theophil Wurm . As early as 1922, the Evangelical Church in Württemberg became a member of the German Evangelical Church Federation . In the post-war years, the old Pietist communities within the regional church gained popularity.

The Protestants lacked a comparable political home as the Catholics lacked the center. The Weimar Republic was often rejected by Protestantism as a "state without God" and therefore the citizens' party or the farmers' and vineyards' association in Württemberg was given its vote. The later church president Theophil Wurm was a member of the citizens' party in the state constituent assembly. With his social, national, conservative and popular church attitudes, Wurm was representative of many Protestant pastors and parishioners. The Christian Social People's Service , which appeared as a Protestant party, was rejected by Wurm on a political level and was therefore unable to establish itself as the entire Protestant party. A very large part of the Protestant pastors were anti-Semites. A notable exception was the Protestant pastor of Stuttgart-Heslach, Eduard Lamparter (1860–1945), who publicly took a position against anti-Semitism in word and in writing and was strongly opposed to it from Protestant circles. From the beginning of the thirties, many Protestant pastors openly turned to National Socialism. Wurm initially welcomed Hitler's rise to power in 1933.

In the Third Reich, the Evangelical Church in Württemberg under Bishop Theophil Wurm remained largely independent (see intact churches ) and evaded the influence of the Reich Church under Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller, which was dominated by the German Christians .

Roman Catholic Church

Memorial plaque to Bishop Sproll in Rottenburg

While the downfall of the monarchy had a direct influence on the previous self-image and the organization of their church for the Christians in the Evangelical Church, the Catholics belonging to the Rottenburg diocese experienced the new era more as a liberation from disabilities that still existed from royal times. Catholic male orders had been allowed in Württemberg since 1918, which meant that some monasteries could be built or rebuilt in the following years, for example the Benedictine abbeys of Neresheim (1919) and Weingarten (1922). From August 22 to 26, 1925, the 64th German Catholic Day took place in Stuttgart, on which the Apostolic Nuncio for Germany, Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII. , participated. In 1920 and 1931 there was a so-called Little Catholic Day in Stuttgart. The year 1928 was a diocesan jubilee, as the Rottenburg diocese could celebrate its centenary. The Rottenburg bishop Joannes Baptista Sproll was a committed opponent of the regime during the Nazi era. In 1938 he demonstratively stayed away from the referendum on the Anschluss of Austria , because although he was in favor of the Anschluss, with his yes vote he did not necessarily want to give up his support for the NS unified list of the composition of the Greater German Reichstag.

Judaism

Significant Jewish communities were located in Stuttgart (around 4600 Jews), Heilbronn (around 900 Jews), Ulm (around 570 Jews) and traditionally in Laupheim (around 250 Jews in the 1920s). A total of around 10,000 Jews lived in Württemberg, distributed among rabbinates and religious communities, the vast majority of whom were Germans who had German citizenship. In 1932 there were a total of 23 state-recognized Jewish communities in Württemberg.

Otto Hirsch , President of the Upper Council of the Israelite Religious Community in Württemberg

In 1924 the Württemberg Jews gave the Württemberg Israelite Religious Community a new constitution. Its legislative body was the Israelite National Assembly . This elected the so-called Oberrat as the executive body . The presidents of the Israelite Upper Council were Carl Nördlinger (1924 to 1929) and Otto Hirsch (since 1929). The philosopher Martin Buber participated in the founding of the Jewish Lehrhaus in Stuttgart in 1926, which followed the example of the Frankfurt Free Jewish Lehrhaus . The Stuttgart Lehrhaus gave impetus to a Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Most of the Jewish families in the cities belonged to the upper middle class and were religiously liberal. In the rural Jewish communities, whose members were mostly poorer and older than those in the cities because of the prevailing rural exodus, the Jewish religion was practiced much more traditionally. The Zionism played no major role in Württemberg. The anti-Semitism that has always existed, was hardly perceived as a threat in the early years of the Republic by the Jews. This only changed with the Great Depression, when the presence of the NSDAP quickly grew stronger.

In the period of National Socialism from 1933 onwards the exclusion, disenfranchisement, persecution, expulsion and murder of Jews began. As in the rest of the Reich , the National Socialists boycotted Jewish shops on April 1, 1933, dismissed the Jewish officials and applied the Nuremberg race laws . During the pogrom night on November 9, 1938, acts of violence against the Jewish population were also committed in Württemberg. Sections of the Jewish population who could no longer endure this pressure and the increasing reprisals and other restrictions on their lives and could afford to leave emigrated by 1941 - when it was last possible. From autumn 1941, deportations to the eastern concentration and extermination camps began . In a total of twelve deportations up to 1945, a total of around 2,500 Jews were deported from Württemberg and almost without exception murdered.

Education

schools

Up until 1919, education was a purely state matter. The Weimar Constitution gave principles for a uniform school system in the German Reich. An important regulation of the empire from 1920 required the introduction of four years of compulsory primary schooling for all. This made adjustments necessary in Württemberg in the area of ​​the elementary schools, which previously comprised only three classes. The middle and middle schools intended for the girls had to give up the previous lower three classes and leave this training phase to the elementary schools. A Reich School Authority, which existed as a culture department at the Reich Ministry of the Interior, monitored compliance with these principles. The Ministry of Culture in Stuttgart was responsible for designing the framework conditions in Württemberg .

Otherwise, not much changed in Württemberg with the transition from monarchy to republic. Although some circles initially vigorously polemicized against religious instruction, the Evangelical Volksbund organized a signature campaign in which the parents voted in favor of maintaining religious instruction in schools. The center made its approval of the Versailles Treaty dependent on the fact that the elementary schools could remain denominationally oriented, whereby the schools in Württemberg have always been state, i.e. not ecclesiastical, institutions. In 1920 the respective local priest was replaced as chairman of the school council by the first local teacher. The district school boards were predominantly theologians well into the 1920s.

After the November Revolution, the adjustment of the 1912 curriculum was considered unnecessary in Württemberg. This curriculum was the same for the two major denominations aside from religious instruction. Mainly theologians continued to work at the teachers' seminars. They did not impart knowledge of the psychology of the child and the adolescent. As a means of education , as was common in schools in Europe at the time, corporal punishment continued to be used on a regular basis, with the teachers happy to use a cane . In Wuerttemberg, in contrast to other German states, there was only seven years of compulsory schooling, which was very convenient for many families working in agriculture, as the children could be used as additional workers as soon as possible. In the years of the Weimar Republic it was not possible to bring about at least eight years of compulsory schooling in Württemberg. It remained a reform project that had been unsuccessfully requested by the opposition parties SPD and DDP since 1924, although in 1920 all parties had agreed to introduce compulsory education for eight years by 1928. It was only during the Nazi era that the compulsory schooling law of July 6, 1938, also raised compulsory schooling in Württemberg from seven to eight years for the school year 1939/40.

As far as the teachers' political attitudes are concerned, it can be stated that a number of colleges, especially among primary school teachers, were close to the left-wing parties (especially the SPD, which was loyal to the republic, but some also to the more radical USPD or the KPD hostile to democracy). Since the elementary school teachers were not senior civil servants, they suffered from poor pay and low social prestige. In the higher schools, on the other hand, the attitudes of the teachers were mostly German-national, with some also ethnic, and therefore directed against democracy. The same was true of the professors and students of those years. A predominantly conservative attitude was very common in these circles, which often included anti-Semitism and rejection of the Weimar Republic. A prominent example in this context was the National Socialist Oswald Kroh , who was professor of educational science in Tübingen from 1923 to 1938. His phase theory of youth development had a significant influence on teacher training from the second half of the twenties.

It was not until 1928 that a new curriculum for schools was introduced in Württemberg. In the higher schools in particular, emphasis was placed on educating the pupils to become “capable German men and women”. This included the harmonious training of all mental, spiritual and physical forces, the “steeling of conscientious work on a moral and religious basis”, the imparting of “solid and solid knowledge”, instruction in scientific thinking and the cultivation of “love for the German Fatherland and closer homeland ”. In general, the "care of Germanness" was very popular.

The following table gives an overview of the number of schools, teachers and students in 1922 in Württemberg

type of school	number of schools	Number of teachers	Share of all teachers	number of students	Share of all students
Elementary school	2,320 schools	6,315 teachers and 1,321 female teachers	72.5% 15.2%	361,754 elementary school students	94.5%
secondary school	21 Realschulen and 16 Oberrealschulen	582 teachers	6.7%	12,997 secondary school students	3.4%
Realgymnasium	13 Real and 6 Realprogymnasien	211 teachers	2.4%	3,714 students	1.0%
high school	13 grammar schools and 5 pro grammar schools	276 teachers	3.2%	4,163 high school students	1.1%

In the school year 1931/32 there were still 1405 elementary schools with Protestant, 892 with Catholic and two with Jewish denominations. Only four elementary schools were denominationally mixed in Württemberg and were thus designated as simultaneous schools.

Additional school types were the 94 elementary schools, six community schools, one girls' upper secondary school, 16 girls' secondary schools and two private secondary girls' schools. In addition, there were four Latin schools, four seminars for Protestant and two convicts for Catholic theologians, two teachers 'and two teachers' seminars. There were four agriculture, one horticulture, one viticulture and 22 agricultural winter schools for training in agriculture.

Colleges

In Stuttgart there was the Technical University since 1890 , the Music Academy since 1857 (in the Golden Twenties under the direction of Wilhelm Kempff ) and also the School of Applied Arts . The Agricultural University has existed in Hohenheim since 1904 . Since 1918 there was an Academy of Sciences in Stuttgart.

The only university in the country, the Eberhard Karls University , was in Tübingen. The faculty there comprised 126 people. In 1922 a total of 3,180 students were registered, including 242 women. In the following some teaching and research areas in Tübingen in the twenties will be named as examples. Under the direction of Friedrich Paschen, for example, Tübingen had become a center for spectroscopy since 1901 , with which the experimental basis for the formulation of quantum mechanics was researched. Professor Robert Eugen Gaupp and his students Ernst Kretschmer and Alfred Storch worked in the field of psychiatry . Robert Rudolf Schmidt and his student Hans Reinerth worked at the Tübingen prehistoric research institute . Two dominant personalities at the Protestant theological faculty were professors Adolf Schlatter and Karl Heim . Due to its attraction, Tübingen had become the best-attended theological faculty in Germany during the Weimar Republic. There were 459 students at the faculty in 1924; by 1933 the number rose to 952. The University of Tübingen was generously expanded in the 1920s and new clinics were built. In 1927 the university celebrated its 450th anniversary.

The state capital Stuttgart as the center of state culture

The Old Castle in Stuttgart burned down over Christmas 1931

Despite the pull of the imperial capital Berlin as a pulsating metropolis of Europe and regardless of the tendencies towards centralization in politics, the Württemberg capital Stuttgart was able to assert itself as another very important cultural center in the German Reich, alongside other cities such as Hamburg , Munich and Leipzig . In the Württemberg state capital there was a rich development in the field of architecture and fine arts as well as in theater life during the 1920s. Expressionism has played an important role since 1900 , and from 1923 onwards it gave way to the New Objectivity . Famous contemporaries came to Stuttgart for public lectures: in 1919 the Austrian anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner fascinated the audience with three lectures in the Liederhalle, in 1920 the former Württembergian Albert Einstein came and presented the theory of relativity in the Liederhalle . In 1923 Gustav Stresemann was a guest in Stuttgart and commented on the effects of hyperinflation. On May 21, 1925, in the presence of Reich Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, President Wilhelm Bazille and Lord Mayor Karl Lautenschlager, the renovation of the old orphanage on Charlottenplatz, which became the headquarters of the German Foreign Institute (DAI) , was opened. In 1928, public lectures by Professors Wassily Kandinsky and Ferdinand Sauerbruch could be heard in Stuttgart . In 1929 Albert Schweitzer gave a speech in the Gustav-Siegle-Haus. From May 21 to 23, 1929, the city could not prevent the so-called vagabond congress with around 500 participants on the Stuttgart Killesberg. In 1930 Mahatma Gandhi visited Stuttgart. From 1928 to 1943, Stuttgart had a large planetarium in the Hindenburg building with around 100,000 visitors annually.

The Old Castle in Stuttgart burned down from December 21st to 27th, 1931 and thus the symbol of half a millennium of Württemberg history. The event engraved itself deeply in the collective memory of the people of Württemberg who lived at the time and worked like a bad omen during the world economic crisis. During the National Socialist era, Lord Mayor Strölin obtained the name of the city of Stuttgart with the NS honorary title "City of Germans Abroad " in 1936 . In the summer of 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the Reichsgartenschau was in Stuttgart, from which the Killesberg Park emerged .

Fine arts and architecture

Aerial view of the Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart

In the visual arts, a group of modern artists has formed around Adolf Hölzel at the Stuttgart Academy since 1918 . In addition to Ida Kerkovius, this included members of the Üecht group, including Oskar Schlemmer and Willi Baumeister , two important representatives of abstract painting. In 1922 Schlemmer's Triadic Ballet was premiered in Stuttgart . In 1923 the Stuttgart Secession was formed as a split from the Künstlerbund Stuttgart. The Stuttgart New Secession split off from this in 1929 with Wilhelm Geyer and Manfred Henninger . In terms of architecture, the representatives of the Stuttgart School , which included Paul Bonatz and Paul Schmitthenner , faced implacable opposition to the architects of the Stuttgart Weißenhofsiedlung under the direction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe .

Music, drama and literary creation

From 1918 to 1922 Fritz Busch worked at the Württemberg State Theater as General Music Director of the Württemberg State Orchestra . His successor was Carl Leonhardt . Between 1920 and 1933 alone there were 50 world premieres at the State Theater under the direction of Albert Kehm . When Kehm had to do with the Catholic-German national government of Bazilles from 1924, he avoided plays with religious-ecclesiastical references after an initial dispute and limited himself to dramas with socially critical and political topics. During the Great Depression, there were significant savings in the theater, and a closure of the opera was considered but not carried out. The Stuttgart Philharmonic was founded for the first time in 1924 . In 1933 the orchestra was split. The Jewish and most of the foreign musicians were fired. Some musicians joined the orchestra of the Reichsender Stuttgart . The remaining musicians now formed the so-called Landesorchester Gau Württemberg-Hohenzollern .

Independent theater, for example, was made by the doctor and writer Friedrich Wolf, who lived in Stuttgart from 1927 to 1933 . In 1929 his play Cyankali - § 218 came on stage. Wolf wrote for agitprop theater groups and was committed to the KPD .

Willi Baumeister , exhibition poster, Üecht Group, Stuttgart 1919

In 1932 the two Swabian originals Oscar Heiler and Willy Reichert began to become known with their stage appearances as Häberle and Pfleiderer , with the Häberle being embodied by Heiler and the Pfleiderer by Reichert. After Willy Reichert took over the artistic direction of the Friedrichsbau-Theater in 1933 , he appeared there with Oscar Heiler countless times.

Isolde Kurz and Anna Schieber were important writers with roots in Württemberg . The Swabian dialect poet Otto Keller was a bestselling author in Württemberg in the twenties and thirties. At that time, writers such as August Lämmle and Sebastian Blau also became known for Swabian dialect poetry . The from Leutkirch originating Dr. Owlglass took up residence in Munich from 1908 , but remained spiritually connected to his homeland, Württemberg. The acting critic Manfred Kyber , who came from the Baltic States , initially lived in Stuttgart before he retired to Löwenstein in the Württemberg province . A very successful children's author was from Ludwigsburg Dating Tony Schumacher . The author, now largely forgotten, was seen as the German equivalent of the Swiss Johanna Spyri .

One of the most famous contemporary writers from Württemberg, Hermann Hesse , had lived in Switzerland since 1899, but never completely turned his back on his old homeland. In 1921 and 1924, for example, he came to Stuttgart and read in the Liederhalle. Other famous authors also liked to come to readings in the Swabian metropolis, such as the Austrian Franz Werfel in 1921 , Thomas Mann and Gerhart Hauptmann in 1924 , Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal in 1925 .

Since television did not yet exist in the twenties and thirties, visits to movie theaters played a major role.

Monument to Oscar Heiler and Willy Reichert (right) as Häberle and Pfleiderer at the Friedrichsbau-Theater in Stuttgart

The radio in Württemberg

On May 8, 1924, the Süddeutsche Rundfunk AG (SÜRAG) was put into operation in Stuttgart. The transmission area extended over Württemberg and Baden . In the beginning, however, the number of listeners was very small and limited to those with an interest in this type of technical innovation. Radio listeners' associations were formed, and publicly accessible listening rooms were set up for people without their own radio at home, some of which were linked to local restaurants. On May 15, 1925, the privately organized broadcaster in Stuttgart merged with nine other regional broadcasting companies to form the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft in Berlin in order to be prepared for the pursuit of common interests throughout the Reich. In 1927, the Süddeutsche Rundfunk had a little over 46,000 properly registered listeners who were allowed to watch the program for a fee of two Reichsmarks per month.

The inauguration of the Mühlacker transmitter on November 21, 1930 , the first major German broadcaster, made a major contribution to improving reception . In 1932 there were already almost 128,000 SÜRAG listeners. Mainly music programs, radio plays and readings were broadcast. Political issues were also dealt with, albeit rarely. This did not change until the Nazi era, when there was massive propaganda abuse of the broadcast medium. The station in Stuttgart had now become a Reichsender. In 1935 there were over 250,000 listeners in Württemberg.

Youth Movements and Sports

A clearly visible phenomenon of the post-war years were the countless youth movements , which mostly began at the turn of the century, such as the Friends of Nature , the Bundische Jugend , the sports youth and the church youth . It organized joint hiking trips and camps, supported depending on the orientation matching clothes or uniforms, singing old folk songs and alcohol , nicotine and ballroom dancing rejected. In pietistic Württemberg committed young Christians gathered for student Bible circles , but they lacked the emancipatory spirit of the rest of the youth movement. In December 1919, part of the youth organized in the regional association of biblical circles in Württemberg split up in order to found an association that was more in the spirit of the rest of the youth movement, which, under the leadership of Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, became known as the Köngener Bund , since the members joined in 1920 met several times in the Köngen Castle. In contrast to the leisure activities, the youth remained largely apolitical as they saw their own concerns hardly represented in the interest parties of the Weimar era, which had already been inherited from the imperial era. For the baby boomers after 1900, who were pushing onto the desolate labor market, the feeling arose that they were not needed in business and politics.

Sport was very popular in the Weimar Republic, both actively and passively, i.e. in the form of attending competitive sports events. In this context, mention should be made of the six-day races in the Stuttgart city hall, as well as boxing tournaments and in motorsport the solitude races .

Football was already very important in the 1920s. Until 1930, the Stuttgarter Kickers dominated football in Württemberg. After that, the long-term rivals VfB Stuttgart gradually overtook the Kickers. A Württemberg Gauliga had existed since 1934. In addition to the Stuttgarter Kickers and VfB Stuttgart, the following football clubs from the twenties and thirties were also important in Württemberg:

• the Union Böckingen
• of SV Göppingen
• of the SSV Ulm 1846
• the VfB Friedrichshafen
• the Sportvg Feuerbach
• the Stuttgarter SC
• the Sportfreunde Stuttgart
• the VfR Heilbronn
• the SpVgg Cannstatt
• of the FV Zuffenhausen
• the VfL Kirchheim / Teck
• of SSV Reutlingen 05

Up until 1945 a total of six international football matches for the German national football team took place on Württemberg soil . The venue was always Stuttgart. The first of these games was against Switzerland on March 26, 1911, during the time of the Kingdom, and ended with a German victory 6-2. On December 14, 1924, the German national soccer team again played against Switzerland on the Neckar. This time it was only enough to draw 1: 1. Another four victorious international matches for the Germans in Stuttgart took place during the Nazi era, on January 27, 1935 against Switzerland 4-0, on March 21, 1937 against France 4-0, on March 9, 1941 again against Switzerland 4 : 2 and on November 1, 1942 against Croatia 5: 1.

The TC Weissenhof was already an important tennis club in the 1920s.

Wrestling was done, for example, at ASV Bauknecht Schorndorf , KSV Aalen and AB Aichhalden . Gliding also became modern in Württemberg and first started in Münsingen .

In July 1933 the 15th German Gymnastics Festival took place on the Cannstatter Wasen . Like elsewhere, the Nazi regime in Württemberg attached great importance to large-scale propaganda events. The German Gymnastics Festival in Stuttgart in July 1933 was one such occasion, to which Hitler appeared in person alongside many Nazi celebrities. The gymnastics festival should have come to Stuttgart in 1918, but was canceled because of the First World War. The date of the gymnastics festival was shifted from the founding year to the year of the decline of the People's State of Württemberg. This turned it into a propaganda event of the Nazi regime, which instrumentalized sport for military training.

literature

• Waldemar Besson : Württemberg and the German state crisis 1928–1933. A study on the dissolution of the Weimar Republic. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1959, (at the same time: Tübingen, University, habilitation paper, 1958).
• Eberhard Gönner , Günther Haselier: Baden-Württemberg. History of its countries and territories. 2nd, supplemented edition. Ploetz, Freiburg u. a. 1980, ISBN 3-87640-052-X .
• Eberhard Kolb , Klaus Schönhoven : Regional and local council organizations in Württemberg 1918/19 (= sources on the history of the council movement in Germany 1918/19. Vol. 2). Droste, Düsseldorf 1976, ISBN 3-7700-5084-3 .
• Thomas Kurz : Hostile Brothers in the German Southwest. Social democrats and communists in Baden and Württemberg from 1928 to 1933 (= Berlin historical studies. Vol. 23). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-428-08524-8 (also: Freiburg (Breisgau), University, dissertation, 1994).
• Thomas Schnabel: History of Baden and Württemberg 1900–1952. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-17-015924-0 .
• Hansmartin Schwarzmaier : (Ed.) Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History. Volume 4: The states since 1918. Published on behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-608-91468-4 .
• Reinhold Weber : Citizens 'party and farmers' union in Württemberg. Conservative parties in the German Empire and in Weimar (1895–1933) (= contributions to the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Vol. 141). Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5259-5 (also: Tübingen, University, dissertation, 2003).
• Reinhold Weber: Brief history of the states of Baden and Württemberg 1918–1945 . DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-87181-714-4 .

Web links

• Data and facts on the People's State of Württemberg
• Laws, notices and constitutions for Württemberg
• On the history of Württemberg in the Weimar Republic 1918/19 - 1933, chronological overview
• Collection of sources "From the Monarchy to the Republic" 1918-1923 (sources from the Baden-Württemberg State Archives)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ see statistics of the German federal states from 1925
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History. Volume 5 . Stuttgart 2007, page 538
3. ↑ § 1 of the constitution of Württemberg of September 25, 1919 read literally: Württemberg is a free people's state and a member of the German Empire. Its authority was exercised in accordance with the provisions of this constitution and the laws of the German Reich. In the constitution of the German Reich of August 11, 1919, Article 2 stipulated: The Reich territory consists of the territories of the German states. Thus, at the end of 1920, the People's State of Württemberg was one of the 18 states of the Weimar Republic.
4. ↑ Anni Willmann: The learned king. Wilhelm II of Württemberg. A portrait in stories , DRW-Verlag Stuttgart, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 1993, page 136
5. ^ Eberhard Kolb , Klaus Schönhoven : Regional and local council organizations in Württemberg . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1976, page XLVII
6. ^ Eberhard Kolb, Klaus Schönhoven: Regional and local council organizations in Württemberg . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1976, page XLIX
7. ^ Eberhard Kolb, Klaus Schönhoven: Regional and local council organizations in Württemberg . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1976, page L.
8. ^ Eberhard Kolb, Klaus Schönhoven: Regional and local council organizations in Württemberg . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1976, page LII
9. ^ Eberhard Kolb, Klaus Schönhoven: Regional and local council organizations in Württemberg . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1976, page LV
10. ↑ Bernhard Mann: Little History of the Kingdom of Württemberg , Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2006, page 255. There you can read the original wording of the rally. It is on an illustration of the title page of an edition of the Heilbronner Neckar-Zeitung from November 9, 1918.
11. ^ Jürgen Mittag: Wilhelm Keil (1870–1968) . In: Political Heads from Southwest Germany , Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, page 219
12. ^ "Rote Fahne auf dem Wilhelmspalais", Stuttgarter Zeitung, September 18, 2018, p. 24
13. ^ Eberhard Kolb, Klaus Schönhoven: Regional and local council organizations in Württemberg . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1976, page LX
14. ^ Eberhard Kolb, Klaus Schönhoven: Regional and local council organizations in Württemberg . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1976, page LXIII
15. ↑ Ernst Müller: Small history of Württemberg . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1963, page 214
16. ^ Theodor Pfizer: In the shadow of the time 1904–1948 . Stuttgart 1979, p. 69
17. ^ Eberhard Kolb, Klaus Schönhoven: Regional and local council organizations in Württemberg . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1976, p. LXIII
18. ^ Otto Borst : History of Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, page 337
19. ↑ Paul Hahn memorial sheet as a pdf file ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
20. ↑ ^{a b} Otto Borst: History of Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, page 327
21. ^ Paul Sauer: Wilhelm Blos . In: Badische biographies consequence New Volume I . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1982
22. ^ Karl Moersch , Peter Hölzle: Counterpoint Baden-Württemberg . DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2002, pages 16 to 22
23. ^ Karl Moersch, Peter Hölzle: Counterpoint Baden-Württemberg . DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2002, page 30
24. ^ Paul Sauer: Wilhelm Blos . In: Badische biographies consequence New Volume I . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1982, page 67
25. ^ Eberhard Kolb, Klaus Schönhoven: Regional and local council organizations in Württemberg . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1976, page LXV
26. ^ Paul Sauer : The Württemberg Landtag. In: From the assembly of estates to the democratic parliament. The history of the parliament in Baden-Württemberg. State Center for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg, Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-8062-0298-2 , page 210
27. ↑ Annegret Kotzurek, Rainer Redies: Stuttgart from day to day 1900–1949. A chronicle . Silberburg-Verlag, Tübingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-87407-842-9 , p. 52 f.
28. ^ Hermann Freudenberger: Schwabenreport 1918-1933 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, page 22
29. ^ Otto Borst: History of Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, page 334
30. ^ Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 208 .
31. ^ Karl Moersch, Peter Hölzle: Counterpoint Baden-Württemberg . DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2002, page 35
32. ^ Wilhelm Blos, Paul Hahn: Memories from the upheaval . Stuttgart 1923, p. 4
33. ^ Otto Borst: History of Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, page 330
34. ^ Eduard Gerok: Johannes Hieber - Theologian, Minister of Culture and President of the State 1862–1951 . In: Life pictures from Swabia and Franconia XII . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1977, page 396
35. ^ Eduard Gerok: Johannes Hieber - Theologian, Minister of Culture and President of the State 1862–1951 . In: Life pictures from Swabia and Franconia XII . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1977, page 397.
36. ↑ Thomas Schnabel: History of Baden and Württemberg 1900–1952 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, page 117.
37. ↑ Uwe Lohalm : Völkischer Radikalismus. The history of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutz-Bund. 1919-1923 . Leibniz-Verlag, Hamburg 1970, ISBN 3-87473-000-X . P. 247.
38. ^ Otto Borst: History of Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, page 335.
39. ^ Paul Sauer: The Württemberg Landtag. In: From the assembly of estates to the democratic parliament. The history of the parliament in Baden-Württemberg. State Center for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg, Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-8062-0298-2 , page 211
40. ↑ Andreas foods, Werner Relleck, Reinhold Weber parties in the German states: Past and Present . F, CH Beck 2010, p 109, online at Google Books
41. ^ Peter Steinbach , Dieter Langewiesche : The German Southwest: Regional Traditions and Historical Identities (1800-2000). Hans-Georg Wehling on his 70th birthday , Kohlhammer 2007, p. 71, online in Google books
42. ↑ Detlev Peukert : The Weimar Republic , edition suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / Main 1987, p. 212 ff.
43. ^ Hans Peter Müller: Wilhelm Bazille. German national politician, President of Württemberg (1874–1934) . In: Life pictures from Baden-Württemberg . Volume 21. Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, page 498
44. ^ Hans Peter Müller: Wilhelm Bazille. German national politician, President of Württemberg (1874–1934) . In: Life pictures from Baden-Württemberg . Volume 21. Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, page 500
45. ↑ ^{a b c} The official spelling for the term “ Minister of Culture ” used today in Württemberg was formerly the Minister of Culture and the Ministry of Culture
46. ↑ Thomas Kurz: Enemy Brothers in the German Southwest. Social Democrats and Communists in Baden and Württemberg from 1928 to 1933 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, page 65
47. ↑ Thomas Kurz: Enemy Brothers in the German Southwest. Social Democrats and Communists in Baden and Württemberg from 1928 to 1933 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, page 89
48. ↑ ^{a b c d} Reinhold Weber: Brief history of the states of Baden and Württemberg 1918-1945 . DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2008, pages 50 and 51
49. ↑ Thomas Kurz: Enemy Brothers in the German Southwest. Social Democrats and Communists in Baden and Württemberg from 1928 to 1933 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, page 90
50. ^ Waldemar Besson : Württemberg and the German state crisis 1928-1933 . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1959, page 76
51. ^ Karl Moersch, Peter Hölzle: Counterpoint Baden-Württemberg . DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2002, page 36
52. ↑ Kurt Schumacher considered the KPD to be an undemocratic party controlled from Moscow, which not only contributed to the weakening of social democracy through its mere existence and since 1928 through the social fascism thesis, but also strengthened the political right with its actions
53. ^ Otto Borst: History of Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, page 338
54. ^ Boxheimer documents
55. ↑ Thomas Kurz: Enemy Brothers in the German Southwest. Social Democrats and Communists in Baden and Württemberg from 1928 to 1933 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, page 312
56. ↑ Thomas Kurz: Enemy Brothers in the German Southwest. Social Democrats and Communists in Baden and Württemberg from 1928 to 1933 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, page 313
57. ↑ The term Pol -leiter or Polleiter means in this context political leader of a KPD district. The term political leader was also used by the NSDAP . In democratic parties, this corresponds to the function of a chairman of a party subdivision (state chairman, district chairman ...)
58. ↑ Thomas Kurz: Enemy Brothers in the German Southwest. Social Democrats and Communists in Baden and Württemberg from 1928 to 1933 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, page 315
59. ↑ ^{a b c d} Hubert R. Knickerbocker: Germany one way or another? Berlin 1932, page 189
60. ^ Frank Raberg : Eugen Bolz (1881–1945) . In: Political Minds from Southwest Germany . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, page 162
61. ^ Frank Raberg : Eugen Bolz (1881–1945) . In: Political Minds from Southwest Germany . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, page 161
62. ^ Gerhard Konzelmann : Villa Reitzenstein. History of the seat of government of Baden-Württemberg . Hohenheim Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, page 62
63. ^ Paul Sauer: Wilhelm Murr. Hitler's governor in Württemberg . Silberburg-Verlag, Tübingen 1998, page 36
64. ↑ Link to the so-called Reich Governor Law
65. ^ Eberhard Gönner, Günther Haselier: Baden-Württemberg. History of its countries and territories . 2nd Edition. Verlag Ploetz, Freiburg 1980, ISBN 3-87640-052-X , page 105
66. ↑ Eberhard Gönner, Günther Haselier: Baden-Württemberg, history of its countries and territories . Verlag Ploetz, Freiburg 1980, page 106
67. ^ Eduard Gerok: Johannes Hieber - Theologian, Minister of Culture and President of the State 1862–1951 . In: Life pictures from Swabia and Franconia XII . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1977, page 393
68. ^ Paul Sauer: Württemberg 1918-1933 . In: Klaus Schwabe (Ed.): The governments of the German medium and small states. 1815–1933 (= German leadership classes in modern times. Volume 14 = Büdinger research on social history. Volume 18). Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1983, ISBN 3-7646-1830-2 , p. 165.
69. ↑ Brockhaus: Handbook of Knowledge in four volumes . Verlag FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1926, Volume IV, Page 669. The exact specification of the length of the line for Württemberg comes from 1922.
70. ^ Eberhard Gönner, Günther Haselier: Baden-Württemberg. History of its countries and territories . 2nd Edition. Verlag Ploetz, Freiburg 1980, ISBN 3-87640-052-X , page 101
71. ↑ Thomas Kurz: Enemy Brothers in the German Southwest. Social Democrats and Communists in Baden and Württemberg from 1928 to 1933 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, page 18
72. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Paul Sauer: Württemberg in the time of National Socialism . In: Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History . Stuttgart 2004, page 239
73. ^ Reinhold Weber and Hans-Georg Wehling (editors): Baden-Württemberg. Society, history, politics . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, page 69
74. ^ Reinhold Weber and Hans-Georg Wehling (editors): Baden-Württemberg. Society, history, politics . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, p. 63.
75. ^ Waldemar Besson: Württemberg and the German state crisis 1928-1933 . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1959, page 32
76. ↑ Reinhold Weber: Brief history of the states of Baden and Württemberg 1918–1945 . DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2008, page 85
77. ↑ Thomas Schnabel: History of Baden and Württemberg 1900–1952 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, page 122.
78. ↑ Source: http://www.gonschior.de/weimar/Wuerttemberg/Uebersicht_RTW.html
79. ^ Statistical handbook for Württemberg 1922 to 1926
80. ^ Heinrich August Winkler : The long way to the west, Vol. 1: German history from the end of the Old Empire to the fall of the Weimar Republic . Beck, Munich 2000. ISBN 3-406-46001-1 , p. 460. On the refusal of social democratic and liberal groups of voters to oppose Marx, see also Karl Holl: Confessionality, denominationalism and democratic republic - on some aspects of the 1925 presidential election . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , 17th Jg. (1969), pp. 260 and 274 following, ifz-muenchen.de (PDF)
81. ^ Statistical handbook for Württemberg 1927 to 1935
82. ^ ^{A b} Willi A. Boelcke : Social history of Baden-Württemberg 1800–1989 . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1989, page 323
83. ^ Willi A. Boelcke: Social history of Baden-Württemberg 1800-1989. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1989, pages 320, 321 and 322
84. ^ Wolfgang Borchert, Susanne Häsler, Stefan Kunalle and Johannes Schwenger: Agriculture in Baden and Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1985, page 108
85. ↑ Thomas Schnabel: History of Baden and Württemberg 1900–1952 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, page 125
86. ↑ Thomas Schnabel: History of Baden and Württemberg 1900–1952 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, page 115.
87. ^ Karl Moersch, Peter Hölzle: Counterpoint Baden-Württemberg . DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2002, page 41.
88. ^ Karl Moersch, Peter Hölzle: Counterpoint Baden-Württemberg . DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2002, page 41.
89. ↑ ^{a b} Thomas Schnabel: History of Baden and Württemberg 1900–1952 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, page 106
90. ^ Paul Sauer: Wilhelm Murr. Hitler's governor in Württemberg . Silberburg-Verlag, Tübingen 1998, page 59
91. ^ Eberhard Gönner, Günther Haselier: Baden-Württemberg. History of its countries and territories . 2nd Edition. Verlag Ploetz, Freiburg 1980, ISBN 3-87640-052-X , page 106
92. ^ Alfred Dehlinger : Württemberg's state. Volume 1. Kohlhammer Stuttgart 1951, page 168
93. ↑ Eberhard Gönner, Günther Haselier: Baden-Württemberg, history of its countries and territories . Verlag Ploetz, Freiburg 1980, page 102
94. ↑ Thomas Schnabel: History of Baden and Württemberg 1900–1952 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, page 99
95. ↑ Hans Riehl: When the German princes fell . Franz Schneekluth Verlag, Munich 1979, page 175.
96. ^ Otto Borst: History of Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, page 334.
97. ↑ God and the world in Württemberg. A church history . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, page 171
98. ↑ God and the world in Württemberg. A church history . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, page 174
99. ↑ Württemberg's Protestantism in the Weimar Republic . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, page 164
100. ↑ Württemberg's Protestantism in the Weimar Republic . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, page 195
101. ↑ Württemberg's Protestantism in the Weimar Republic . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, page 197
102. ↑ ^{a b c d} Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History . Edited by Commiss. f. Historical regional studies in Baden-Württemberg, Volume 4: The states since 1918 . Klett-Cotta publishing house, Stuttgart 2003, 148
103. ↑ God and the world in Württemberg. A church history . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, page 184
104. ↑ Reinhold Weber: Brief history of the states of Baden and Württemberg 1918–1945 . DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2008, page 48
105. ↑ God and the world in Württemberg. A church history . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, page 202
106. ↑ Württemberg's Protestantism in the Weimar Republic . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, page 63
107. ↑ Württemberg's Protestantism in the Weimar Republic . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, pages 69 and 70
108. ↑ Württemberg's Protestantism in the Weimar Republic . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, page 74
109. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Brockhaus: Handbook of knowledge in four volumes . Verlag FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1926, Volume IV, page 109 and page 669
110. ↑ Württemberg's Protestantism in the Weimar Republic . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, page 175
111. ↑ Capital: Centers, Residences, Metropolises in German History . DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1989, map of the cultural centers of the Weimar Republic on page 488
112. ^ Hermann Freudenberger: Schwabenreport 1928–1933 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, page 25
113. ^ Hermann Freudenberger: Schwabenreport 1928–1933 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, page 88
114. ^ Hermann Freudenberger: Schwabenreport 1928–1933 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, page 167
115. ^ Otto Borst: History of Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, page 341
116. ^ Hermann Freudenberger: Schwabenreport 1928–1933 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, page 150
117. ↑ see also under Stuttgart Philharmonic / The Orchestra / History
118. ^ Hermann Freudenberger: Schwabenreport 1928–1933 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, page 56
119. ^ Hermann Freudenberger: Schwabenreport 1928–1933 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, page 102
120. ^ Hermann Freudenberger: Schwabenreport 1928–1933 . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, page 117
121. ^ ^{A b c} Thomas Schnabel: History of Baden and Württemberg 1900–1952 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, page 122
122. ↑ God and the world in Württemberg. A church history . Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, page 181

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on January 30, 2008 in this version .