Imperial Government (Weimar Republic)

The first Reich government ( Scheidemann cabinet ) under the Act on Provisional Reich Power on February 13, 1919

The imperial government was during the period of the German Reich , as the Weimar Republic is called, in accordance with Article 52 of the Constitution of the German Reich August 11, 1919 ( " Weimar Constitution " WRV) from the chancellor and the Reich ministers . With this, the Weimar Constitution finally introduced the principle of collegiality in the German Reich government, as had previously been the law on provisional Reich authority of February 10, 1919.

At the time of the Weimar Republic , up to 15 parties were represented in the Reichstag . A governing coalition usually consisted of three or more parties. The great differences of opinion between these parties and the politically troubled times made government formation and work difficult. A Reich government therefore usually only officiated for a few months or at most a little more than a year.

Compared to the federal governments since 1949, most of the Weimar cabinets were rather small with only nine to 14 members. Reich ministries for colonies (1918/1919), for economic demobilization (1918/1919), for reconstruction (1919–1924) and for the occupied territories in the Rhineland (1923–1930) existed as temporary departments .

Prehistory and formation of the republic

The social democrat Gustav Bauer stands for personal continuity from the end of the empire through the November revolution to the republic. On October 4, 1918, he was appointed State Secretary in the German Empire and remained in government until 1920, most recently as Reich Chancellor.

In the North German Confederation (1867–1871) and in the German Empire (since 1871) Germany had no collegial government . The emperor appointed only one chancellor as the only responsible minister. The heads of the highest Reich authorities held the title of " State Secretary " and were bound by instructions from the Chancellor . The long-standing Chancellor Otto von Bismarck strictly rejected the term Reich Government . In practice, however, the work of the so-called Reichsleitung did not necessarily differ from formal collegial governments, at least towards the end of the Empire.

Constitutional reality has changed since 1917. Representatives of the parliamentary groups were appointed state secretaries, and from October 1918 social democrats as well . The parliamentary principle had already established itself informally when the October reforms stipulated that the Reich Chancellor needed the confidence of the Reichstag . This principle was retained after 1919.

On November 9, 1918, Chancellor Max von Baden declared the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and “transferred” his office to the Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert . This was unconstitutional, but officials and much of the public recognized Ebert's authority. From November 10, 1918 to February 13, 1919, the Council of People's Representatives was the highest revolutionary organ in Germany. The council replaced the executive (emperor and chancellor) and the legislature (Reichstag) at the same time . The state secretaries remained in office, but during this time they were partially replaced by the Council of People's Representatives.

From February 13, 1919, an undisputed, democratically legitimized government was in office again: The German constitutional assembly , elected on January 19, 1919, passed a provisional constitutional order with the law on provisional imperial power and elected Friedrich Ebert as the first Reich President , who in turn appointed a Reich government . It was the first in which the heads of the highest Reich authorities officially bore the title of " Minister ". The head of government was called "President of the Reichsministeriums" (simplified "Reichsministerpräsident"). It was not until the Weimar constitution of August 11, 1919 that the title of "Reich Chancellor" was reintroduced.

Appointment and dismissal

The Reich Chancellor was appointed by the Reich President, the Reich Ministers were proposed by the Reich Chancellor and appointed by the Reich President (Art. 53 WRV). However, a chancellor or minister had to resign if the Reichstag so demanded (Art. 54 WRV). In the first few years it was customary for a new government to explicitly seek a vote of confidence from parliament. That was not required in the constitution. The Reichstag partially answered the request by avoiding the question of confidence by means of a “tolerance vote”.

Votes of no confidence by the Reichstag were rare: in the event of a conflict, the cabinet resigned of its own accord or the Reich President dissolved the Reichstag. In the Weimar period, it was finally discussed whether a purely negative vote of no confidence could bring about the end of a government. Such a vote came about through majorities of parliamentary groups who, for various reasons, called for the government to be overthrown and were unable to form a new government.

Most of the governments of the Weimar period did not have a parliamentary majority behind them. Exceptions were the governments up to the election of 1920 and the grand coalition of 1923. In the Müller II cabinet from 1928 to 1930 there were members of parties that together had an absolute majority in parliament, but some of the parties did not see the ministers as their representatives, and they did not see themselves as obliged to support the government. Since the Papen Cabinet was formed in 1932, only the DNVP has supported the government. Even the Hitler cabinet of January 30, 1933 initially did not have a majority in parliament until the Reichstag election on March 5, 1933 .

The Reichstag was able to initiate an indictment of a member of the government before the State Court for the German Reich . To do this, the accused member of the government must have violated the constitution or a Reich law.

Working method

The Reich government gave itself rules of procedure which, according to the constitution, had to be approved by the Reich President (Art. 55 WRV). As later in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Chancellor determined the guidelines of politics. The Chancellor monitored whether a Reich Minister observed these guidelines in his area of ​​responsibility. Ultimately, however, a cabinet resolution required a majority vote so that a chancellor or minister could be overruled.

According to constitutional lawyer Willibalt Apelt , the Reich government should serve as a “bridge” between the two organs directly elected by the people, the Reichstag and the Reich President. It should enable the constitutional work of these organs, but also be responsible to both. The government was dependent on the demands of the parliamentary groups in the Reichstag, especially the governing coalition, but possibly also other parliamentary groups. In addition, the Reich President had special rights that had to be observed by the Reich Government: The Reich Government had to inform the Reich President about its plans in the areas of foreign policy and defense policy . The Reich President was the Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr . However, all actions of the Reich President required the countersignature of a Reich Minister.

Parties in Weimar Reich governments

German government members with English guests, 1931

A coalition of the SPD , the center and the DDP was called the “ Weimar coalition ” . These three parties had already worked together at the end of the empire. But it only existed until 1922. There were also two “ grand coalitions ”, which was a collaboration between these three parties and the DVP (1923; 1928–1930). However, the second grand coalition in particular had only weak support in the Reichstag, as individual parties did not feel obliged to support "their" ministers.

The typical or most common constellation of the Weimar Republic was rather a bourgeois minority cabinet consisting of the center, DDP and DVP and other parties such as the Bavarian People's Party. The minority cabinet received parliamentary support from the SPD or, more rarely, from the DNVP. Similarly, the so-called presidential cabinets under Heinrich Brüning (center) were still bourgeois minority cabinets with tolerance of the SPD, which prevented a majority from overriding the emergency ordinances of the Reich President. Only the two following cabinets, under the non-party members von Papen and von Schleicher, were without parliamentary protection with the exception of the DNVP.

The following were involved in the Weimar governments:

• Catholic Center (Z): 1919-1932
• Left-liberal German Democratic Party (DDP): 1919–1932 (except June to October 1919, January 1925 to January 1926, February 1927 to June 1928)
• National Liberal German People's Party (DVP): 1920–1931 (except May 1921 to November 1922)
• Moderate Socialist Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD): 1919/1920, 1921/1922, 1923, 1928–1930
• Conservative Bavarian People's Party (BVP): 1922, 1923, 1925–1932
• Conservative-nationalist German National People's Party (DNVP): 1925, 1927/1928, 1930, 1932–1933
• Moderate Conservative People's Party (KVP): 1930–1932
• Christian National Peasants and Rural People's Party (CNBL): 1930–1932
• Right-wing populist economic party (WP): 1930
• Bavarian Farmers' Union (BBB): 1922
• Right-wing extremist National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP): from 1933

Overview of the imperial governments

Imperial governments of the Weimar Republic

Imperial government	Number of members / parties represented	Start of office	End of office 1	elections
Scheidemann cabinet	7 SPD, 3 Z, 3 DDP, 1 non-party	February 13, 1919	June 19, 1919	Election to the German National Assembly on January 19, 1919
Cabinet peasant	7 SPD, 4 Z, 2 DDP	June 21, 1919	March 26, 1920
Cabinet Müller I	6 SPD, 5 Z, 3 DDP	March 27, 1920	June 8, 1920
Fehrenbach cabinet	5 Z , 3 DVP, 2 DDP, 2 non-party	June 25, 1920	May 4, 1921	Reichstag election on June 6, 1920
Cabinet Wirth I.	4 SPD, 4 Z, 3 DDP, 2 non-party	May 10, 1921	October 22, 1921
Cabinet Wirth II	4 Z, 4 SPD, 2 DDP, 1 non-party, later also 1 BBB	October 26, 1921	November 14, 1922
Cuno's cabinet	3 Z, 2 DDP, 2 DVP, 1 BVP, 4 non-party	November 22, 1922	August 12, 1923
Cabinet Stresemann I	4 SPD, 3 center, 2 DVP, 2 DDP, 1 non-party	August 13, 1923	October 3, 1923
Cabinet Stresemann II	3 Z, 3 SPD, 2 DDP, 1 DVP, 3 non-party	October 6, 1923	November 23, 1923
Marx I cabinet	3 Z, 3 DDP, 2 DVP, 1 BVP, 3 non-party	November 30, 1923	May 26, 1924
Marx II cabinet	3 Z, 2 DVP, 3 DDP, 2 non-party	June 3, 1924	December 15, 1924	Reichstag election on May 4, 1924
Luther I cabinet	3 DNVP, 2 Z, 2 DVP, 1 DDP, 1 BVP, 2 non-party	January 15, 1925	December 5, 1925	Reichstag election on December 7, 1924
Luther II cabinet	3 Z, 3 DDP, 3 DVP, 1 BVP, 1 non-party	January 20, 1926	May 12, 1926
Marx III cabinet	4 Z, 3 DDP, 3 DVP, 1 BVP	May 17, 1926	December 17, 1926
Marx IV cabinet	4 DNVP, 3 Z, 2 DVP, 1 DDP, 1 BVP; DDP until January 20, 1928, then 1 non-party	January 29, 1927	June 12, 1928
Cabinet Müller II	4 SPD, 2 DVP, 2 DDP, 1 Z, 1 BVP, 1 non-party	June 29, 1928	March 27, 1930	Reichstag election on May 20, 1928
Cabinet Brüning I	4 Z, 2 DVP, 1 DDP, 1 BVP, 1 WP, 1 DNVP (from July 22, 1930: CNBL), 1 KVP, 1 non-party	March 30, 1930	October 7, 1931	Reichstag election on September 14, 1930
Cabinet Brüning II	2 Z, 2 DDP, 1 BVP, 1 KVP, 1 CNBL, 2 non-party	October 10, 1931	May 30, 1932
Papen's cabinet	3 DNVP, 7 non-party	June 1, 1932	November 17, 1932	Reichstag election on July 31, 1932
Schleicher's cabinet	2 DNVP, 8 non-party	December 3, 1932	January 28, 1933	Reichstag election on November 6, 1932
Cabinet Hitler	3 NSDAP, 2 DNVP, 6 non-party (later several cabinet reshuffles)	January 30, 1933	[30. April 1945]	Reichstag election on March 5, 1933

¹Except for the Hitler cabinet , all cabinets resigned as one. They remained in office until the next cabinet took office.

See also

• Presidential Cabinet
• Imperial Chancellor (Weimar Republic)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Manfred Rauh: The parliamentarization of the German Empire , Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1977, p. 430, 442.
2. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789 . Volume V: World War, Revolution and Reich renewal: 1914–1919. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1978, pp. 731/732.
3. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume VI: The Weimar Imperial Constitution . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1981, pp. 330-331.
4. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume VI: The Weimar Imperial Constitution . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1981, pp. 334-335.
5. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume VI: The Weimar Imperial Constitution . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1981, pp. 324-325.
6. ↑ Willibalt Apelt: History of the Weimar Constitution . 2nd edition, CH Beck'sche Verlagbuchhandlung. Munich, Berlin 1964 (1946), p. 207.
7. ↑ No. 118: Secret record of the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs on the cabinet meetings in Weimar on June 18 and 19, 1919. July 2, 1919. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, July 2, 1919, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
8. ↑ No. 216: Cabinet meeting of March 26, 1920, (11 a.m.). 1. Question of the resignation of the Cabinet. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, March 26, 1920, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
9. ↑ No. 134: Executive meeting on June 11, 1920, 4.30 p.m. Opinion on the question of gaming companies. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, June 11, 1920, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
10. ↑ No. 245: Entry in the diary of Reich Interior Minister Koch about the cabinet meetings on May 4, 1921, 9.45 a.m. and 5 p.m., and about the meeting with the party leaders at 6.30 p.m. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, May 4, 1921, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
11. ↑ No. 120: The Reich Chancellor to the Reich President. October 22, 1921. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, October 22, 1921, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
12. ↑ No. 408: Cabinet meeting on November 14, 1922, 9:30 p.m. in the Reichstag building. Coalition negotiations and resignation of the government. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, November 14, 1922, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
13. ↑ No. 248: Discussion with the party leaders of the working group. August 12, 1923, 5:30 p.m. Change of government. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, August 12, 1923, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
14. ↑ No. 106: Cabinet meeting on October 3, 1923, 10 p.m. Political situation. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, October 3, 1923, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
15. ↑ No. 279: Cabinet meeting on November 23, 1923, 7.45 p.m. Resignation of the cabinet. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, November 23, 1923, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
16. ↑ No. 209: Ministerial meeting of May 26, 1924, 9:30 p.m. 2. Political situation. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, May 26, 1924, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
17. ↑ No. 372: Cabinet meeting on December 15, 1924, 11 a.m. Then ministerial meeting. (Resignation of the Cabinet). In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, December 15, 1924, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
18. ↑ No. 243: Ministerial meeting on December 5, 1925. Resignation of the Reich government and the political situation created by it. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, December 5, 1925, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
19. ↑ No. 365: Ministerial meeting of May 12, 1926, 7.30 p.m. Resignation of the cabinet. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, May 12, 1926, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
20. ↑ No. 161: Ministerial meeting on December 17, 1926, 5.30 p.m. in the Reichstag building. Political situation. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, December 17, 1926, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
21. ↑ No. 473: Ministerial meeting on June 5, 1928, 4 p.m. 2. Resignation of the Cabinet. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, June 5, 1928, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
22. ↑ No. 489: Ministerial meeting on March 27, 1930, 5 and 7 p.m. in the Reichstag. 2. Political situation. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, March 27, 1930, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
23. ↑ No. 511: Ministerial meeting on October 7, 1931, 9.30 a.m. 1. Political situation. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, October 7, 1931, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
24. ↑ No. 773: Minutes from State Secretary Pünder on the last ministerial meeting of the Reich Cabinet Brüning on May 30, 1932, 10 a.m. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, May 30, 1932, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
25. ↑ No. 216: Ministerial meeting of November 18, 1932, 11 a.m. 1. Political situation. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, November 18, 1932, accessed on September 1, 2017 . 
26. ↑ No. 71: Ministerial meeting of January 28, 1933, 11.30 a.m. 1. Political situation. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; Federal Archives, January 28, 1933, accessed on September 1, 2017 .