Germany's First Democracy

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The Walther-Rathenau-Gewerbeschule (Vocational School) in Freiburg hosts an exhibition dedicated to the Weimar Republic.

It is quite natural that this school should shed light on this particular period of German history for its namesake, Walther Rathenau, a key figure of the Weimar Republic. As an entrepreneur, politician, and diplomat, he shaped the period immediately following the First World War. 

France's harsh position against loser Germany became particularly evident in 1922 at the economic conference in Genoa, where Germany and Communist Russia found themselves completely isolated. This led to the rapid signing of the Treaty of Rapallo between the two states, the preliminary draft of which had already been drawn up in lengthy negotiations. Chancellor Josef Wirth and his Foreign Minister Dr. Walther Rathenau had thus demonstrated to the world that Germany, which had been shaken to the core, was free to act, albeit to a limited extent. In response, France occupied the Ruhr region, as it now had to fear that Germany would no longer meet its obligations to pay reparations: "Germany only understands the language of violence, snorted the French right, while the communists raged: Poincaré - la guerre. 

In Germany, on the other hand, the right wing raged because the fact that a Jew, Rathenau, who had a doctorate in natural sciences, was now representing the Reich government's policy of fulfillment vis-à-vis the Allies as foreign minister was a provocation that could no longer be surpassed. So right-wing Freikorp fighters got serious with their threat: "Knallt ab den Walther Rathenau, die gottverdammte Judensau (Shoot-down Walther Rathenau, the goddamned Jew sow)."

When Rathenau was "executed" with a machine gun in his car on an open road on June 24, 1922, in despair, Chancellor Wirth exclaimed in a speech to the members of the Reichstag, turning to the right: “There stands the enemy, dripping his poison into the wounds of a people. - There stands the enemy - and there is no doubt about it: this enemy is on the right.”

The exhibition illustrates the political, economic, and social life of the Weimar Republic, from the founding of the first German democracy to the challenges that the young republic failed to face. As Red Baron showed in a previous blog, those years were not golden for most people. 

For this blog, I primarily selected pictures from the exhibition I had not seen before. For the entire history of the Weimar Republic, I refer you to my German website.

It all began with a defeat.

The war is lost and was followed by ...

... riots in Germany's capital, Berlin.

Following the Kaiser's abdication, Germany became a republic and needed a constitution.

The constituent assembly convened in Weimar at the German National Theater on February 6, 1919.

     

The key figure of the Weimar Republic, President Friedrich Ebert,
with the Mexican president on a state visit to Berlin

Vae victis. What Germany is supposed to lose

In his opening speech to the constituent assembly, Ebert reminded the assembled men and women of all that was left of defeated Germany: "Now the spirit of Weimar, the spirit of the great philosophers and poets, must once again fill our lives."

On February 11, 1919, before the delegates began deliberating the constitution's text, they elected Friedrich Ebert as the first President of the German Reich.

     

The Kaiser in exile in Holland was not amused about a harness maker being president.

Female members of the National Assembly from the Catholic Zentrum Party

As the first German democracy, the Weimar Republic created many foundations on which our societies are still based today.

    

It is done. Habemus constitution!

Inflation! In the fall of 1923, two employees of a company
pick up the daily paid wages in sacks at the Reichsbank.

Elections to the Reichstag.
Here, the poster men of various parties stand peacefully side by side.

SA marschiert and has those injured in Saalschlachten (brawls)
with the political opponent, march in front as martyrs.

Millions of unemployed gehen stempeln.
After the benefit has been paid out, an official stamps the unemployment cards.

Culture, the arts, and science flourish.
Max Liebermann paints President von Hindenburg.
From 1933 on, the Impressionist painter was ostracized as a Jew. 

Following Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of the Reich, the SA triumphantly marched through the Brandenburg Gate near his studio. At the sight of the brown hordes, the aged artist is said to have exclaimed, "Ick kann jar nich soville fressen, wie ick kotzen möchte (I can't eat as much as I want to throw up.)"

     

Bertolt Brecht, Lotte Lenya, and Kurt Weill celebrate the success
of their Dreigroschenoper (Threepenny Opera) in Berlin.

The Zeppelin over the Brandenburg Gate

Am Tag von Potsdam, Reich Chancellor Hitler, in a lively conversation
with the son of the last emperor and a Nazi from the very beginning:
Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia.

With Him. Will he save the republic? President von Hindenburg was impressed
by the Day of Potsdam and covered up the establishment
of the Nazi dictatorship until he died in 1934.

Burning of books all over Germany on May 10, 1933

The history of the Weimar Republic is a lesson that democracy cannot be taken for granted but must be fought for and defended repeatedly.

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