The Weimar Constitution: how it worked, its strengths and its weaknesses

How could one constitution be among the most democratic in the world, and dangerous at the same time? Germany's new constitution came into force in August nineteen nineteen. Every man and woman over twenty could vote, years before women in Britain had equal voting rights. Yet one short article let the President make laws without parliament at all. Build it piece by piece, and you can see how both were true.

A constitution is the set of rules for how a country is governed. Germany's new one was written in a small town, Weimar, because Berlin was too dangerous in February nineteen nineteen, and the Republic is known by that town's name. The assembly that met there chose Friedrich Ebert, leader of the SPD, as the first President. At the bottom sit the people. Every man and woman over twenty could vote, and they elected the Reichstag, the German parliament, every four years. The Reichstag made the laws. The people also elected the President, every seven years. He chose the Chancellor, commanded the armed forces, and could dissolve the Reichstag, which means sending it home for a new election. The Chancellor led the government day to day, and to pass his laws he needed a majority in the Reichstag. Now put that diagram to work on a problem. If the Reichstag blocks every law, who can pick a new Chancellor or call an election? The President. He chose the Chancellor and could dissolve the Reichstag. That is the difference between the two jobs. The President was head of state, elected by the people. The Chancellor was head of the government, chosen by the President, and needing the Reichstag behind him. One more part completes the picture. The Reichsrat was a second chamber, with members sent by each of the German states, called the Länder. It could delay new laws, but it could not stop them.

The Reichstag's seats were shared out by proportional representation. That means each party gets seats in proportion to its share of the votes, and in Weimar Germany it was one seat for every sixty thousand votes. A party with six hundred thousand votes won ten seats. A party with only sixty thousand votes still won one. Now think ahead to what that rule does over a whole election. What would it do to the number of parties in the Reichstag? It filled the Reichstag with parties, large and tiny, and no single party ever won a majority. Every government had to be a coalition, several parties sharing power, and coalitions of parties that disagreed often fell apart. Germany had many short-lived governments in its first four years, which meant no Chancellor stayed long enough to deal properly with the crises. Now look at the same rule from the voter's side. Every vote counted, and small parties got a voice in proportion to their support. That was fair, and many Germans valued it. Here are two judgements about it. The first says proportional representation caused the Republic to fail. The second says proportional representation was fair to voters, but it made strong government hard, because no party won a majority. Which judgement is better, and why? The second judgement. The first makes one rule the single cause of everything, which the facts cannot support. The second weighs the strength against the weakness, and says how the weakness worked. One examiner's report praises answers that explained how proportional representation impacted the ability to govern. Those answers went past naming the rule, and followed it all the way to weak coalitions. The habit to copy: whenever you write proportional representation, finish the sentence with what it did to governing.

The short, dangerous article was number forty-eight. Article forty-eight said that in an emergency the President could make laws by decree, which means by his own order, without a vote in the Reichstag. It was written for real crises, such as an armed rising or a collapse of order. Ebert used it many times in the Republic's early years to defend the Republic, and in a crisis it let the government act fast. Beside it sat a Bill of Rights, which wrote freedom of speech, of religion and of meeting into the constitution itself. Now weigh up the emergency power itself. Why could a rule meant to protect the Republic also endanger it? Because it let a President govern around the Reichstag. Used rarely, it was a shield. Used often, or by a President who did not believe in democracy, it could leave parliament with nothing to do. It would matter again after nineteen thirty, which is a later chapter's story.

Now weigh the whole constitution. Some courses ask for its strengths as well as its weaknesses, so here are both. On the strength side, every adult could vote, women included. Seats were fair to every party, rights were written down, and power was shared, so no one person could dominate. On the weakness side, proportional representation brought many parties and short-lived coalitions. Article forty-eight could be used to bypass the Reichstag. And the states kept strong powers of their own. The people running the state were left over from the empire. The judges, the civil servants and the army officers of the Kaiser's day kept their jobs, and many of them disliked the Republic. A question might ask you to explain why the Weimar Constitution made it hard to form strong governments between nineteen nineteen and nineteen twenty-three. It offers two hints, proportional representation and the powers of the President. Aim for three reasons, and make one of them your own. Have a go at this one before I show you. Reason one. Proportional representation gave seats even to small parties, so none came close to a majority. That meant every government was a coalition of parties that disagreed, so governments were weak and often collapsed. Reason two. The President chose the Chancellor, could dissolve the Reichstag, and could rule by decree under Article forty-eight. That meant a Chancellor depended on the President as well as on parliament, and governments had a way round the Reichstag instead of a reason to build support in it. Reason three, from beyond the hints. The judges, civil servants and officers of the old empire kept their jobs, and many wanted the Kaiser back. That meant even when a government decided something, the people carrying it out might not support it. Then a verdict. The weakness that mattered more in these years was the coalitions, and the evidence that tips it is the string of short-lived governments in just four years. Now a source from the time. Article one of the constitution, in a plain translation, says this: "The German Reich is a republic. State power comes from the people." A question might ask you to use this source and what you know to describe the main features of the constitution. The source gives the idea, and your own knowledge supplies the features. Which features put that second sentence into practice? Votes for every man and woman over twenty. A Reichstag elected by proportional representation every four years. A President elected by the people every seven years. Those are the ways power came from the people.

Here comes the check on the whole constitution.

Who chose the Chancellor, and whose support did a Chancellor need for laws?

The President chose him, and he needed a majority in the Reichstag.

Now a second: one strength and one weakness of proportional representation?

Its strength was fairness, with every vote counting. Its weakness was many parties, no majority, and coalitions that kept collapsing.

One more, about an election this video never mentioned. In June nineteen twenty the largest party, the SPD, won about twenty-two per cent of the vote.

What kind of government did that result make certain?

A coalition. Nobody was close to holding half the seats, so several groups had to share power.

So back to the constitution of August nineteen nineteen. It was democratic in its rules, with votes for all, fair seats and rights written down. It was dangerous in practice, because its coalitions and its emergency article depended on how people used them, and many Germans did not want democracy at all.

If you can sketch the constitution from memory and weigh its strengths against its weaknesses, you could teach this one, so mark it with a thumbs-up. If it isn't there yet, save it, and say the President and Chancellor difference out loud once, because saying it once makes it stick.

Next in the chapter is Why the Treaty of Versailles made the Weimar Republic unpopular. Hopefully that's next in your feed, but if not, search for ScholaFly H, I, oh one, oh four.

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