1920 German federal election

none December 2023 Weimar Republic parliamentary 1919 German federal election 1919 yes 1920 06 06 May 1924 German federal election May 1924 All 459 seats in the Reichstag 230 35,949,774 ( 2.3%) 79.2% ( 3.8pp) SPD 1920 leadership.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Otto Wels Hermann Müller Social Democratic Party of Germany 37.9%, 165 seats 103 62 6,179,991 21.9% 16.0pp Crispien and Däumig Composite.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Arthur Crispien Ernst Däumig Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany 7.6%, 22 seats 83 61 4,971,220 17.6% 10.0pp Oskar Hergt LCCN2014717414 Trim.jpg 180 120 160 8 27 center Oskar Hergt German National People's Party 10.3%, 44 seats 71 27 4,249,100 15.1% 4.8pp Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1982-092-11, Gustav Stresemann.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Gustav Stresemann German People's Party 4.4%, 19 seats 65 46 3,919,446 13.9% 9.5pp Karl Trimborn circa 1915 3x4.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Karl Trimborn Centre Party (Germany) 19.7%, 91 seats 64 27 3,845,001 13.6% 6.1pp 160x160px Carl Wilhelm Petersen German Democratic Party 18.6%, 75 seats 39 36 2,333,741 8.3% 10.3pp 450px Results by electoral constituency 450px Results by district and independent city 450px Results for each party Government First Müller cabinet SPD-DDP-Z Government after election Fehrenbach cabinet Z–DDP–DVP Federal elections were held in Germany on 6 June 1920 to elect the first Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. It succeeded the Weimar National Assembly elected in January 1919, which had drafted and ratified the Weimar Constitution. The election took place during a period of political violence and widespread anger over the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The voting resulted in substantial losses for the three moderate parties of the Weimar Coalition that had dominated the National Assembly. There were corresponding gains for the parties on the left and right which had not supported the Assembly's aims.Baum Andreas 6 June 2005 Verhängnisvolle Wahlen Fateful Elections https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/verhaengnisvolle-wahlen-100.html 17 February 2005 Deutschlandfunk de The new Reichstag was unable to form a majority ruling coalition and settled for a centre-right minority government. The Weimar Republic's first election revealed an early loss of faith in democracy among German voters which foreshadowed the parliamentary difficulties that troubled the Republic throughout its short life. Of the 17 additional governments before Adolf Hitler became chancellor in 1933, only two (Stresemann I and Müller II) had majority coalitions in the Reichstag during their full term of office. Background The Weimar National Assembly, elected in January 1919, drafted and approved the Weimar Constitution and served as Germany's interim parliament. It was dominated by the Weimar Coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the German Democratic Party (DDP) and the Catholic Centre Party. The Assembly initially planned to hold the election for the first Weimar Reichstag in the fall of 1920, after the plebiscites required by the Treaty of Versailles had been held. They were to determine whether the people in a number of border regions wanted to stay in Germany. The plebiscites affected primarily parts of East Prussia and Upper Silesia which had large Polish-speaking communities, plus Schleswig, on the border with Denmark. After the failure of the right-wing Kapp Putsch of March 1920, the cabinet of Chancellor Hermann Müller of the SPD, under pressure from the political right, agreed to move the election to 6 June.Winkler Heinrich August Heinrich August Winkler Weimar 1918–1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie C.H. Beck 1993 3-406-37646-0 Munich 138–139 de Weimar 1918–1933. The History of the First German Democracy11 January 2022 Plebiscites in post-Versailles Europe https://eng.ipn.gov.pl/en/digital-resources/articles/9175,Plebiscites-in-post-Versailles-Europe.html 19 February 2025 Institute of National Remembrance Due to the territorial plebiscites, the election was not held in Schleswig-Holstein and East Prussia until 20 February 1921, and in Upper Silesia (Oppeln) until 19 November 1922.Nohlen Dieter Elections in Europe: A Data Handbook Stöver Philip 2010 Nomos 978-3-8329-5609-7 Baden-Baden 762 Two major factors affected the political climate in Germany in the period leading up to the elections. One was the political violence that had broken out sporadically since late 1918 and the SPD-led government's response to it. The SPD's left wing and the Independent Social Democrats (USPD) were angry at the SPD leadership for its restrained reaction to the Kapp Putsch, especially when compared to its forceful and bloody responses to the 1918 Christmas crisis, the Spartacist uprising of early 1919 and the post-Kapp Ruhr uprising, all of which had left-wing roots. Supporters of the parties of the centre and right, on the other hand, wanted protection from a feared communist revolution and a return to public order.Kellerhoff Sven-Felix 5 June 2020 Schon 1920 stimmten die Deutschen gegen die Demokratie As Early as 1920 the Germans Voted Against Democracy https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article208935965/Reichstagswahl-1920-Als-die-Deutschen-gegen-Demokratie-stimmten.html 20 February 2025 Die Welt de The second factor was the Treaty of Versailles, which the majority of Germans thought was excessively harsh, punitive and an insult to the country. The USPD, SPD and Centre parties had voted in the National Assembly to accept the treaty,Winkler 1993 94–95 and the parties of the right condemned them for it so. Following the announcement of the treaty's terms in May 1919, the political atmosphere in Germany quickly polarized.Schwabe Klaus 2015 Versailles, Treaty of https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/LWSO/beww1_en_0608.xml?language=en 20 February 2025 Brill's Digital Library of World War I Brill 10.1163/2352-3786_dlws1_beww1_en_0608 subscription Electoral system Reichstag (Weimar Republic)#Electoral system The Reichstag was elected via party list proportional representation. For this purpose, the country was divided into 35 multi-member electoral districts. A party was entitled to a seat for every 60,000 votes won. This was calculated via a three-step process on the constituency level, an intermediate level which combined multiple constituencies, and finally nationwide, where all parties' excess votes were combined. In the third nationwide step, parties could not be awarded more seats than they had already won on the two lower constituency levels. Due to the fixed number of votes per seat, the size of the Reichstag fluctuated between elections based on the number of voters.Aleskerov F. Holler M.J. Kamalova R. 21 February 2013 Power distribution in the Weimar Reichstag in 1919–1933 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10479-013-1325-4 Annals of Operations Research 215 April 2014 25–37 10.1007/s10479-013-1325-4 subscription The voting age was 20 years. People who were incapacitated according to the Civil Code, who were under guardianship or provisional guardianship, or who had lost their civil rights after a criminal court ruling were not eligible to vote.Reichswahlgesetz. Vom 27. April 1920 Reich Electoral Law of 27 April 1920 http://www.documentarchiv.de/wr/1920/reichswahlgesetz_1920.html 16 February 2025 document Archiv de Results The parties of the Weimar Coalition suffered major losses to opposing parties on the left and right and together won just 44% of the vote. The Independent Social Democrats emerged as the second-largest party behind the SPD. The right-wing nationalist German National People's Party (DNVP) and conservative German People's Party (DVP) placed third and fourth, ahead of the Centre and DDP. A total of ten parties won seats, including the Bavarian People's Party (BVP), which had split from the Centre Party and took a more right-wing course, and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which remained marginal with 2% of the vote and 4 seats. Voter turnout was 79.2%, down four percentage points from January 1919.Nohlen Stöver 2010 77629 May 2020 Vor 100 Jahren: Erste Wahl zum Reichstag der Weimarer Republik 100 years ago: First election to the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/2020/kw22-kalenderblatt-weimarer-republik-698558 23 May 2024 Bundestag deFile:Germany_Reichstag_1920.svg Social Democratic Party 6179991 −15.94 103 −62 Independent Social Democratic Party 4971220 +10.01 83 +61 German National People's Party 4249100 +4.80 71 +27 German People's Party 3919446 +9.47 65 +46 Centre Party 3845001 −6.03 64 −27 German Democratic Party 2333741 −10.28 39 −36 Bavarian People's Party 1173344 New 20 New Communist Party of Germany 589454 New 4 New German-Hanoverian Party 319108 +0.88 5 +4 Bavarian Peasants' League 218596 −0.13 4 0 Poland Party 89228 New 0 New German Economic League for City and Country 88800 New 0 New Christian People's Party 65260 New 1 New #0080FF Polish Catholic Party of Upper Silesia 51437 New 0 New Schleswig-Holstein State Party 25907 New 0 New German Social Party 22958 New 0 New German Middle Class Party 21255 New 0 New Wendish People's Party 8050 New 0 New German Socialist Party 7186 New 0 New black Reform Group 6832 New 0 New Schleswig Club 4966 New 0 New National Democratic People's Party 4015 New 0 New Christian Social People's Party 1219 New 0 New Independent Party 169 New 0 New German Economy and Labour Party 43 New 0 New Upper Silesian Catholic People's Party 6 New 0 New 267249 +36 35949774 Gonschior.de East Prussia and Schleswig-Holstein The 1919 election results were amended by the voting in the East Prussia and Schleswig-Holstein constituencies on 20 February 1921. Party East Prussia Schleswig-Holstein Seats +/– Votes % Votes % Social Democratic Party 228,872 23.88 257,839 37.33 108 –5 Independent Social Democratic Party 53,118 5.54 20,701 3.00 83 +2 German National People's Party 296,229 30.91 141,410 20.48 65 +5 German People's Party 144,254 15.05 127,346 18.44 65 +5 Centre Party 91,439 9.54 5,572 0.81 68 +1 German Democratic Party 53,861 5.62 65,062 9.42 40 –4 Communist Party 68,450 7.14 41,839 6.06 4 +2 Polish People's Party 12,663 1.32 – 0 – Schleswig-Holstein State Party – 25,907 3.75 0 – German Middle-Class Party 9,346 0.98 – 0 – Schleswig Club – 4,966 0.72 0 – Total 958,232 100.00 690,642 100.00 469 +3 Blank/invalid 31,078 3.14 38,687 5.30 Total votes 989,310 100.00 729,329 100.00 Registered voters/turnout 1,251,161 79.07 931,787 78.27 Upper Silesia The results of the previous elections were again amended by the voting in the Oppeln electoral district of Upper Silesia on 19 November 1922. Party Votes % Seats +/– Social Democratic Party 75,593 14.78 103 –5 German National People's Party 70,841 13.85 65 0 German People's Party 36,560 7.15 65 0 Centre Party 205,237 40.12 64 –4 German Democratic Party 11,874 2.32 39 –1 Communist Party 37,120 7.26 4 0 Polish Catholic Party of Upper Silesia 51,437 10.05 0 – German Social Party 22,958 4.49 0 – Total 511,620 100.00 459 –10 Blank/invalid 3,493 0.68 Total votes 515,113 100.00 Registered voters/turnout 742,071 69.42 Analysis Most of the voters that the SPD lost went to the USPD; the DDP's losses were primarily to the DVP. The SPD suffered especially in the large cities, although a considerable number of East Prussian agricultural labourers who had voted for the SPD in 1919 flipped to the DNVP in the delayed 1921 election. Many 1919 DDP voters moved to the DVP in 1920, viewing it as insurance against a potential socialist division of property. The DVP's slogan in the election had been "Only the DVP will free us from red chains". Historian Heinrich August Winkler summed up the election in the following words: The essence of what the first Reichstag election made visible was a shift to the left among the workers and a shift to the right among the middle class. Politically, the forces that had not supported the class compromise on which Weimar was based were rewarded. The moderates on both sides were punished for what they had or had not achieved since the beginning of 1919: on the left, the governments of the Weimar coalition were blamed for allowing the forces of reaction to regain strength; on the right, the previous majority was blamed for everything that had violated national honour and affected property interests. Aftermath Fehrenbach cabinet There was not a majority in the Reichstag among either the parties of the right or the left. President Friedrich Ebert first asked Chancellor Hermann Müller of the SPD to form a new cabinet, and when he was unsuccessful turned to the DVP, which was also unable to put together a coalition. On 14 June Ebert asked the Centre Party to make the attempt. It reached an agreement with the DDP and DVP to form a three-party minority government that the SPD was willing to tolerate. On 25 June, Constatin Fehrenbach of the Centre Party formally became the new chancellor of Germany and announced his cabinet.Das Kabinett Fehrenbach – Wahlergebnis und Regierungsbildung The Fehrenbach Cabinet – Election Results and Government Formation https://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0000/feh/feh1p/kap1_1/para2_2.html#d8e867_rueck 22 February 2025 Das Bundesarchiv de Like many in the Centre Party, Fehrenbach had accepted the new republic as a fact but had little enthusiasm for it. The epithet "a republic without republicans" was first used during his term of office, which lasted only ten and a half months. Even so, it stayed in office longer than the average of the twenty cabinets considered part of the Weimar Republic. That was 239 days, or just under eight months.Evans Richard J. CmjBW3lsA84C 83 yes The Coming of the Third Reich Penguin 2005 978-1-101-04267-0 London 83 References Germany German Category:Federal elections in the Weimar Republic Category:June 1920 in Europe