third of these alternatives. The reaction in the direction of modified monarchy and mild parliamentarism might eventually come, but hardly until other plans had been tried and found wanting. On the other hand, the Spartacists, while momentarily in the ascendant in Munich and several other centers, and while able to inspire a vast amount of unrest and disorder, failed to get a grip upon the country as a whole, and they seemed reasonably certain never to be able to break down the attachment of the average German to the things which bolshevism would destroy. As between the two programs of organized socialism a real choice, however, had to be made. Should the emphasis be placed upon the completion of the political revolution, the making of a new constitution, the reorganization of administration, thereby holding over the social and economic revolution to be tåken up gradually at a later time? Or should the social revolution come first? Chancellor Ebert and his Majority supporters favored the first plan; Haase and the more radical elements favored the second; and when it became apparent that the Majority policy was to prevail, Haase and his fellow-partisans withdrew (December 28, 1918) from the provisional government.1

1 No satisfactory history of the revolution of 1918 has as yet been written. English, French, and American periodicals of the period contain many articles and much editorial comment, but as a rule the writers had little exact information. A useful article on the first results of the Imperial collapse is W. J. Shepard, “The New Government in Germany," in Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev., Aug., 1919. G. Young, The New Germany (New York, 1920) is a good journalistic account. The new party alignment is described in P. Eltzbacher, Die neuen Parteien und ihre Programme (Berlin, 1919). See additional references on p. 720.

CHAPTER XXXIX

THE REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION

The National Constituent Assembly. Meanwhile preparations went forward for the election of the constituent assembly which the provisional government had promised at its accession to power. On November 12, 1918, a proclamation was issued announcing that henceforth all elections would be carried out on the basis of equal, secret, direct, and universal suffrage, for both men and women twenty years of age and upwards, on the principle of proportional representation. Other proclamations on the subject followed, and on November 30 the election was set for February 16, 1919. Harassed by Spartacist and other radical outbreaks, and embarrassed by criticism of the conservative elements for its failure to suppress the growing disorders, the government decided, however, to hasten the work of constitution-making; and the elections were actually held on Sunday, January 19. The campaign was spirited, and notwithstanding the efforts of the Spartacists to thwart the entire plan, approximately ninety per cent of the qualified voters went to the polls. The country had been divided for the purpose into thirty-eight districts, returning from six to sixteen members each, on the approximate basis of one delegate for each 150,000 inhabitants; and the total number of delegates had been fixed at 433. It was decided, however, to hold no elections in Alsace-Lorraine, and this brought the number of districts down to thirty-seven and the number of delegates actually chosen to 423. The results, disregarding various minor groups, may be tabulated as follows:1

1 The Spartacists put no candidates in the field. They either refrained from voting or supported Independent Socialists.

Comparison of these figures with the statistics of the Reichstag elections of 1912 is not especially profitable. But after making due allowance for the differences of the electorate and of the apportionment of seats, it is still manifest that there had been a heavy movement toward the Left. The National People's party formed but 8.4 per cent of the new assembly, whereas its predecessor, the Conservative party, formed 17.9 per cent of the old one. On the other hand, the two socialist parties formed 46.3 per cent of the new body, whereas the united Social Democratic party held only 30.3 per cent of the seats in the Reichstag. It was generally considered that the members of the Assembly were of rather more than average ability. There were many former members of the Reichstag, and numerous other persons of experience in public affairs and in business; trade union officials, journalists, and lawyers predominated. Included in the membership were thirty-seven women, most of them socialists.1 The Constitution Framed. Notwithstanding Independent Socialist opposition and Spartacist turbulence, the Assembly met promptly on the date announced, February 6, at Weimar.2 There was a good attendance, and the work in hand was entered upon with orderliness and dispatch. The rules of procedure in force in the late Reichstag were adopted; officers were elected, revealing a tendency of the Majority Socialists, the Christian People's party, and the Democrats to work together; and in four days a law was passed regularizing and expanding the provisional government, with a view to tiding over the period until a permanent constitution could be prepared and put into operation. The provisional ministry, presided over by the Chancellor, was to continue as the supreme executive power. But a president of the republic was to be chosen by the convention, and he was to have authority to name the members of the ministry; the ministers were to be responsible to the convention; in initiating legislative measures which were finally to be acted upon by the convention itself the provisional government was to have the advice of a "committee of the states," consisting of one or more representatives of all German states having a popular system

1 W. B. Munro and A. N. Holcombe [trans.], "Constitution of the German Commonwealth," in League of Nations, Dec., 1919, p. 346.

2 This place, the capital of the little grand-duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, was selected partly because of its association with the best traditions of German liberalism, as represented by Goethe and Schiller, and partly in deference to the desire of the south Germans that the convention should not be held in Prussia. The provisional government, furthermore, wished to shield the gathering from the disorders to which Berlin was constantly exposed.

of government. Ebert was forthwith elected president, and at his request the Majority Socialist Scheidemann formed a cabinet, which proved to be a Majority Socialist, Christian People's party, Democratic bloc representing seventy-seven per cent of the convention's membership.

Having converted the purely revolutionary and irresponsible government of Chancellor Ebert into a temporary cabinet government responsible to a popular assembly, the convention proceeded to its larger task of framing a permanent republican constitution. As was to be expected, much criticism fell upon it as its work progressed. It moved too slowly to please some, too rapidly to please others. There was a widespread disposition to expect it to accomplish the impossible. The ultra-radical elements professed to see in it, and in the temporary government which it had set up, the instrumentalities of reaction. At the same time, large sections of the people remained, or became, quite indifferent to it. Disregarding strictures from without, and overcoming its own fatal tendency to prolixity such as had destroyed the usefulness of the Frankfort convention of 1848, it pushed its work of constitution-making to a conclusion about as rapidly as the gravity of the task permitted. The proposed instrument was discussed on first reading in February and early March, in committee from March to June, and on second and third readings during July. On July 31, the permanent constitution was finally adopted, by a vote of 262 to 76, and on August 11 it was put into operation.

The provisional organic law of February 10 provided for no referendum or other act of ratification, so that the decision of the convention was itself definitive; and the promulgation of the permanent instrument entailed no immediate changes in the government. Ebert took the oath of office on the new basis, the Bauer ministry went on unaffected, and the Constituent Assembly assumed the rôle of the national parliament. The task of constitution-making was much lightened by the action of the provisional government in appointing, several weeks in advance of the first meeting, a commission to prepare a draft of a constitution as a basis of discussion. The commission was headed by Professor Hugo Preuss, and the instrument which it submitted for the consideration of the delegates at Weimar, while not

1 Because of his unwillingness to accept the peace terms offered by the Allies, Scheidemann retired, July 20, and a new coalition ministry was formed by Gustav Bauer, former minister of labor.

2 Preuss was a Democrat, but not a socialist. He occupied the post of secretary of state for the interior under the revolutionary government.

followed in all of its features, afforded a good starting point for the debates.1

The New Constitution. The republican constitution is a lengthy document, arranged in a preamble and 181 articles.2 Chapter I, containing 108 articles, deals with the structure and functions of the governmental system. Chapter II, composed of 57 articles, deals with the fundamental rights and duties of German citizens. A third division, containing 16 articles, is made up of "transitional and final" regulations. Not merely in sheer length, but in the amount of detail on matters either unimportant in themselves or of such character as to be commonly left to be regulated by statute, the republican constitution, therefore, resembles its imperial predecessor. Thus, thirteen articles are devoted to railroads and internal waterways, as compared with nine or ten in the imperial constitution. Nevertheless the new constitution leaves many matters to be determined by subsequent organic laws, for whose enactment it provides.

The most striking innovation in the republican constitution, so far as content goes, is the extensive provisions designed to define and protect the rights and liberties of the individual citizen, and also the relationships of citizens in recognized social groups. It will be recalled that, aside from provision for a common German citizenship and for equal protection for all citizens as against foreign powers, the imperial constitution was silent on the subject of the status of the individual; it contained nothing approaching the character of a bill of rights. In marked contrast is the prominence given these matters in the new instrument. The first section of the second chapter makes all Germans equal before the law, recognizes men and women as having fundamentally the same civil rights and duties, abolishes all privileges arising from birth or rank, provides for a uniform national citizenship, recognizes full rights of domicile, travel, and emigration; declares personal liberty inviolable, makes the house of every Ger

1 On the framing of the constitution see G. Saunders, "The New German Constitution," in New Europe, Feb. 13, 1919; J. Lescure, "Les élections allemandes du 19 janvier à l'assemblée nationale," in Rev. Polit. et Parl., Jan., 1919; I. Rouge, "Une année de république en Allemagne," ibid., Nov. 10, 1919; C. H. Huberich, and R. King, "The New System of German Elections," in N. Y. Nation, Feb. 22, 1919; W. H. Dawson, "The Constitution of New Germany," in Fort. Rev., Mar., 1919; F. Meinecke, "Verfassung und Verwaltung der deutschen Republik," in Deutsche Rundschau, Jan., 1919; R. Fester, "Die Nationalversammlung und die Zukunft Deutschlands," ibid., Mar., 1919.

2 The best English version is that prepared by Munro and Holcombe (see p. 718, note 1). Other translations are printed in Young, The New Germany, Appendix, and N. Y. Times Current History, Oct., 1919.