The March Constitution (German: Märzverfassung), also commonly known as March Reforms (German: Märzreformen), is the name given to a series of amendments to the Constitution of the German Empire which were written in early 1920 following the dismissal of First-Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff. The amendments provided for several constitutional, political, and legislative changes which transformed the German Empire into a parliamentary monarchy following the end of the Weltkrieg.
The introduction of the March Reforms is undoubtedly among the most controversial political decisions in modern German history. Although they were seen as a major step forward by the war-weary, reform-minded population when they were introduced in 1920, they are more than controversial after a decade and a half of practice. Right-wing parties claim that parliamentarism - the harmonisation with Western European systems of government- has been responsible for Germany's slow stagnation and international encirclement by hostile powers. Irrespective of this, the many legal grey areas of the reforms are also viewed critically by many, especially the high degree of autonomy still granted to the military, a consequence of the clandestine Brockdorff-Hindenburg Pact of February 1920.
Background[]
German political system[]
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The Weltkrieg[]
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Electoral Constituency Reform (August 1918)[]
The Law on the Composition of the Reichstag and Proportional Representation in Large Reichstag Constituencies (German: Gesetz über die Zusammensetzung des Reichstags und die Verhältniswahl in großen Reichstagswahlkreisen) was a law passed by the legislature during the chancellorship of Georg von Hertling which reformed several key aspects of the Reichstag, such as a reorganisation of existing electoral constituencies to fix population imbalances, and the introduction of proportional representation in highly-populated urban constituencies. It includes the following stipulations:
- Increasing the number of Deputies in the Reichstag from 397 to 441.
- Berlin, Hamburg, Breslau, Leipzig & Frankfurt will now form single urban constituencies, which reduces the total constituencies by ten.
- New constituencies are formed through altered constituency borders in Cologne, Munich, Düsseldorf, Elberfeld, Essen, Duisburg, Hannover, and Stuttgart, which eliminates thirteen more constituencies.
- For all of these constituencies, as well as those of Niederbarnim, Teltow, Königshütte, Hindenburg, Kiel, Recklinghausen, Bochum, Dortmund, Nuremburg, Chemnitz, Mannheim, and Bremen, the following laws shall be applied:
- To abide by proportional representation, Berlin is to elect 10 deputies, Teltow is to elect 7 deputies, Hamburg is to elect 5 deputies, Leipzig and Bochum are to elect 4 deputies, Cologne, Essen, Breslau, Duisburg, Dortmund, Niederbarnim, Munich, and Dresden are all to elect 3 deputies, and all other aforementioned constituencies are to elect 2.
- Every constituency which has more than 300,000 inhabitants at the last census are to gain a new deputy for every 200,000 inhabitants it has
- Every party can submit an election list with the names of their candidates prior to an election - at maximum, you can nominate the maximum number of delegates in your constituency + 2, i.e. in Berlin, every party could in theory nominate 12 candidates, in Hannover only 4.
- There can be common candidate lists of more than one party, so multiple parties can nominate the same candidates as part of an alliance.
- The deputy seats are distributed proportionally in accordance with the election results. The procedure is to be done in accordance with the D'Hondt method.
- In case a deputy chooses to resign from his post, dies, or is removed from office, there are no by-elections like previously, but the deputy is succeeded by someone from his party’s election list that did not make it into the Reichstag at the election day. If no such replacement candidate is available, the seat remains empty until the next elections.
Post-September Insurrection Reforms (October 1918)[]
In the aftermath of the September Insurrections, the new government of Brockdorff-Rantzau was pressured to take quick action to calm the unrest; several ad hoc reforms were passed to fulfil several long-time demands of the population. These reforms created a new Imperial Labour Office, reformed the political situation of Alsace-Lorraine, and settled the suffrage debates in Prussia and other reactionary constituent states once and for all.
Creation of the Imperial Labour Office[]
The Imperial Labour Office (German: Reichsarbeitsamt) was created by the Brockdorff-Rantzau government in an effort to restore trust in the government's ability to tackle social and labor issues. Led by Gustav Bauer, an important trade union leader, the office handled matters such as conditions of the labor market, social insurance, workplace safety, and welfare reform. Under Bauer's leadership, the office served as a haven and concession to the Social Democrats within the wartime Brockdorff-Rantzau unity-government.
Reforms in Alsace-Lorraine[]
Although the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine had - at the latest since the 1890s, and despite its special, isolated position - slowly integrated into the Empire in the decades following its annexation in 1871, the Zabern Affair of 1913 and the outbreak of the war destroyed all previously made progress within months. Mistrust towards Germans rose again, and particularist notions vastly increased. In return, this also increased the scepticism towards the Alsatian population in the rest of Germany, where many them Alsatians to be disloyal. A new civil administration installed in Straßburg in May 1914 pledged to pursue a hardline course towards the particularists. The fact that several high-ranking Alsatian Francophile activists such as Emile Wetterlé, defected to France after the war broke out only confirmed Berlin's fears. Not long after, martial law was proclaimed in all of Alsace-Lorraine, and throughout the subsequent years, hypothetical partition plans for the region were drafted more than once. Repressive measures to “neutralise the Alsatian threat” were introduced in 1915, with Alsatian soldiers being shipped to the Eastern Front or reduced to auxiliary positions, and their freedom of movement being vastly limited. Over the course of the conflict, around 2000 Alsatians were detained or expelled, and denunciations among the population become a common sight.
Although martial law brought all political life in the Imperial Territory to a standstill, numerous local politicians, including pro-Germans, expressed their unease about Berlin's policies. In spring 1916, the Landtag of Alsace-Lorraine openly criticised the government’s policies on site. In June 1917, the decision of Eugen Ricklin, local Zentrum deputy and president of the Second Chamber of the Landtag - forced by his colleagues in Germany proper - to publicly sway loyalty to the Empire, caused enormous controversy among the Alsatian political scene, and was met with grave disapproval among his colleagues; not from a desire to return to France, but because they placed Alsatian interests before those of the Empire, and did feel not prepared to concede to the German administration while still suffering under martial law. Around the same, time the French government announced that the "desannexion" of Alsace-Lorraine as their sole war aim, something that was celebrated by many Alsatians as a liberation from German wartime oppression. Already at that point, German-Alsatian relations had reached an all-time low.
The situation, however, further escalated in the aftermath of the September Insurrections, now with additional widespread far-left agitation in Alsace-Lorraine. Fearing further aggravation of tensions, the newly-appointed Brockdorff-Rantzau Cabinet announced far-reaching reforms to the administration of the region - much to the displeasure of the OHL and broader far-right, which still envisioned a partition of the Imperial Territory. The ad hoc reforms led to the dismissal of many of the controversial pre-war officials, most prominently hardline Statthalter Johann von Dallwitz and State Secretary for Alsace-Lorraine Georg, Baron of Tschammer and Quaritz. As a replacement, he first truly Alsatian Cabinet was formed, to accommodate the Alsatian particularist slogan "Alsace-Lorraine to the People of Alsace-Lorraine!". Rudolf Schwander, then the liberal mayor of Straßburg, became Statthalter of Alsace-Lorraine, while Karl Hauss, then a prominent leader of Zentrum in Alsace-Lorraine, became the new State Secretary for the Imperial Territory and presided over the first partisan government in the history of the Reichsland, a big-tent coalition of Catholics, liberals, and social democrats. By appointing both a Catholic and a Protestant, the German government in Berlin took religious sensitivities in the region into account.
Nevertheless, the cooperation of the Alsatian's Zentrum Party's leadership with the Imperial authorities after four years of oppression proved extremely controversial, and was seen as treason by the party's remaining Francophile deputies. Francophile leaders like Joseph Pfleger or Franz Xaver Haegy accused Hauß of collaborating with the oppressive occupation regime and, after a motion to remove Hauß from the party failed, announced their official secession from the Zentrum's parliamentary faction in the Alsatian Landtag, causing a split within the party that could only temporarily be settled in the aftermath of the war.
Suffrage Reforms in Prussia and other Constituent States[]
Being the most important and substantial change announced by the Brockdorff-Rantzau Cabinet, reform in Prussia, and especially reform to the Prussian Three-Class Franchise, was vehemently opposed by the conservative politicians and elites who ruled the state. The last efforts to reform the system, heralded by Bethmann Hollweg, led to his ouster by those to his right. Since 1917, negotiations about a potential suffrage reform had been ongoing in the Prussian government and the two chambers, with neither the conservatives nor the progressives willing to compromise. But the social pressure after the insurrection attempt made further resistance hopeless.
A healthy mix of the reform drafts set up by Prussian Minister of the Interior Bill Drews in November 1917 & Georg von Hertling in April 1918 lead to the formal introduction of Saxon-style plural voting in Prussia; while still not as equal as the federal Reichstag suffrage, it was at least the “fairest unequal suffrage” possible that could be passed. The following changes arrived with the suffrage reform:
- Direct & secret suffrage for every male Prussian citizen above the age of 25 who has lived at the same place for more than one year. Citizens who are reliant on Armenunterstützung (welfare payments for the poor) as well as women were excluded.
- Everyone has a vote, plus 2 additional votes for higher age & self-employed people
- Constitutional guarantees for schools and the church to protect them against potential future anti-clerical SPD-FVP-PP majorities in the Prussian House of Representatives
- Proportional representation in Posen & West Prussia and in highly populated constituencies, which has the advantage that the conservatives are in theory able to win seats in constituencies outside of their traditional range, especially in Polish territories, while not necessarily harming the SPD as they could, in theory, win seats in conservative-dominated territories.
- Transformation of the Prussian House of Lords into a chamber that represents all the professions of the kingdom, from the farmer to the artisan to the junker to the industrialist. While many seats remained reserved for the landed aristocracy.
Additionally, a broad set of social reforms were announced, among them equal salaries for soldiers & workers, a welfare system for invalids, the construction of social settlements & the struggle against war profiteering, but as they mostly remained theoretical for the time of the war, they were widely considered an empty populist promise for the sake of appeasement.
The March Constitution[]
The March Reforms (German: Märzreformen) of 1920, introduced after the dismissal of General Ludendorff, were the most far-reaching set of democratic reforms ever passed in the Empire’s history. The following change were introduced:
- Deputies can also serve as government officials and state secretaries without losing their seat in the Reichstag. This allows for the formation of proper partisan governments. However, it is still not possible for a deputy to serve in both chambers simultaneously, this means that if a deputy is appointed Reichskanzler/Minister-President of Prussia, he cannot be chairman of the Bundesrat. As a result, the Prussian Foreign Minister, which throughout most of German history had been a role staffed by the Reichskanzler and Prussian M.P. himself, now needed to be non-partisan to represent the partisan Reichskanzler/Prussian M.P. in the Bundesrat.
- The minimum voting age of 25 is reduced to 24.
- The consent of the Bundesrat and the Reichstag is required for declarations of war & for treaty ratifications. This change served as more of a de jure change than a de facto change, as this practice was already a standard in the years prior.
- The Reichskanzler & his cabinet require the confidence of the Reichstag over the Bundesrat - a majority within the Reichstag can force him to resign with a vote of no confidence or can indict him in a constitutional court for gross violations of conduct and duties, after which the Kaiser would be forced to appoint a successor. However, the Kaiser can, in practice, still appoint any candidate he chooses - which would be unwise as picking a candidate who cannot gain the confidence of the Reichstag would be removed through a vote of no confidence.
- Despite this, a major question is left unanswered, which is whether a new chancellor is proposed by the majority in the Reichstag or if the Kaiser can just appoint whoever he wants and who then has try to secure a majority himself in the Reichstag. This can lead to different scenarios: A strong and united coalition in the Reichstag can essentially pressure the Kaiser into choosing their candidate, while a weak & divided Reichstag strengthens the Kaiser’s ability to appoint his own candidates to the office.
- The Reichskanzler, and therefore indirectly the Reichstag on which he requires the confidence of, is responsible for all acts, statements and political decisions of the Kaiser and has to countersign speeches, statements and political decisions. This is supposed to prevent debacles like during the Daily Telegraph Affair. Importantly, military orders of the Kaiser that are deemed to be “of political relevance” have to also be countersigned by the Reichskanzler.
- This leaves the following question, that of what military-related decisions can be considered to be of "political importance" up for interpretation. With some arguing that during war, everything is political, while others might argue that war per definition cannot be political.
- The Prussian Minister of War has the authority to countersign every appointment, dismissal, relocation of military commanders the Kaiser orders and is dependent on the confidence of the Reichstag. This same rule applies to the Bavarian, Saxon, and Württembergian Ministers of War, just that they are dependent on the confidence of their local Landtags.
- The Reichskanzler has to countersign every appointment, dismissal, relocation of naval commanders the Kaiser orders and, importantly, also the appointment of generals & field marshals. This means that the government has some limited control over the appointment of the Empire’s military leaders, including the Chief of the General Staff and the Quartermaster-general.
- However, once appointed, military commanders are no longer answerable to the Reichstag, and can only be dismissed by the Kaiser. All the relevant high-ranking military posts still have direct access to the monarch (Immediatrecht). This means that in peace-time, the power of the military remains limited as the Prussian Minister of War, dependent on the Reichstag, is the highest military instance, but during times of war, the OHL and the SKL beecome the highest military instances due to their role as supreme commanders without being subject to any kind of parliamentary control, while the Minister of War would be limited to administrative and staff-related matters.
- The Privy Council System is abolished. As a result, the Imperial Navy Cabinet was subordinated to the Naval Office, the Prussian Military Cabinet was subordinated to the Prussian Ministry of War, and the Privy Council, in regards to civilian and political matters, was subordinated to the Prussian government.
- The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine is abolished and reformed into a proper German constituent state. The Imperial Office for Alsace Lorraine, which previously was responsible for the administration of the territory, was abolished and an independent civil administration was set up in Straßburg. Similarly, the position of Imperial Governor, the permanent representative of the Kaiser in Straßburg, was abolished and the first monarch of the newly-created Grand Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine, the Wittelsbach prince Franz of Bavaria, the third son of King Ludwig III, is welcomed by the Alsatian-Lorrainian Landtag.
Aftermath[]
The Bundestag Issue[]
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