The Zentrum (the Centre Political Party) was founded in the 1870s to protect the rights of the Catholic minority and was always held together by its commitment to Catholicism.
In the years of the republic, it shared some views with the Left. It supported the welfare state, for example, and worked for an international understanding among nations. Its leader Matthias Erzberger helped to uphold the Weimar constitution and supported parliamentary democracy. The Zentrum also worked for the preservation of the federal states – the Länder.
At the same time, the Zentrum shared views with the Right. It advocated a patriarchal system of cooperation at home and was quite conservative about the nation’s defences.
The Catholic Zentrum was part of the government coalition for most of the history of the Weimar Republic, but was never a true supporter #Germany #History #GermanHistory Click To Tweet
Heinrich Brüning
Despite being part of the government coalition for most of the history of the Weimar Republic, the Zentrum was never a faithful supporter. As a catholic party, they ill-tolerated a republic that was considered ‘marxist’, whose ideals and provisions – vote to women, openness to Jews and homosexual, tolerance toward the decadent forms of art – were hard to uphold. The Zentrum greatly preferred the monarchy, especially considering that the Empire had made religion one of the pillars of its power. In fact, the Zentrum was not opposed to the idea that a strong man should guide the nation.
In 1930 a member of the Zentrum, Heinrich Brüning, was appointed as Chancellor of a minority government, mostly formed by Communists and the newly successful NSDAP. Brüning tried to appeal these forces by proposing a more nationalistic policy that was mostly rejected by the Reichstag so that he was forced to govern by presidential emergency decree time and again. It is believed that this opened the way to the fatal use of that same act in the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933.
And so it was right in the Reichstag, the seat of the democratic government, that the Weimar Republic found its end.
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RESOURCES
Facing History and Ourselves – Weimar Political Parties
Deutscher Bundestag – Political Parties in the Weimar Republic (pdf)
Walter Laqueur, Weimar, A Cultural History 1918-1933. Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd. London, 1971
17 Comments
Brilliant Sarah – thanks for all the research you did for these posts … I’ll enjoy going back and putting them together – thanks … congratulations on getting to Z – cheers Hilary
Thanks to YOU Hilary, for your support and your comments. It’s because of the support of readers such as you that this challenge is worth.
And congratulations on finishing your own challenge!
How interesting – and how sad – that what could have been an international model for cooperation in a coalition government ended up exactly the opposite. I want to thank you for such a fascinating series of posts this month, Sarah. You’ve given us so much to think about, and shed quite a lot of light on how history worked out as it did.
You know? How the coalition worked – or didn’t worked – in that contex reminds me a lot of what’s happening in my country right now. History repeats itself, it has this upsetting habit.
Thansk you so much for your support and your comments, Margot, you didn’t miss one post and it means a lot to me.
I really enjoyed this ride. It is no secret that I love the 1920s, but Germany in that time is a particularly interesting place in my opinion and I really enjoyed learning and sharing about it.
A fitting end to the A to Z and I loved reading your posts and learned quite a bit.
Thansk for stopping by so often, Brigit, and for offering true life experience through your grandparents’ life.
And congrats on finishing your own challenge. Great job!
A sadly classical example of the limits of a minority identitarian political movement, Sarah, but a good end to your Weimar alphabet!
Yes, I though it was 😉
Thanks to you, John. I really really enjoyed all of your comments, since it’s very apparent that you know a great deal of this subject.
I fell in love with the Weimar Republic, I’ll tell the truth, so it’s very likely that I’ll blog about it in the future too.
How well your “Z” fit in with your theme. Thank you for an interesting trip through history and congratulations on finishing the challenge.
Thanks for your great support, Kristin. And congratulations of finishing your own challenge! I’m afraid I wasn’t as supportive, but I’ll catch up in the next weeks.
Congratulations – another successful challenge! I’ve learned a lot.
Thanks so much for reading along, Anabel.
I’m happy I completed the challange, I really liked the research… but now I have so much catching up to do!!!!
Sarah, another year, another challenge. It’s been great reading your posts.
A-Zing this year at:
FictionCanBeFun
Normally found at:
DebsDespatches
Thanks Debs! I’m so behind in reading your challenge, but I’ll catch up. No way that I don’t learn how the story ends 😉
And congrats in completing yours!
Congratulations on completing the challenge! As usual, a very informative and intriguing theme, and great posts 🙂 Didn’t have time to visit every day, but I’ll definitely read back 🙂 Thank you!
The Multicolored Diary: Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales
Thanks and congratulations to you too! I am so behind in reading fellow bloggers. This year the challenge was co demanding and I had to completely drop networking, especially in the last week. Whcih I’m very sorry, but I’ll catch up as soon as I can.
Hi Sarah – thanks for your recent comment … these have been brilliant posts – and so useful to so many of us – as we get a better understanding of the beginning of this German era … thanks … see you soon – cheers Hilary
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