Rosenberg analyzes one of the Weimar Republic’s Presidential elections. After Ebert’s death in early 1925, Germany held its first Presidential election since 1919. The vote over two rounds saw a plethora of parties, with the second round seeing the Right coalesce around von Hindenburg and the old Social Democrat-Center coalition around the Center’s Wilhelm Marx, and the Communists running Ernst Thälmann in both rounds. The SPD-Center’s vote collapse by about half while the right, supported by the Fascists, was able to win with 48%, with the Communists at around 6.5%, well behind the 12.6% they received in the previous years’ parliamentary elections.

‘The German Presidential Election; Reichs President Field Marshall von Hindenburg’ by Arthur Rosenberg from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 5 Nos. 30 & 40. April 9 & November 29, 1925.

At the German Presidential election on March 29th there were seven candidates: three black white and red, three black red and gold; and the communist. The black red and gold candidates Marx, Braun and Hellpach represented the three “Reichsbanner” parties, the Centre, the S.P. of Germany and the Democrats, as far as it is permissible to describe the Centre as a Republican party for, as is well known, the Centre sits together with the German Nationals in Luther’s Monarchist Government.

The relation of the three black, white and red candidates to one another is much more complicated. A block had been formed in support of Jarres’ candidature, to which belonged the German Nationals, the German People’s Party, the Big Agrarians’ League, the party for the protection of the Middle Classes, the Fascist party and the so-called German Social party. The parties enumerated remained true to Jarres with the exception of a group of the Fascist which, under Hitler’s leadership, put up Ludendorff as a candidate. Ludendorff however met with a smashing defeat even in Bavaria, and the main mass of the Nationalist electors voted for Jarres. The Bavarian Prime Minister Held, was supported by the Bavarian National party, the Bavarian Peasants’ League and the German Hanoverian party, i.e. conservative groups which however bring into prominence the particularism of the separate lands.

It is now a question of correctly comparing the election result of March 29th with the last German Reichstag” election on Dezember 7th. On that day, the Jarres block obtained the following number of votes:

German National People’s Party: 6,205,000
German People’s Party: 3,049,000
Fascist: 907,000
Agricultural League: 499,000
Party for the Protection of the Middle Classes: 700,000
German Socialists: 160,000

Total: 11,520,000 votes.

This time Jarres obtained 10,788,000 votes and Ludendorff 211,000, i.e. altogether 11 millions votes. Thus the Jarres block had a net loss of half a million votes.

The Held parties obtained on March 29th the following number of votes:

Bavarian People’s Party: 1,132,000
German Hanoverian Party: 263,000
Bavarian Peasants’ League: 300,000

Total: 1,695,000 votes.

The Held group has thus a total loss of 700,000 votes. If we consider the election results in Bavaria and Hanover in detail, we see that hundreds of thousands of electors of the Bavarian People’s Party, of the Peasant League and of the Hanoverian Party did not this time follow the instructions of their leaders and even in the first election voted for Jarres, so as not to split the vote of the black white and reds. Thus we have a total loss to the black white and red parties of 1,200,000.

What then is the position of the black red and gold candidates? The Democrats obtained this time 300,000 votes less than on December 7th (fall from 1,918,000 to 1,582,000); the Centre lost about 100,000 (fall from 4,092,000 to 3,989,000). The Social Democrats almost exactly maintained their position; they obtained on December 7th 7,881,000 votes and this time 7,837,000. Their loss therefore only amounts to 44,000 votes.

Finally the Communist candidate registered a drop of 800,000 votes (from 2,708,000 to 1,886,000).

The result therefore was: the Centre and the S.P. of Germany on the whole maintained their position, the Right parties lost 1,200,000 votes, the Communists 800,000 the Democrats 300,000, These figures imply the following political movement: the workers took comparatively little interest in this election. Many hundreds of thousands of proletarians who voted on December 7th, abstained from the ballot this time. From all parts of Germany the same fact is reported, that the workers only took part in the election in small numbers. This is the immediate explanation of the loss by the Communist party. No one dared seriously to maintain that the 800,000 electors who failed to vote for us this time, had really turned their backs on the Communist party; but these workers said to themselves that the Communist candidate had no hope of success in any case, that in the capitalist Republic only a reactionary would become President, and that therefore there was no object in voting. Thus the worst enemy of the C.P. of Germany was again, as on December 7th, not the bourgeoisie or the S.P. of Germany, but the slackness and indifference in the camp of the proletariat itself. The party did everything in its power to persuade the masses to take part in the election, but only with partial success. The least reduction of votes was again in Berlin. The lesson of December 7th that our Berlin organisation is the most firmly consolidated in the whole C.P. of Germany was confirmed.

The disinclination of the workers to vote however not only affected us but was also a serious blow to the S.P. of Germany. The S.P. of Germany also suffered a loss of hundreds of thousands of proletarian votes at this election; it only made up for this loss by catching the greater part of those 1,200,000 voters who this time turned their backs on the parties of the Right. These 1,200,000 voters of both sexes are however recruited mainly from the camp of persons with small savings, small private means and other members of the middle class who are interested in the question of the re-establishment of the currency. The revaluation of those stocks and shares and securities (State and Government loans, municipal loans, industrial obligations, mortgages etc.), which, during the inflation became worthless scraps of paper, is at the present moment a crucial question in German politics. The German Nationalists allured half a million of members of the middle class at the last Parliamentary Election by promising to carry through this revaluation. We now have the German National Government, but the revaluation has not taken place, because the great capitalists have not the least intention of making any appreciable concessions to the middle classes. The small investors are consequently greatly embittered, and their wrath is directed in the first place against the parties of the Right who have broken their word. The S.P. of Germany has, during the last few months, carried on a cunning propaganda among the people with small savings and private incomes, by persuading these petty bourgeois that Social Democracy will achieve this revaluation. The Communists have of course lost ground in this demagogic race, for we cannot make promises to the petty bourgeois which, it stands to reason, cannot be fulfilled. The present position of German economics is incapable of standing any appreciable revaluation, and those groups of the petty bourgeoisie who have forsaken the German National party will, in an equally short time, leave the S.P. of Germany in the lurch. It is estimated that this time at least half a million of those interested in the revaluation of securities and of other members of the petty bourgeoisie voted for the S.P. of Germany, and thus compensated for a corresponding loss of workers’ votes. There can be no question of the S.P. of Germany having, at this election, in any way curtailed the influence of the Communists on the proletariat.

The true force of the S.P. and of the C.P. of Germany was clearly demonstrated on the day after the election. The C.P. declared at once that they would use all the power and energy at their disposal in preparing for the fight at the 2nd ballot. The S.P. however immediately declared officially that they would withdraw their candidate in favour of one representing the united republican parties. The S.P. of Germany is thus, in spite of its 8 million votes, convinced that it will lose the succession to Ebert, and is therefore offering its votes to the Centre, the very party which plays the chief part in the Luther Government, i.e. in the monarchist Right Block of the Reichstag. The S.P. of Germany is, it is true, still backed by large masses of the population but it has absolutely no power of attack and, in spite of the excellent working of its election machinery, the place it takes in the esteem of the bourgeoisie is in keeping with this fact. No one dreams of the possibility of a Social Democrat being elected President. Either the S.P. of Germany, as already suggested, will at the 2nd ballot support Marx, or the Centre will decline this offer and will come to an understanding with the parties of the Right as to a common candidate of the bourgeois block, whose election would then be assured.

The considerable loss of votes of the Democrats once more points out the complete impotence of trade and of manufactures in the Germany of to-day as compared with heavy industry. The great clamour raised by the democratic papers in Berlin, Frankfort a. M. etc., i.e. those financed by Jewish commercial capital for Hellpach, the democratic candidate, had obviously no effect whatever.

In this whole election campaign only the C.P. of Germany took up a firm attitude and acted according to principle and, although its cause appeared hopeless in the eyes of the masses, it succeeded in collecting almost 2 million votes for Thälmann’s candidature. The S.P. of Germany made many demagogic promises but never went thoroughly into the questions. Even the black, white and red parties carried on the election campaign in a very subdued manner. Fear of the Entente prevented them speaking of the monarchy, the black white and red or of a war of revenge; the election leaflets for Jarres confined themselves to stating the praiseworthy facts that Jarres is a good German, a worthy father of a family with a blameless life, and a pious Christian. That part of the bourgeoisie which in Germany has most political power, the black white and red great capital, would like to have the choosing of the President, so that with his help they could establish a dictatorship in the country, but they have not the courage openly to raise this question of a black white and red dictatorship, and so the election campaign came to grief. Apart form the Communist agitation, the discussions actually turned mainly on the blameless family life of Jarres, on Braun’s good heart and on Hellpach’s fine gift of rhetoric. On the whole it was a typical election of the plain man in the street, and consequently the parties of the simple citizens came off best. The actual proportionate power of the various classes found no expression in this foolish performance.

The C.P. of Germany will, at the 2nd ballot, use all its powers to stir up the indifferent masses and show them the danger which a great capitalist dictator as a President would involve, it being a matter of complete indifference whether this dictator is chosen by the Centre or the German National People’s party. And even the man chosen by the S.P. of Germany, were he elected which however is absolutely out of the question, would be the lackey of the great capitalists in the best Noske style. In spite of the loss of votes, the C.P. of Germany will firmly follow the line of action which it has taken up in this Presidential Election. Our slogan for the 2nd ballot will continue to be the demonstration for the Red Republic against the Capitalist Republic or the Capitalist Monarchy.

***

Reichs President Field Marshall von Hindenburg.

The Weimar Republic which died along with Fritz Ebert, was solemnly buried on the 26th April to the accompaniment of the fluttering of the black-white-red flags. Field Marshall Wilhelm Hindenburg is now President of the Republic. That is to say: Germany is only a Republic in the sense of Horthy-Hungary or Bavaria of Kahr and Held. Germany is now a Monarchy without a monarch.

The 26th of April was a great victory of the black-white-red bloc, a tolerable success for the Communist Party of Germany, and a miserable collapse for the Social Democrats and for their so-called People’s Bloc.

With regard to the Bloc of the Right this united in the first place two elements: the big bourgeoisie and the fascist masses of the middle class, of the agrarians, officers, students, etc.

The German big bourgeoisie by no means desired that Hindenburg should be put forward as a candidate. Stresemann and the German People’s Party fought right up to the last moment against Hindenburg’s candidature. It was the fascist organisations and the petty bourgeoisie which upheld the black-white-red Field-Marshall, Herr von Tirpitz and the fascist agrarian Schlange-Schöningen were the real wire-pullers of the candidature of Hindenburg.

The big bourgeoisie then, it is true, consented to the candidature. It endeavoured to render the putting forward of the Field-Marshall as harmless as possible. Hindenburg had to grant interviews to foreign journalists, to recognise the Peace Treaty of Versailles and to speak with diplomatic reserve regarding the League of Nations and the Geneva Protocol. The press of German big industry assured the Entente that in the event of his election Hindenburg would continue the policy of fulfilment of the Experts’ Report and would not attempt any nationalist adventure.

In spite of this precautionary measure of the ruling German industry, the candidature and the electoral victory of Hindenburg means a certain restoration of German fascism. The chauvinist demagogy has seized hold of the broadest masses of the population. It is not to be wondered therefore that in Upper Bavaria and Last Prussia Hindenburg received two thirds, and in Pommerania even three quarters of all the votes cast. But the fact that in the Ruhr district Hindenburg received almost half a million votes, means that great masses of miners must have voted black-white-red. In red Halle Hindenburg received more votes than Marx and Thaelmann together. The same was the case in Erfurt, in Kiel and even in Chemnitz! In all these working class towns a considerable section of the proletariat must have swung round, a very serious fact! The same thing was to be seen in Hamburg. The black-white-red bloc, therefore unites for the time being the German big bourgeoisie with the overwhelming majority of the middle class and a considerable section of the proletariat.

It is true this Hindenburg coalition cannot last long. Under the name of Hindenburg the German bourgeoisie will continue the policy of Luther and Stresemann, that is, the policy of national capitulation abroad and of plundering the broad masses at home. Thus a rebellion in the camp of the right bloc is inevitable. The disappointment of the fascist masses will seriously affect the ruling bourgeoisie. The capitalists will be compelled to grant sham nationalists concessions. These will increase the difficulties in the sphere of foreign politics. This in turn will have its effect on the home policy.

The Communist Party of Germany, if it adopts a wise policy, will be able to win the workers, petty bourgeoisie and peasants away from the black-white-red swindle.

The defeat of the Marx Bloc is a severe blow to the social democratic leadership. The Socialist Party of Germany concluded a shabby bargain with the capitalist centre party. The centre believed that, with the help of the socialist votes, it could improve its position within the German bourgeoisie. The social democratic leaders, as a reward for their services, wanted to secure from the Centre the posts of Prussian Ministers. As a result the socialist Party humbugged the masses that their alliance with the Centre was a “People’s Bloc” for the defence of the Republic, and that it was against big capital. But this fraud was too obvious even for German Conditions. That Herr Marx, the man of the Bishops and of the catholic industrial magnates would conduct a fight against the Right, was really not to be expected. But the miserable cowardice displayed by the Marx people in the election campaign exceeded all expectations.

The People’s Bloc while fighting Hindenburg rendered him the most servile homage and carefully avoided doing anything which would offend the monarchists or capitalists in any way. An election campaign conducted in such a manner could not end otherwise than in defeat. A portion of the social democratic workers, before all in Saxony, rebelled against the command of their Party and instead of voting for Marx voted for Thaelmann. Thus in Dresden the votes for Thaelmann increased from:36,000 at the first ballot to 65,000 at the second and in Chemnitz from 100,000 to 140,000.

It is the task of the C.P. of Germany to encourage this revolt of the social democratic workers against the Barmat leaders. The S.P. of Germany has for seven years, in the name of the Republic, pampered and encouraged the capitalists and monarchists, until at last we find Hindenburg at the head of the Republic. The social democratic press speak of “Hindenburg by the grace of Thaelmann”, but the real culprit was Noske.

The situation of the communist candidate at the second ballot was even more difficult than at the first. Everybody knew that this time the decision lay between Hindenburg and Marx. Every vote for Thaelmann therefore was a vote which had no influence on the result. It therefore required a certain political consciousness to vote for Thaelmann as a purely demonstrative action.

If in spite of this the C.P. of Germany was able to increase its vote at the second ballot, it means a success. The two million voters for Thaelmann are of course only a part of the German workers who sympathise with us, as is shown at every factory council election.

The monarchism which is now ruling in Germany is the coalition of big capital with the fascists, promoted by the cowardice and treachery of the social democratic leaders. The fight against Hindenburg is today the fight against German big capital and against its economic, political and military apparatus. The fight against Hindenburg means the fight for the eight hour day, as well as against the Stahlhelm (fascist organisation).

In this fight the C.P. of Germany will take the lead. Today the C.P. of Germany is the only genuine serious opposition Party in Germany against Hindenburg, the only Republican Party, the only party which is for the working masses and against capitalist exploitation, for the national interests of the broad masses of the working population and against the Dawes system. For us the Hindenburg period means fresh difficulties and dangers, but at the same time it means new possibilities of winning the masses and of mass struggle. The Party will approach these tasks with firmness and determination and without wavering.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1925/v05n30-apr-09-1925-inprecor.pdf

PDF of issue 2: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1925/v05n83-nov-26-1925-inprecor.pdf