German Reichstag Deutscher Reichstag | |
|---|---|
| Legislative body ofGermany | |
.svg) | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Established | 6 February 1919 |
| Disbanded | 23 March 1933 |
| Preceded by | Weimar National Assembly |
| Succeeded by | Greater German Reichstag |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 647 (at dissolution) |
 Last composition First composition | |
Political groups | |
| Elections | |
| Closed list proportional representation | |
First election | 6 June 1920 |
Last election | 5 March 1933 |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| Reichstag building, Berlin | |
| Constitution | |
| Weimar Constitution | |
TheReichstag of theWeimar Republic (1919–1933) was the lower house of Germany's parliament; the upper house was theReichsrat, which represented the states. The Reichstag convened for the first time on 24 June 1920, taking over from theWeimar National Assembly, which had served as an interim parliament following the collapse of theGerman Empire in November 1918.
Under theWeimar Constitution of 1919, the Reichstag was elected every four years by universal, equal, secret and direct suffrage, using a system of party-listproportional representation. All citizens who had reached the age of 20 were allowed to vote, including women for the first time, but excluding soldiers on active duty.[1] The Reichstag voted on the laws of the Reich and was responsible for the budget, questions of war and peace, and confirmation of state treaties. Oversight of the Reich government (the ministers responsible for executing the laws) also resided with the Reichstag. It could force individual ministers or the entire government to resign by means of a vote of no confidence, and underArticle 48 of the constitution[2] it could rescind emergency decrees issued by theReich president. The Reich president could dissolve the Reichstag under Article 25 of the constitution, but only once for the same reason.[2]
The Reichstag as a free and democratic institution ceased to exist following the passage of theEnabling Act of 1933 which granted ChancellorAdolf Hitler the power to draft and enforce laws as he pleased.
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The main rights, duties and responsibilities of the Reichstag were defined in theWeimar Constitution. (All references to constitutional articles can be found in the footnoted[2] English translation).
Each voter had one vote, which was cast on an electoral district ballot. The number of seats was determined byproportional representation. The number of Reichstag seats fluctuated because they depended on the total number of votes cast, with one seat allocated for 60,000 votes. In 1919 theWeimar National Assembly consisted of 421 members; in 1933 the last Reichstag had 647.
In the election to the Weimar National Assembly, the group of eligible voters expanded considerably, from 14,441,400 in 1912 (thelast Reichstag election under the Empire) to 37,362,100 in 1919,[3] primarily because women had been given the right to vote and the voting age was lowered from 25 to 20. Those who could not exercise the right to vote were active duty soldiers, people living in a sanatorium or nursing home and those in criminal or pre-trial detention. Citizenship had to have been obtained at least one year before election day.[4] The election date was set by the Reich president. After November 1918 it had to be a Sunday or a public holiday, in accordance with a long-standing social democratic demand.
The Reich was divided into 35 electoral districts (sg.Wahlkreis) that were combined into 16 electoral associations (sg.Wahlkreisverband). The parties drew up a list of candidates for each electoral district in which they were participating and also a list of candidates at the Reich level.
A district received one seat for every 60,000 votes cast for a list, with the first 60,000 votes going to the first candidate on the list (as ranked by the party), the second 60,000 to the second candidate, and so on. Residual votes were transferred to the level of the electoral association. There, the remaining votes from the districts making up the association were added together; for a full 60,000 votes, there was one seat from the district list that had contributed the most residual votes. Any additional remaining votes were carried over to the national level where a party again received one seat (from the national list) per 60,000 votes.[5]
A number of additional rules were added to this basic procedure. The most important was that a party could win seats only if it had received 30,000 or more votes in at least one district. Furthermore, a national list could deliver only as many seats as the party had already received in total at the lower levels. These provisions disadvantaged small parties without a regional focus. They nevertheless also resulted in a large number of parties being represented in the Reichstag. Beyond the 30,000 vote hurdle there was no minimum threshold (such as the 5% threshold ofsecond votes in modern Germany) for a party to enter the Reichstag.
The following is a list of constituencies as they existed from 1924 onwards.[6]
The Reichstag president and his deputies (thePresidium) were elected by Reichstag members at the beginning of the legislative period. According to parliamentary custom, a representative of the strongest party in the Reichstag was usually elected president.
| No. | Name | Party | Start of Term | End of Term | Time in Office |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eduard David (1863–1930) | SPD | 7 February 1919 | 13 February 1919 | 6 days |
| 2 | Constantin Fehrenbach (1852–1926) | Centre | 14 February 1919 | 21 June 1920 | 1 year, 128 days |
| 3 | Paul Löbe (1875–1967) | SPD | 25 June 1920 | 28 May 1924 | 3 years, 338 days |
| 4 | Max Wallraf (1859–1941) | DNVP | 28 May 1924 | 7 January 1925 | 224 days |
| 5 | Paul Löbe (1875–1967) | SPD | 7 January 1925 | 30 August 1932 | 7 years, 236 days |
| 6 | Hermann Göring (1893–1946) | NSDAP | 30 August 1932 | 23 April 1945 | 12 years, 236 days |
ThePresidium was supported by the Council of Elders (Ältestenrat). The body consisted of the Reichstag president, the deputy presidents and a total of twenty-one members appointed by the Reichstag parties. Those appointed usually included the party chairmen. The Council of Elders was chaired and convened by the president or his deputies. The body was responsible for reaching agreement among the parties on agendas and work plans. These agreements were not, however, legally binding. The Council of Elders also determined the chairmen of the committees and their deputies as well as certain other organizational issues. In spite of its limited powers, the Council of Elders had considerable importance for the functioning of parliament. In essence, its tasks were comparable to those of theÄltestenrat in the modern GermanBundestag.[7]
Between 1919 and 1933 there was one election to the constituent National Assembly and eight to the Reichstag. While parties of the political center dominated in 1919 (theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD),Centre Party andGerman Democratic Party (DDP)), the party spectrum of the Weimar Republic was characterized by fragmentation and, towards the end, increasing radicalization (theCommunist Party of Germany (KPD) and theNazi Party (NSDAP)).
| Reichstag Election Results 1919–1933[8] % of votes / # of members | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | KPD | USPD | SPD | Centre | BVP | DDP | DVP | DNVP | NSDAP | Others | Women | Turnout |
| 19 January 1919[a] | — | 7.6% 22 | 37.9% 163 | 19.7% 91 | — | 18.6% 75 | 4.4% 19 | 10.3% 44 | — | 1.5% 7 | 8.7% 37 | 83.0% 421 |
| 6 June 1920 | 2.1% 4 | 17.6% 83 | 21.9% 103 | 13.6% 64 | 4.2% 20 | 8.4% 39 | 14.0% 65 | 15.1% 71 | — | 3.4% 10 | 8.0% 37 | 79.0% 459 |
| 4 May 1924 | 12.6% 62 | 0.8% 0 | 20.5% 100 | 13.4% 65 | 3.2% 16 | 5.7% 28 | 9.2% 45 | 19.5% 95 | 6.6%[b] 32 | 8.5% 29 | 5.7% 27 | 77.4% 472 |
| 7 December 1924 | 9.0% 45 | 0.3% 0 | 26.0% 131 | 13.6% 69 | 3.7% 19 | 6.3% 32 | 10.1% 51 | 20.5% 103 | 3.0%[c] 14 | 7.5% 29 | 6.7% 33 | 78.8% 493 |
| 20 May 1928 | 10.6% 54 | 0.1% 0 | 29.8% 153 | 12.1% 61 | 3.1% 17 | 4.8% 25 | 8.7% 45 | 14.2% 73 | 2.6% 12 | 14.0% 51 | 6.7% 33 | 75.6% 491 |
| 14 September 1930 | 13.1% 77 | 0.03% 0 | 24.5% 143 | 11.8% 68 | 3.0% 19 | 3.8% 20 | 4.5% 30 | 7.0% 41 | 18.3% 107 | 14.0% 72 | 6.8% 39 | 82.0% 577 |
| 31 July 1932 | 14.3% 89 | — | 21.6% 133 | 12.4% 75 | 3.2% 22 | 1.0% 4 | 1.2% 7 | 5.9% 37 | 37.3% 230 | 3.1% 11 | 5.6% 34 | 84.1% 608 |
| 6 November 1932 | 16.9% 100 | — | 20.4% 121 | 11.9% 70 | 3.1% 20 | 1.0% 2 | 1.9% 11 | 8.3% 51 | 33.1% 196 | 3.3% 13 | 6.0% 35 | 80.6% 584 |
| 5 March 1933 | 12.3% 81 | — | 18.3% 120 | 11.3% 73 | 2.7% 19 | 0.9% 5 | 1.1% 2 | 8.0%[d] 52 | 43.9% 288 | 1.5% 7 | 3.2% 21 | 88.7% 647 |
The powers given to the Reich president in constitutional articles 48 and 25[2] (emergency decrees and dissolution of parliament) made possible the so-calledpresidential cabinets (Präsidialkabinette) from 1930 onward, when the Reich president and the Reich government largely did the legislative work instead of the Reichstag. The practice was reinforced by the electoral successes of the anti-republicanNazi Party and theCommunist Party of Germany, which together had a majority in the Reichstag following theReichstag election of 31 July 1932. In 1933 the National Socialists used the two constitutional articles, along with the ability to transfer the legislative function from the Reichstag to the government through anEnabling Act, toestablish a dictatorship. Following the banning of the left-wing parties and the forced self-dissolution of the center and right-wing parties in the spring of 1933, enactment of theLaw Against the Formation of Parties (14 July 1933) converted the Reichstag into a one-partyrubber stamp parliament dominated by the NSDAP. Its last session was held on 26 April 1942.
