Bauer cabinet

The government of Gustav Bauer was created under great time pressure and extraordinary circumstances. Early on 20 June 1919, the government of Philipp Scheidemann resigned when it was unable to agree on a common stance towards the Allied ultimatum to either sign the Treaty of Versailles or face a resumption of hostilities. Germany had less than five days to accept. It was widely feared that a refusal to sign would result in the dismemberment of the German state, occupation by foreign troops and a possible plunge into civil war.[1]

At a loss over how to proceed, the Scheidemann cabinet had seriously considered handing over supreme authority over Germany to the Allies. It had been unprepared for their complete refusal to negotiate the Treaty's terms. After the cabinet's resignation, it fell to President Friedrich Ebert and the majority parties of the Weimar National Assembly to create a new government and to decide whether to sign the Treaty. Out of this crisis emerged the Bauer cabinet.[1]

The parties themselves were split, with ongoing internal debates between those for and against signing. Under the leadership of Matthias Erzberger, the Centre Party was willing to sign provided that some "dishonourable" clauses were struck from the text, and the Social Democrats advocated a separate, parallel note of protest. However, the DDP, which had been most vocal among the coalition parties in opposing the Treaty, insisted on making substantial changes as the condition for its acceptance. It was seen as a tactical move, an attempt to preserve the appearance of a willingness to compromise whilst remaining true to their principles.[1]

Threats by Ebert to resign and even the readiness of SPD and Centre Party to accept the DDP's demands failed to bring the Democrats on board. On the morning of 21 June, the DDP forbade its members from taking positions in a new cabinet. This made it impossible for those in the DDP who were in favour of signing (such as Hugo Preuss and Bernhard Dernburg) to cooperate and also posed a problem for the Centre Party, which previously had refused to entertain the idea of a coalition without the DDP. Ebert, who had promised never to call for a cabinet based only on the SPD and Centre Party, had to give in. The Social Democrats in the Assembly named Eduard David, who next to Erzberger had been the member of the old cabinet most supportive of the Treaty, as candidate for head of government. Hermann Müller, the SPD chairman, was seen as a favourite by the public.[1]

On the morning of 21 June, Müller presented the SPD parliamentary group with an almost complete cabinet list (virtually identical with the cabinet eventually appointed). David had declined to become head of government for "health reasons". According to Müller, Gustav Noske, Rudolf Wissell and Robert Schmidt, all SPD, were needed in their respective posts as ministers. Former minister of Labour Gustav Bauer was then named as candidate for minister president even though he had been quite vocal in his opposition to the Treaty. The Social Democrats were surprised by the choice. They asked Müller to become head of government, but he refused. Overall, the formation of the cabinet occurred with minimal involvement by the SPD, for which Müller had to justify himself shortly before the initial meeting of the cabinet.

President Ebert apparently had exercised a considerable amount of influence on events (to which he was entitled under §8 of the temporary constitution, the Law on Provisional Reich Power). Since Bauer was a friend of Ebert, the President likely did not intend for him to "take a fall" as the head of government who had to sign the hated Treaty. Bauer was not a great leadership personality who could be confidently expected to deal successfully with the huge challenges posed by complying with the Treaty while fending off internal dissent both from the left and the right. Ebert's choice is seen today as a reflection of the fact that Ebert himself had only grudgingly accepted the inevitability of signing the Treaty shortly before the Scheidemann cabinet resigned. In contrast to those like David who had argued in favour of signing from the start, Bauer was – like Ebert – a reluctant convert. The choice of Bauer thus was based on a mutual feeling of party solidarity between two Social Democrats willing to take responsibility for the consequences of the lost war and on Bauer's personal friendship with Ebert.[1]

Bauer took on the thankless task, saying, "We are not standing here out of the interest of our parties, and even less – believe me – out of ambition. We are standing here out of a feeling of responsibility, in the awareness that it is our damned duty to save what can be saved." On 22 June he spoke defiantly to the National Assembly about the need to sign the Versailles Treaty:

Let us sign, that is the proposal I have to make to you on behalf of the entire cabinet. The reasons that compel us to make the proposal are the same as yesterday, only now we are separated by a period of barely four hours before the resumption of hostilities. We could not justify a new war even if we had weapons. We are defenceless, but without defence does not mean without honour. Certainly, our enemies want to take away our honour, there is no doubt about that, but that this attempt at stripping away our honour will one day fall back on the originators, that it is not our honour that will perish in this world tragedy, that is my belief until my last breath.[2]

A final attempt to have the so-called "articles of shame" 227 to 231[3][4] removed from the Treaty was rejected by the Allies. From the moment of its inception, the Bauer cabinet was thus tainted in the eyes of many in Germany, both for its submissive acceptance and its failure to negotiate an improvement in the Treaty.[1]

At that point there were rumours of an impending military coup, and the Centre Party started to reconsider its support for signing. Ministers Johannes Bell and Wilhelm Mayer argued for a rejection of the Treaty. It was only the clear message sent by General Wilhelm Groener at the Supreme Army Command (OHL) that a resumption of hostilities would be "hopeless" that prevented the speedy collapse of the Bauer cabinet.[1]

The members of the cabinet – known collectively as the Reich Ministry until the Weimar Constitution came into force in August 1919, when the official name became the Reich government – were as follows:[5]

Notes:[5]

After the National Assembly's June vote to accept the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 237 to 138 with 5 abstentions,[6] it formally ratified the Treaty and the regulations covering the occupation of the Rhineland on 9 July.

The Assembly continued to work on the new constitution for the Republic during the first few months of the Bauer cabinet. It passed the final draft on 31 July, 262 to 75,[7] with the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), German National People's Party (DNVP) and German People's Party (DVP) voting against. The Assembly had its first session in Berlin on 30 September, once the capital was considered to be safe.

On 7 July, Finance Minister Matthias Erzberger (Centre Party) presented a package of far-reaching fiscal reforms that fundamentally changed Germany's tax system. Tax legislation and administration were taken from the states and centralised at the Reich level. Income, corporate, inheritance and indirect taxes were standardised and increased, and a one-time property levy was imposed.[8]

After the failure of the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch on 17 March 1920, union and left-wing leaders such as Carl Legien, Arthur Crispien and Rudolf Hilferding put pressure on the government that had just returned to Berlin after having fled first to Dresden and then to Stuttgart. On 22 March the unions ended their general strike, which had been central to defeating the putsch, conditional on concessions by the government: withdrawal of troops from Berlin and a decisive influence of organized labour on the makeup of the next cabinet. Ultimately the Bauer cabinet had to resign because it had been unable to prevent the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch. It was to be replaced by a cabinet of politicians who could not be charged with leading Germany to the brink of class and civil war, precisely where it had been a year earlier. The new government was the SPD-led first Müller cabinet, which took office on 27 March 1920.[9]