Despite Ebert's unconditional support for the government's conduct of the war his party was nevertheless viewed as dangerous revolutionaries by many in the military high command as well as by members of the government. By the national political consensus had effectively dissolved and Ebert's party was as greatly affected as others. In March that year a left-wing faction split and established the Independent Social Democratic Party USPD , simultaneously declaring total opposition to the government's conduct of the war.
Their aim was nothing less than social revolution. This went far beyond the scope of remedy sought by Ebert who remained in favour of a parliamentary democracy.
With military defeat imminent Ebert supported the creation of a coalition government in October with Prince Max von Baden at its head. Desperate to avoid revolution Ebert argued for extensive constitutional reform to forestall the growing influence of the extreme left-wing and widespread public discontent.
In the event Ebert lost his race to establish a constitutional monarchy. On 9 November his close colleague Philipp Scheidemann announced from the Reichstag balcony the creation of a German republic without consulting either Ebert or Max von Baden.
The same day Max von Baden announced his own retirement and while accepting Scheidemann's proclamation as a fait accompli handed over power to Ebert thereby earning him the undying enmity of the country's right-wing throughout the s.
Weeks later, on the day of his swearing-in as president of the German Reich, it appeared in a Berlin tabloid. The picture of the politician in swimming trunks became popular fodder for caricatures. Many German schools, foundations, streets or bridges, like the one here in Duisburg, bear Ebert's name. The principles of social democracy that Ebert stood for in the wake of a disastrous First World War and dynastic Prussian rule guided the successful German Revolution of —19 and have since become cornerstones of Germany's self-image.
Despite allying with nationalist forces to quash the socialist and communist uprising of , Friedrich Ebert would become the figurehead of German democracy during his relatively short term as president.
When he died of appendicitis on February 28, at the age of 54, an estimated 1 million citizens attended his funeral procession in Berlin. Ebert was buried in his hometown of Heidelberg. After Ebert's death, monuments to him were initially erected all over Germany, but their fate reflected two turbulent decades to come: After taking power in , the National Socialist dictatorship desecrated and demolished memorials dedicated to Ebert.
After the unconditional surrender of the Germans in , many of the monuments were erected again, including this one in Offenbach in While one usually only reads about Ebert, it is also possible to hear him: The sound archives of the Humboldt University stores recordings of famous personalities of the Empire and the Weimar Republic.
This shellac record contains a speech that Ebert gave as president of the Weimar Republic in At the end of , Germany was at a crossroads. Its defeat in World War I had been sealed. Kaiser Wilhelm II fled into exile in the Netherlands in the course of the November Revolution, which began with a sailors' uprising. Countless people were starving. Traumatized, war-disabled soldiers came back from the front, desperately looking for their place in a shattered world.
In this time of confusion and upheaval, the son of a tailor played a decisive role in shaping political fate: Friedrich Ebert, born on February 4, , in Heidelberg, the seventh of nine children. Ebert's life represented the dream of social advancement: A trained saddlery journeyman who traveled for years after completing his apprenticeship and had a stint as a pub owner, his diligence, organizational talent and a sense of duty finally brought him to the top of the political establishment as chair of the Social Democratic Party of Germany SPD.
The Great War had taken a heavy toll on Ebert personally: Two of his five children had died. Unaffiliated with any religion, he supported a fundamental move to change the direction of the country: to shift from Prussia's authoritarian monarchy to a modern democratic republic. Democratic elections had yet to be introduced. In addition, the "revolution government" faced the difficult challenge of building up a country that was economically in tatters.
Even amid the devastation, the majority of the German population could not accept the war defeat and clung to the idea of the bygone German Empire. The country was bankrupt, hungry and to many leaderless.
Ebert not only had to confront this, he had to address it. Ebert was born in Heidelberg on February 4 th He became a saddler by trade and drifted towards the liberal side of politics. It was effectively the start of his political career. In , Ebert was appointed secretary of the Central Committee of the Social Democrats and in , he became the party chairman.
To some he was the obvious choice to lead Germany out of her defeat in World War One. In February he is elected the first democratic German head of state by the constituent National Assembly.
His time in office was hampered by foreign policy constraints and threats on the domestic front. Opposed by nationalists and communists alike, Friedrich Ebert fights hard to win the hearts and minds of his fellow citizens and make them embrace the Republic.
0コメント