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Friedrich Ebert (4 February 1871 – 28 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the first President of Germany from 1919 until his death in office. Before being elected President, he briefly served as the last Chancellor during the last months of the German Empire. His terms of service as Chancellor and President in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic oversaw
tumultuous events in Germany's history, and he became known for his
strong defence of the fragile democracy in those years, that was
attacked from the left and the right. He played a decisive role in
crushing several communist uprisings in Germany in the wake of WWI. While
considered a great statesman and defender of democracy by his own SPD
party, and today by all democratic German parties, he was reviled by
the communist far-left and the nationalist far-right alike in his
lifetime. The SPD-associated Friedrich Ebert Foundation, that was established shortly after his death in 1925, is named in his honour. Born in Heidelberg as the son of a tailor, he himself was trained as a saddlemaker. He became involved in politics as a trade unionist and Social Democrat,
and soon became a leader of the "moderate" wing of the Social
Democratic Party, becoming Secretary General in 1905, and party
chairman in 1913. In 1912 he was elected as a Member of the Reichstag
(parliament of Germany) for the constituency of Elberfeld-Barmen (now
part of Wuppertal). In
August 1914, Ebert led the party to vote almost unanimously in favour
of war loans, accepting that war was a necessary patriotic,
defensive measure, especially against the autocratic regime of the Czar
in Russia. The party's stance, under the leadership of Ebert and other "moderates" like Philipp Scheidemann,
in favour of the war with the aim of a compromise peace, eventually led
to a split, with those radically opposed to the war leaving the SPD in
early 1917 to form the USPD.
For similar reasons several left-wing members of parliament had already
distanced themselves from the party in 1916. Later they called
themselves "Spartacists". When it became clear that the war was lost, a new government was formed by Prince Maximilian of Baden which included Ebert and other members of the SPD in October 1918. Following the outbreak of the German Revolution, Prince Max resigned on 9 November, and handed his office over to Ebert. Prince Max also declared that the Kaiser had
abdicated. Ebert favoured retaining the monarchy under a different
ruler ("If the Kaiser does not abdicate, the social revolution is
inevitable. But I do not want it, I even hate it like sin" he
had said to Max von Baden on 7 November). On the same day, however,
Scheidemann proclaimed the German Republic, in response to the unrest
in Berlin and in order to counter a declaration of the "Free Socialist
Republic" by Karl Liebknecht later
that day. Ebert reproached him: "You have no right to proclaim the
Republic!" By this he meant that the decision was to be made by an
elected national assembly, even if that decision might be the
restoration of the monarchy. Scheidemann's proclamation ended the German monarchy, and an entirely Socialist provisional government based on workers' councils took power under Ebert's leadership. Ebert led the new government for the next several months. He used the army under the command of Minister of Defense Gustav Noske and also Freikorps (paramilitary organizations of ex-soldiers) to suppress a Spartacist uprising against the establishment of a parliamentary democracy. Spartacist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered by members of the Freikorps. When the Constituent Assembly met in Weimar in February, 1919, Ebert was chosen to be the first president of the German Republic. The German workers protected his government from the right-wing Kapp Putsch of some Freikorps in 1920 by means of a nationwide general strike. The armed forces Reichswehr remained
neutral and did not defend the republic. Nevertheless the government
used the army and parts of the Freikorps in order to suppress a
communist-led rebellion in Germany's main industrial area, the Ruhr
district in north-west Germany. Thousands of people were killed. Participants in the Kapp Putsch were treated leniently. The judiciary in the Weimar Republic was "blind in the right eye". Some of the Freikorps already used the swastika as their symbol of resistance against the "red pack" at the time, and many of them as well as right-wing members of the Reichswehr would later become influential National Socialists. Vicious
attacks by Ebert's right-wing adversaries, including slander and
ridicule, were often condoned or even supported by the judiciary when
the president turned to the courts. The constant necessity to defend
himself against those attacks also undermined his health. Ebert died on 28 February 1925, aged 54. Friedrich Ebert is recognized by the democratic parties,
including the SPD, as one of the founders and keepers of German
democracy whose death in office in February 1925 was a great loss.
However, the communists are opposed to him because he hindered their attempted marxist uprisings after WWI. The Freikorps,
which consisted of WWI veterans, maintained that the German working
class, supported by the SPD, was responsible for Germany's defeat in World War I. The alleged proof of this Dolchstoßlegende was
found in a number of strikes during 1917 and 1918 which had partly
disrupted production in the Imperial German armaments industry. The aim
of the striking workers and their socialist allies was said to have
been to turn Imperial Germany into a Soviet Socialist Republic. Most
historians, however, say that military defeat was inevitable after the
USA had joined the war against Germany.
In November 1918, a delegation of members of parliament represented
Germany in the ceasefire negotiations at the request of the military
leadership after the generals had decided that the war could no longer
be won. Critics say that thus the politicians exactly played the role
that the military wanted them to play. Ebert later on even co-operated
with the generals in order to prevent the country from falling into
chaos, as he saw it. Some
historians have defended Ebert's actions as unfortunate but inevitable
if the creation of a socialist state on the model that had been promoted by Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and
the communist Spartacus Group was to be prevented. Leftist historians
like Bernt Engelmann, on the other hand, have argued that organized
communism was not yet politically relevant in Germany at the time. However, the actions of Ebert and his Minister of Defense, Gustav Noske, against the insurgents contributed to the radicalization of the workers and to increasing support for communist ideas. Although
the Weimar constitution provided for the establishment of workers'
councils on different levels of society, they did not play a major part
in the political life of the Weimar Republic. Ebert always regarded the
institutions of parliamentary democracy as a more legitimate expression
of the will of the people; workers' councils, as a product of the
revolution, were only justified in exercising power for a transitional
period. "All power to all the people!" was the slogan of his party, in
contrast to the slogan of the far left, "All power to the (workers') councils!".
In Ebert's opinion only reforms, not a revolution, could advance the
causes of democracy and socialism. So he has been called a traitor by
the far left, paving the way for the ascendancy of the far right and
even of Hitler, whereas those who think his policies were justified
claim that he saved Germany from Bolshevik excesses. Today, the SPD-associated Friedrich Ebert Foundation,
Germany's largest and oldest party-affiliated foundation, which, among
other things, promotes students of outstanding intellectual ability and
personality, is named after Ebert. |