several hundred lives lost in the Spartacist rising of Jan. 1919. In Stuttgart, as also in Bremen, Munich and other towns, there were sanguinary struggles, until the insurrection could be regarded as having been everywhere suppressed.
The elections for the National Assembly had taken place on Jan. 19. They resulted in a Socialist majority. The Majority Socialists won 163 seats, the Independents 22. As against these 185 Socialists there was a non-Socialist (btirgerlich} majority of 236, of whom 42 belonged to the German National People's party (the former Conservatives), 21 to the German People's party (formerly the National Liberals), 88 to the Christian People's party (formerly known as the Centre) and 75 to the Democratic party (formerly the Progressists); while 10 non- Socialist deputies did not adhere to any party. The total num- bers of the votes recorded for the different parties were 11,509,- 048 for the Social Democrats, 2,317,290 for the Independent Socialists, 5,980,216 for the Christian People's party, 5,641,825 for the Democrats, 3,121,479 for the German National People's party, and 1,345,838 for the German People's parjy. It is noteworthy that the non-Socialist parties had all assumed new popular designations. In course of time, however, their old names came again into use, except in the case of the Democrats, whose new designation was more generally convenient.
The National Assembly was convoked to meet, not in Berlin, where constant disturbances were probable, but in Weimar in Thuringia, where it assembled on Feb. 6 1919. The Berlin Spartacists the party afterwards known under the more com- prehensive designation of Communists made a fresh attempt at the beginning of March to abolish the National Assembly and to set up a Dictatorship of the Councils. It decreed a general strike for the whole of Germany, but the strike attained consid- erable dimensions only in Berlin. Once more it was the Marine Division which had recourse to acts of violence. It occupied the suburb of Lichtenberg, whence it attempted to force its way into the centre of Berlin. There were again sanguinary struggles in which more than 1,000 persons were killed. Among these were 29 members of the Sailors' Division, whom First Lieut. Marloh caused to be shot, after they had been arrested by the troops, when they had unsuspectingly come to fetch their pay. Proceed- ings were instituted against Marloh, but he was acquitted. The March rising of the Spartacists was completely quelled. Local risings in different places had the same fate, at Halle, for exam- ple; at Stuttgart and at various other places in Wurttemberg; at Munich (where on April 7 a Soviet Republic was pro- claimed) ; at Dresden (where on April 1 2 the Saxon War Minister Neuring, a Social Democrat, was thrown into the Elbe by the mob and perished) ; at Leipzig, at Hamburg, and so forth. In many of these local risings hundreds of people lost their lives.
The Constituent National Assembly sat at Weimar from Feb. 1919 onwards, meeting in the Weimar theatre, which was spe- cially reconstructed. The Majority Socialist David was almost unanimously elected President. A matter of first concern was to get together a majority upon which a responsible Govern- ment could be based. Negotiations between the Majority Socialists and the Independents failed, because the two parties together were not sufficiently numerous to form a majority in the House, while the Independents refused to enter a coali- tion with any of the non-Socialist parties. The Catholic Centre and the Democrats, on the other hand, were prepared to renew the connexion which had united them with the Social Demo- crats in the old Reichstag since the date of the " Peace Resolu- tion." Thus there arose a coalition of the Catholic Centre, the Democrats and the Social Democrats, who undertook to form a Cabinet. On Feb. n the National Assembly elected the Social Democrat Ebert to the presidency of the Reich by 277 votes against 102. Ebert entrusted the formation of a Cabinet to the Social Democrat Scheidemann, who assumed the office of Min- ister-President. The Democrat Schiffer was appointed Vice- President of the Ministry. The other members of the Cabi- net were Count Brockdorff-Rantzau (Foreign Affairs), Preuss (Interior), Schiffer (Finance) all these three belonged to the Democratic party Giesberts (Post Office), Bell (Colonies)
both members of the Catholic Centre Landsberg (Justice), Noske (National Defence), Bauer (Labour), Wissel (Ministry of Economics), Robert Schmidt (Ministry of Food), all these being Social Democrats. Erzberger, of the Catholic Centre, the Democrat Gothein and the Social Democrat David were mem- bers of the Cabinet but without portfolio. Fehrenbach replaced David as President of the National Assembly. The Right, i.e. the German National party and the German People's party (formerly Conservatives and National Liberals respectively), at once placed themselves in the most pronounced opposition to the new Cabinet, and on the extreme Left the Independent Socialists did the same. The whole session of the National Assembly at Weimar was characterized by controversies on these lines, which frequently assumed an extremely violent character. This was particularly the case during the debates on the new Constitution, for which Prof. Dr. Preuss had drafted a scheme. There were particularly stormy scenes when the questions of the socialization of industries and the new colours of the Reich were being discussed. A compromise on the second of these questions was proposed by the Catholic Centre and the Social Democrats, and it was finally agreed that the colours of the Reich should be black, red and gold, while the flag of the mercantile marine should be black, white and red, the colours of Imperial Germany, with black, red and gold in the upper canton next the staff. This was carried by 211 votes against 89.
The first grave ordeal which the new Coalition had to undergo was the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. Up to the end of June the House, with the exception, perhaps, of the extreme Left, was unanimously of the opinion that a peace such as that which had been dictated by Germany's adversaries could not in any circumstances be accepted. The Minister-President Scheidemann declared in the House, amid tremendous applause: " Let the hand which signs this peace wither!" On June 22 the debates on the question of accepting or rejecting the Treaty of Versailles began. Scheidemann's Cabinet, which had com- mitted itself to rejection, had resigned on June 21; it wished to leave the National Assembly perfectly free in its decision. The formation of the new Cabinet was effected under the greatest difficulties; it was finally undertaken by Bauer, who had hitherto been Minister of Labour. The Democratic party, the majority of whom were against signing the Treaty, declined to enter the new Cabinet. The Catholic Centre, too, was at first against accepting the Treaty, and it required great efforts and all the parliamentary diplomacy of Erzberger to bring about a change of opinion in the majority of his party. Finally the Bauer Ministry was formed for the purpose of signing the Treaty; the only parties represented in it were the Social Democrats and the Catholic Centre. Members of it who may be mentioned here were Miiller (Foreign Affairs), Noske (National Defence), Erzberger (Finance) and Bell (Colonies) the last-mentioned being, so to speak, a minister in partibus, as Germany no longer had any colonies. Each of the parties in the Assembly made only a short formal statement; the vote resulted in the accept- ance of the Treaty of Peace by 237 against 138, while 5 deputies refrained from voting. The majority consisted of the Catholic Centre with the exception of its 13 Bavarian members, the Social Democrats and the Independent Socialists, together with 7 of the Democrats. The resolution adopted was in the following terms: " The National Assembly approves of the atti- tude of the Government in the question of the signature of the Treaty of Peace." The Government now sent word to Paris that it was prepared to sign the Peace, but that it rejected the passage in the preamble which dictated a confession of Germany's guilty responsibility for starting the war, and further, that it rejected the extradition of the army leaders and of those who were characterized by Germany's enemies as war criminals. The reply having come from Paris that the Peace must be signed unconditionally, the National Assembly gave the Government on June 23, by the same majority as before, full power to sig even in these circumstances. The signature accordingly took place at Versailles on June 28 by the hands of the German Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hermann Muller, and the Minister
