Vossische Zeitung
- The Chancellor Against Westarp
- Stormy Scenes in the Landtag
- The People's Party's Coalition Offer
This front page of the Vossische Zeitung for 11 October 1926 set foreign-policy optimism beside sharp party conflict at home. In a speech, the Reich Chancellor praised the growing ties between peoples and the peaceful settlement of disputes, and said opposition to the policy of understanding had grown quieter. He also defended the industrialist Paul Silverberg in the dispute over bringing the Social Democrats into shared responsibility, and rejected the German National demands recently set out by Count Westarp. In the Landtag, Communist deputies tried to block debate on the new settlement with the Hohenzollerns and greeted Finance Minister Höpker-Aschoff with chanted insults. A further report quoted criticism of the largest governing party for planning to help the settlement pass by abstaining. Another report described German National anger at the German People's Party's decision to back a Grand Coalition in Prussia in principle.
Translation
The Chancellor Against Westarp
[?] the bond between the peoples, growing closer from day to day, has once again been clamped more tightly together. Where only yesterday irreconcilable struggle prevailed, to the detriment of all, today the recognition of common interests has triumphed and has undertaken to resolve by peaceful means conflicts for whose removal political instruments of power would formerly have been used all too readily."
In this connection the Reich Chancellor mentioned the bitter opposition with which the policy of understanding had so far had to contend. This opposition, he said, had today become considerably quieter. Of particular significance were the brief remarks the Reich Chancellor made on the disputes over bringing the Social Democrats into shared responsibility. He spoke up for Silverberg with great warmth and turned with equal determination against the German National demands as Count Westarp has recently formulated them.
Stormy Scenes in the Landtag
Today's session of the Landtag, at which the new settlement with the Hohenzollerns stood as the first item on the agenda, was opened by noisy scenes from the Communists, who first put forward a whole series of motions to have the bill removed from the agenda and to bring about an adjournment, and finally to obtain a rearrangement of the agenda. When all these motions had failed against the opposition of the other parties, with considerable uproar already breaking out in the process, the President gave the floor to Finance Minister Dr. Höpker-Aschoff to present the government's bill on the settlement. As soon as the minister's name had been called, the Communists shouted in chorus: "Squanderer of millions!", "Hohenzollern - [?]
The People's Party's Coalition Offer
want to help it to adoption. A government under Social Democratic leadership concludes a settlement that is very important for the Prussian state economy, and the largest governing party wants to help the resulting bill to adoption only by voting neither for it nor against it. That is a parliamentary situation whose only charm is its novelty, but which thoroughly contradicts the essence of parliamentarism."
The Coalition Offer of the People's Party
The resolution of the German People's Party declaring itself in principle in favour of the Grand Coalition in Prussia has caused great annoyance in the German National camp. In a veritable Cassandra tone, the German People's Party is warned against setting out on a path that would be disastrous for German National party interests not only in Prussia but also in the Reich.
Context
The international setting of the Chancellor's policy of understanding
The Chancellor's quoted words about peoples being bound more tightly together, and about conflicts now resolved by peaceful means, came at a time when German diplomacy and German industry had both just taken visible steps toward cooperation with western Europe. The Locarno Treaties, signed on 16 October 1925, had revived political cooperation. On 20 September 1926 steel producers created the International Steel Agreement. Its founding text spoke of a "European economic union" amid the euphoria that accompanied Germany's accession to the League of Nations. A council of industry representatives from Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg ran the cartel. The excerpt does not say which events the Chancellor had in mind. Still, these agreements were the most recent concrete examples of the policy of understanding whose opponents, he claimed, had grown quieter.
Who Paul Silverberg was and what he had said in 1926
Paul Silverberg was general director of Rheinbraun, which had become Germany's largest lignite company, and he sat on the presidium of the Reich Association of German Industry. In 1926 he gave a much-noticed speech to that association's members' meeting, urging German business to adopt a "state-affirming" stance toward the Republic. In the same year he joined the German People's Party and supported Stresemann's policy there. His biographer in the Neue Deutsche Biographie describes him as a patriarchal employer, ready to work with organized labour as long as it renounced class-struggle politics, but always insisting on the employer's claim to leadership. The article ties the dispute over sharing responsibility with the Social Democrats directly to Silverberg's name. By backing him warmly, the Chancellor sided with the wing of industry that accepted the Republic, against the German Nationalists.
Count Westarp and the German Nationals' position in 1926
Count Kuno von Westarp had moved toward more centrist positions by the mid-1920s, and in 1926 he became both head of the DNVP's parliamentary group and party chairman. His party had already shown it could take part in government: in 1925 the DNVP temporarily dropped its anti-republican stance and joined Chancellor Hans Luther's liberal-conservative coalition cabinet. The excerpt does not spell out the German National demands that Westarp had recently formulated. The Chancellor set his rejection of them directly beside his support for Silverberg in the dispute over the Social Democrats. The third excerpt shows the same conflict from the other side. When the German People's Party came out in principle for a Grand Coalition in Prussia, the German National camp warned it in what the paper called a Cassandra tone. Earlier in 1926 both parties had opposed the expropriation of the princes, alongside President Hindenburg and the churches. That shared position helps explain why the German Nationals reacted so sharply to the People's Party moving toward a coalition in Prussia.
Why the Hohenzollern settlement provoked uproar in the Landtag
The property of Germany's princely houses had been seized in the revolution of 1918/19 but not expropriated. In January 1926 the KPD and SPD brought a motion in the Reichstag for uncompensated expropriation of the princely houses by referendum. The KPD exploited public outrage with a large propaganda effort, demanding that the princes' wealth be taken for the benefit of the needy. After the referendum failed on 20 June 1926, most state governments reached financial compromises with their former ruling houses fairly quickly. In Prussia the settlement between the state and the House of Hohenzollern came about on 15 October 1926, four days after this issue. The Communists' chant of "squanderer of millions" at Finance Minister Höpker-Aschoff carried that campaign into the chamber. The SPD's earlier support for uncompensated expropriation also explains the awkward position criticized in the third excerpt. According to that criticism, the largest party in a Social Democrat-led Prussian government meant to help the bill pass only by abstaining.
Original
Der Kanzler gegen Westarp
[?] der von Tag zu Tag enger werdende Zusammenhang der Völker aufs neue enger verklammert worden. Wo gestern noch zum Schaden aller unversöhnlicher Kampf herrschte, hat heute die Erkenntnis der Gemeinsamkeit der Interessen gesiegt und Konflikte auf friedlichem Wege zu lösen unternommen, für deren Beseitigung früher gar zu leicht politische Machtmittel verwandt worden wären. " In diesem Zusammenhang erwähnte der Reichskanzler die erbitterte Opposition, mit der die Verständigungspolitik bisher zu kämpfen hatte. Diese Opposition sei heute wesentlich stiller geworden. Von besonderer Bedeutung waren die kurzen Ausführungen, die der Reichskanzler zu den Auseinandersetzungen über die Heranziehung der Sozialdemokratie zur Mitverantwortung machte. Er setzte sich mit großer Wärme für Silverberg ein und wandte sich mit ebenso großer Entschiedenheit gegen die deutschnationalen Ansprüche, wie sie neuerdings Graf Westarp formuliert hat.
Sturmszenen im Landtag
Die heutige Sitzung des Landtages, auf der als erster Punkt der Tagesordnung der neue Vergleich mit den Hohenzollern stand, wurde durch Lärmszenen der Kommunisten eingeleitet, die zunächst eine Menge Anträge stellten, um die Vorlage von der Tagesordnung abzusetzen und die Vertagung herbeizuführen, und schließlich eine Umstellung zu erreichen. Als alle diese Anträge an dem Widerspruch der übrigen Parteien gescheitert waren, wobei es schon starke Radauszenen gab, gab der Präsident dem Finanzminister Dr. Höpker-Aschoff zur Begründung der Regierungsvorlage über den Vergleich das Wort. Sowie der Name des Ministers aufgerufen war, riefen die Kommunisten im Chor: " Millionenverschwender ", " Hohenzollern - [?]
Das Koalitions-Angebot der Volkspartei
Annahme verhelfen wollen. Eine unter sozialdemokratischer Führung stehende Regierung schließt einen für die preußische Staatswirtschaft sehr wichtigen Vergleich, und die größte Regierungspartei will der darüber zu machenden Vorlage nur dadurch zur Annahme verhelfen, daß sie weder dafür, noch dagegen stimmt. Das ist eine parlamentarische Situation, deren einziger Reiz die Neuheit ist, die aber dem Wesen des Parlamentarismus durchaus widerspricht. " Das Koalitions-Angebot der Volkspartei Der Beschluß der Deutschen Volkspartei, der sich prinzipiell für die Große Koalition in Preußen ausspricht, hat im deutschnationalen Lager großen Aerger hervorgerufen. In einem wahren Kassandra-Ton wird die Deutsche Volkspartei ewarnt, sic auf einen Weg zu begeben, der nicht nur in reußen, sondern auch im Reich für die deutschnationalen Parteiinteressen verhängnisvoll wäre.