By the start of 1919, the war was over. The emperor was gone, and even as a succession of predominantly localised revolutions broke out, mainly in the ports and cities, it was possible to view a republican future with a certain measure of cautious hope or even, some said, optimism. Julie Bassermann had been a widow for a year and a half. It was a time for a new start. On 19 January 1919 she stood as a DVP ("People's Party") candidate for election to the "National Assembly" ("Nationalversammlung"), the constitutional convention which became the first parliament of the German Republic (later renamed contemptuously by Adolf Hitler and subsequent historians as the "Weimar Republic"). This was the first German general election in which women were allowed to vote. The voting age had been reduced since 1912 from 25 to 20, and the old constituency based voting system which had disproportionately favoured conservative rural areas was replaced with a more democratic proportional representation voting process. Slightly more than 12 million voters had voted in the previous election in 1912. In 1919 more than 30 million voted. Despite these democratic advances, Julie Bassermann failed to secure election. She now pursued her political ambitions with greater success at a municipal level. She became a member of the Mannheim , where she served for four years as a member of the council's schools commission and involved herself in socio-political matters.