page_title: Scheidemann cabinet
section_title: Election and establishment
hierarchical_section_title: Scheidemann cabinet / Election and establishment
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Landtagsabgeordneter Bell 1908
context_page_description: The Scheidemann cabinet was the first democratically elected Reichsregierung of the German Reich. It took office on 13 February 1919. Although the Weimar Constitution was not in force yet, it is generally counted as the first government of the Weimar Republic. It was based on the Weimar Coalition of centre-left parties. Ministerpräsident Philipp Scheidemann resigned in protest against the Treaty of Versailles on 20 June 1919. His cabinet was followed by the government of Gustav Bauer.
context_section_description: Following the collapse of the German Empire and the German Revolution of 1918-19, on 19 January 1919 the Germans had voted in elections for the Nationalversammlung. At the time, the country was governed by the Council of the People's Deputies (Rat der Volksbeauftragten), a revolutionary government made up of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which had also been the largest party in the Reichstag since the last elections in 1912. The January elections returned a smaller than expected share of the vote for the socialists (SPD: 38%, USPD: 7%, the communists of the KPD had boycotted the elections).
  The National Assembly, meeting in Weimar because conditions in the capital Berlin were deemed too chaotic for the deliberations and Weimar was associated with Weimar Classicism, acted as unicameral legislature and constituent assembly for the new republic. After its inaugural session on 6 February it passed a provisional constitution known as Gesetz über die vorläufige Reichsgewalt. Friedrich Ebert (SPD), chairman of the Council of the People's Deputies, was elected on 11 February as temporary Reichspräsident, or head of state. That same day, Ebert asked his fellow Volksbeauftragter Philipp Scheidemann (SPD) to form the new government, referred to in the law as Reichsministerium.
  In fact, at that point, coalition negotiations had been going on for a while. The SPD was talking to the DDP and the Zentrum. However, the SPD was making this cooperation conditional on the acceptance by the "bourgeois" parties of a) a republican form of state, b) a fiscal policy that would "severely" target wealth and c) a socialisation of "suitable" industries. Although the SPD did approach the USPD, Ebert reportedly said that he had only conducted talks with the extreme left so that they would bear the responsibility for the talks' failure. For their part, the DDP would not have accepted a coalition with the USPD.
  The negotiations were difficult and dragged on. In particular, the presidency of the National Assembly was hotly contested and almost caused the talks to fail. Finally, it was agreed that Eduard David (SPD) who had been the initial president would resign (and join the cabinet in compensation), making way for the former president of the Reichstag, Constantin Fehrenbach (Zentrum).
  Apart from Ebert himself–who had said that he preferred the more representative office of head of state–Scheidemann had been the clear favourite to become head of government. With the exception of Ebert all the other Volksbeauftragen joined the new cabinet. Gustav Noske had previously been in charge of Army and Navy affairs, and he became Defence Minister. Otto Landsberg, the leading thinker on law on the Council became Minister of Justice. Rudolf Wissell had been in charge of economic affairs and kept that portfolio. Gustav Bauer had been a member of the Cabinet Baden in charge of the newly formed Labour Ministry (Reichsarbeitsamt), a position he had continued to hold through the revolution. Robert Schmidt (Food) and Eduard David, with no portfolio but charged with looking at the question of what responsibility Germany had in bringing about the Great War, completed the SPD members of cabinet.
  Against seven members from the SPD there were three from the DDP (Hugo Preuß, Georg Gothein and Eugen Schiffer) and three from the Zentrum (Johannes Giesberts, Johannes Bell and Matthias Erzberger). Schiffer had been a member of the National Liberal Party and served as Secretary of State for the Treasury in the Empire but had joined the DDP after the November revolution. Erzberger had been a member of the Cabinet Baden, had negotiated the Armistice in November 1918 and remained in charge of negotiations with the Allies.
  In the coalition talks, Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau had been treated as a member of the DDP although he did not belong to the party. He was a career diplomat and in January 1919 Ebert and Scheidemann had asked him to take over the office of Secretary of State of the Foreign Office. This was also the portfolio he held in the Cabinet S
caption: Johannes Bell (1908)
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