Booklet 1 Germany

• The new democratic Republic in Germany held its first democratic elections


  19 January 1919
• A new Constituent Assembly was created

  06 February
• Turnout was high (83%) which suggested people had faith in the idea of democracy, and over 76% of people supported political parties who were pro-democracy
• A coalition government was now formed, which would become known as the 'Weimar Coalition'
• Due to revolutionary trouble in Berlin, the new election government would meet in the town of Weimar, hence the new Germany democracy would become nicknamed the "Weimar Republic"
• Democracy in Germany had not got off to a great start, by being forced to surrender in World War I
• With the Kaiser now gone, and with the election results showing an appetite among the German people for democracy, a real opportunity existed for these new democrats to establish a new political system for Germany which was fairer
• The new President, Friedrich Ebert (leader of the Social Democratic Party) had asked the liberal lawyer Hugo Preuss to draw up a new constitution- a set of rules on how the Weimar Government would operate
• The new constitution was heavily influenced by the democracies of Britain and America and had both positive and negative features