SECTION II
THE NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
The National Assembly elected on January 19, 1919, had as its foremost task the conclusion of peace and the creation of a new constitution for Germany. But in view of the problems that it was confronted with, it will be difficult to understand precisely how it was led to take this or that position and to know how to reconcile the intent of the different resolutions voted if one does not keep constantly in mind the spirit in which they were drawn up, the forces that met in conflict within the Assembly, and the proportion of strength they bore to one another—if one does not follow at least in its ensemble the long process of elaboration in the midst of which the work of the Assembly was accomplished.
1.—THE COMPOSITION OF THE ASSEMBLY.
The Constituent Assembly had been elected according to what was perhaps the most democratic suffrage ever known.
All Germans were electors, men and women, soldiers and officers, poor and feeble, provided they had passed the twentieth birthday. All electors were eligible to vote who had been Germans for at least a year.
The election took place on the basis of general tickets which could not be “split,” that is, an elector could not vote for candidates of different tickets; but facility was offered for parties to present lists in common.
The distribution of seats followed the system of proportional representation known under the name of Hondt.
These elections sent to the Assembly 423 deputies, of whom 39 were women.
At the extreme right were the German Nationalists (Deutschnationalen) with forty-two members. They were the former Conservatives of whom the least one can say is that they had learned but little from the war. It was the party of the big landed proprietors and the big manufacturers. Politically they declared themselves in December, 1918, in favour of the restoration of the monarchy and willing to accept a parliamentary monarchy. Economically they did not ask a single reform. Reactionary in politics they were in economic matters strongly conservative. Their leaders, Clemens von Delbrück, former minister of the Emperor and former chief of the Emperor’s civil cabinet, Düringer, raised their voices whenever it was necessary to defend the old régime, opposing all diminution in Prussia’s share of the government, and combatting every democratic institution.