(3) The President is finally civilly responsible for any acts of damage he may commit. Although he is not really a civil servant, in the actual sense of the word, he is on this point subject to the same regulations as the civil servants of the Reich. (The law on the responsibilities of civil servants, March 22, 1910.)
SECTION III
THE CABINET OF THE REICH
The Cabinet in a parliamentary government constitutes a bond of union between the parliament and the chief of state. In Germany it must play a still more important rôle, since both the Reichstag and the President are directly elected by the people and have theoretically the same equal powers. It is therefore indispensable that an organism of co-operation and equilibrium exist between them.
But this mechanism is extremely delicate. The rôle of the Ministry, always very complex, depends above all on the traditions and the circumstances of the men in question. What relations should subsist between the President and the Prime Minister; between the Prime Minister and the other members of the Cabinet; and in what measure should one be subordinated to the others? What is the exact position of the Cabinet in regard to the Chamber? Is it its guide, or must it be limited to the execution of the Chamber’s decisions? These are questions of degree that require or may require different solutions in each country for each Ministry.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to decide on these in advance in a complete and detailed manner. In England there is no written provision on the manner in which the mechanism of the Cabinet must function. In France there are a few vague and insufficient provisions in the Constitution. But the German Constitution has attempted to formulate the general rules according to which the government of the Cabinet should operate.
The project by Preuss contained not a single detail on this point; it confined itself to stating the principle of parliamentary government. Against this reserve criticisms were raised in committee as well as in plenary sessions of the Assembly. Former Minister von Delbrück criticized Preuss’ project for its lack of a sufficient guarantee that the organism of the government would develop in a specific manner and in the direction desired for it. He held that the evolution of an organism as important as the Ministry should not be left to chance, and that there must be fixed at least the general lines according to which it should develop. He then indicated some of these directing principles and they were incorporated in the Constitution.
The National Assembly has certainly made therein an important attempt and we shall study the regulations which it has thus established. We shall then examine how these regulations work out in practice.
1.—THE CHANCELLOR AND THE MINISTERS ACCORDING TO THE CONSTITUTION.
In the terminology of Weimar, the Ministry is called the “National Cabinet.” [Article 52] says, “The National Cabinet consists of the National Chancellor and the National Ministers.” There is thus stated a difference—fundamental in the German system—between the Chancellor and the Ministers.
It will be recalled how the Cabinet of the old Empire was organized. The Chancellor, properly speaking, was the only Minister; and the Secretaries of State, by whom he was assisted or represented, were simply high civil servants absolutely subordinate to the Chancellor. These Secretaries of State never met together to deliberate on public affairs; each of them freely decided on the affairs of his department and executed them. But the Secretaries of State had to refer to the Chancellor every time that a difference of opinion arose between their departments over any contemplated law or any administrative measure whatever. Such a discussion was often prolonged for months, because the Chancellor was not in a situation to express an opinion, nor to pronounce on the very complex problem. This was the bureaucratic system.