We can now distinguish the essential traits that characterized constitutional Germany on the eve of the war. There was in Germany, under the infinite complexity of written provisions, behind a deliberately effected juxtaposition of the most modern formula by the side of some of the most archaic, a living reality. It was a despotic organization that placed full power in the hands of a feudal monarch. It was, to put it in the words of President Wilson, the largest enterprise of domination that the world has ever known.
Such a system and that which made it such an anachronism could not survive the test of war and still less that of defeat.
Already during the war several demands for reforms made themselves felt. In proportion as the war was prolonged and the heavier became the burdens that weighed on the people together with the sacrifices that were imposed upon them, there developed a pressure on the part of the people for recognition, for compensation, for the right to participate in a more effective fashion in the conduct of public affairs. The Reichstag appointed a commission to investigate to what extent it was possible to modify the Constitution of the Reich in conformity with the desires of the people. On his part the Emperor in a message on April 7, 1917, declared that it was the duty of the Chancellor to satisfy the exigencies of new times with every means appropriate; and to reconstruct the constitutional edifice in such a way as to insure a free and spontaneous collaboration of all the elements of the nation. The Chancellor seemed to be in accord with the Emperor on the necessity and urgency of a “new orientation.”
On the 15th of May, 1917, Bethmann-Hollweg spoke of realizing a programme of “trusting collaboration of the Emperor and the nation.” On July 19, 1917, Michaelis foreshadowed the establishment of a close contact between a government and parliament, the creation of a bond of mutual confidence between the government of the Empire and the Reichstag, in the sense that the management of various affairs should be entrusted to men who, aside from their professional abilities, would enjoy the full confidence of the great parties in the popular branch of the government.
They were nothing but vague words; and this “parliamentarization” of the government of the Reich did not commence to show itself until the pressure of defeat came, such as was felt in the summer of 1918. The adoption of a parliamentary régime then seemed the sole means of obtaining from the masses the sacrifices which were still expected of them both on the firing line and in the interior.
The true reforms commenced with the letter which the Emperor wrote on September 30, 1918, to the departing Chancellor von Hertling, and which was a real message to the German people and to the Reichstag. “I desire,” said the Emperor, “that the German people shall collaborate more effectively than in the past in the determination of the destiny of our Fatherland. It is my wish therefore that men invested with the confidence of the people shall participate in a large measure in the rights and duties of the government.” Legally it was only an expression of the hitherto recognized imperial will. But from a political point of view this message constituted the recognition of a new system of government, in virtue of which the centre of gravity of political institutions passed from the organs of the government, the Bundesrath and the Emperor, to the popular assembly, the Reichstag.
The spirit in which the new reforms were to be carried out and the importance which they were to assume were made clearer several days later when, on October 5, 1918, Chancellor Maximilian of Baden in a programme speech addressed in the Reichstag said, “It is in the essence of the system of the government which we are now instituting that I now state clearly and without reservation the principles by which I shall seek to fulfil my heavy responsibilities. These principles were accepted before I assumed my duties as Chancellor in an agreement reached between confederated governments and the chiefs of the parties of the majority of this Chamber.… It is only when the people take an active part to the largest measure in the determination of the destiny of the nation; and when the sense of responsibility is also shared by the majority of the political chiefs freely elected, that a statesman can accept direction of the helm with confidence and himself participate in this responsibility. Otherwise the shoulders of one man will be too feeble to support the immense responsibility that now confronts our government. I am convinced that the manner in which the directing government has been formed to-day with the collaboration of the Reichstag is not temporary in its nature and that in times of peace hereafter no government can be formed that has not the support of the Reichstag, that does not lean on the Reichstag, and that does not take from the Reichstag its principal chiefs.”
As a consequence two laws were passed which carried the date of October 28, 1918. They were designed to meet the three most important exigencies of the hour:
1. They realized the parliamentarization of the government of the Reich. Article 15 of the Constitution of 1871, which dealt with the nomination of the Chancellor had the following amendment added: “The Chancellor in order to continue direction of the affairs of the Reich must have the confidence of the Reichstag. The Chancellor is responsible for all the political acts of the Emperor performed in the exercise of his constitutional rights. The Chancellor and his representatives are responsible for the conduct of affairs to the Bundesrat and the Reichstag.”[4]
This text established not only the responsibility of the Chancellor; it also recognized constitutionally the right of parties or their parliamentary groups to participate in the nomination of the Chancellor and it specified that when the confidence of the Reichstag is withdrawn from the Chancellor he must resign.