When was ebert chancellor

The inaugural years of the first Weimar government were taken up in suppressing left-wing uprisings staged by both socialist and communist elements. In order to maintain order Ebert was required to rely upon the support of the Freikorps, largely comprised of former army officers who chose more to wage a war of hate against the left rather than out of any respect for the new republic.

The elections of 6 June resulted in the coalition government losing its parliamentary majority, chiefly as a consequence of the widely reviled Treaty of Versailles , for which Ebert and his coalition partners received much of the blame. Remaining as President Ebert supported the passive resistance of the coal workers of the Ruhr in January when France occupied the region following Germany's default on coal deliveries as specified in the Versailles treaty.

In the midst of the crisis Ebert appointed the rightist Gustav Stresemann to bring the situation under control, sparking a government walkout by his own party. The same year, , Ebert acted to quash Hitler's attempted beer-hall putsch. The price of continuing military support was high: a promise from Ebert not to reform the officer corps, thus guaranteeing the ongoing involvement of the military in German government.

Ebert died on 28 February in Berlin at the age of 54, his death hastened by the decision of a court which labelled him guilty of high treason for his support of munitions strikers during World War One.

He died widely criticised by all sides: by the left for betraying the revolution and by the right for being a leading figure responsible for stabbing the army in the back towards the close of war - and, of course, as the man who signed the hated Treaty of Versailles. Saturday, 22 August, Michael Duffy. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Subscriber sign in You could not be signed in, please check and try again.

Username Please enter your Username. Password Please enter your Password. Forgot password? Don't have an account? Sign in via your Institution. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Sign in with your library card Please enter your library card number. Mai , Berlin; Bonn Dietz. Kotowski, Georg: Friedrich Ebert. Eine politische Biographie.

Miller, Susanne: Burgfrieden und Klassenkampf. Citation Braun, Bernd: Ebert, Friedrich , in: online. Metadata Subjects. Author Keywords. GND Subject Headings. LC Subject Headings. Rameau Subject Headings. Ebert left a memorable impression in Schwarzburg in Thuringia: In , as president of the German Republic, he signed the Weimar Constitution here at the Weisser Hirsch hotel.

A life-size photo shows him gazing at the East Thuringian landscape. Ebert loved to hike, but the busy politician rarely had the time to do so. Friedrich Ebert's private life was hardly ever public. Weeks later, on the day of his swearing-in as president of the German Reich, it appeared in a Berlin tabloid. The picture of the politician in swimming trunks became popular fodder for caricatures.

Many German schools, foundations, streets or bridges, like the one here in Duisburg, bear Ebert's name. The principles of social democracy that Ebert stood for in the wake of a disastrous First World War and dynastic Prussian rule guided the successful German Revolution of —19 and have since become cornerstones of Germany's self-image.

Despite allying with nationalist forces to quash the socialist and communist uprising of , Friedrich Ebert would become the figurehead of German democracy during his relatively short term as president.

When he died of appendicitis on February 28, at the age of 54, an estimated 1 million citizens attended his funeral procession in Berlin. Ebert was buried in his hometown of Heidelberg. After Ebert's death, monuments to him were initially erected all over Germany, but their fate reflected two turbulent decades to come: After taking power in , the National Socialist dictatorship desecrated and demolished memorials dedicated to Ebert.

After the unconditional surrender of the Germans in , many of the monuments were erected again, including this one in Offenbach in While one usually only reads about Ebert, it is also possible to hear him: The sound archives of the Humboldt University stores recordings of famous personalities of the Empire and the Weimar Republic. This shellac record contains a speech that Ebert gave as president of the Weimar Republic in At the end of , Germany was at a crossroads. Its defeat in World War I had been sealed.

Kaiser Wilhelm II fled into exile in the Netherlands in the course of the November Revolution, which began with a sailors' uprising. Countless people were starving. Traumatized, war-disabled soldiers came back from the front, desperately looking for their place in a shattered world. In this time of confusion and upheaval, the son of a tailor played a decisive role in shaping political fate: Friedrich Ebert, born on February 4, , in Heidelberg, the seventh of nine children. Ebert's life represented the dream of social advancement: A trained saddlery journeyman who traveled for years after completing his apprenticeship and had a stint as a pub owner, his diligence, organizational talent and a sense of duty finally brought him to the top of the political establishment as chair of the Social Democratic Party of Germany SPD.

The Great War had taken a heavy toll on Ebert personally: Two of his five children had died.