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((Short description|German government and political alliance))
((more citations needed|date=December 2009))
[[File:KAS-Weimarer Koalition-Bild-15731-1.jpg|thumb|Weimar Coalition poster from the [[December 1924 German federal election]]]]
The '''Weimar Coalition''' (((Lang-de|Weimarer Koalition))) is the name given to the  [[coalition government]] formed by the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD), the [[German Democratic Party]] (DDP) and the [[Centre Party (Germany)|Catholic Centre Party]] (Z), who together had a large majority of the delegates to the [[Weimar National Assembly|Constituent Assembly]] that met at [[Weimar]] in 1919, and were the principal groups that designed the constitution of the [[Weimar Republic]].  These three parties were seen as the most committed to Germany's new democratic system, and together governed Germany until the [[1920 German federal election|elections of 1920]], when the first elections under the new constitution were held, and both the SPD and especially the DDP lost a considerable share of their votes.  Although the Coalition was revived in the ministry of [[Joseph Wirth]] from 1921 to 1922, the pro-democratic elements never truly had a majority in the Reichstag from this point on, and the situation gradually grew worse for them with the continued weakening of the DDP.  This meant that any pro-republican group that hoped to attain a majority would need to form a "Grand Coalition" with the [[conservative liberalism|conservative-liberal]] [[German People's Party]] (DVP), which only gradually moved from [[monarchism]] to [[republicanism]] over the course of the Weimar Republic and was virtually wiped out politically after the death of their most prominent figure, [[Foreign Minister of Germany|Foreign Minister]] [[Gustav Stresemann]] in 1929.

Nevertheless, the coalition remained at least theoretically important as the parties most supportive of republican government in Germany, and continued to act in coalition in the government of the [[Free State of Prussia]] (by far Germany's largest constituent state both by population and by area) and other states until as late as 1932.  In the second round of voting in the [[1925 German presidential election|1925 presidential election]], the Weimar Coalition parties all supported the candidacy of the Centrist former chancellor [[Wilhelm Marx]], who was narrowly defeated by Field Marshal [[Paul von Hindenburg]], supported by a [[centre-right]] coalition of the DVP, the [[German National People's Party]] (DNVP), and the [[Bavarian People's Party]] (BVP). The fact that the [[Communist Party of Germany]] (KPD) decided to run their candidate [[Ernst Thälmann]] in the second round was widely seen as a [[spoiler candidate]] who in effect threw the election to Hindenburg. Both the [[Comintern]] and East German historiography later criticized this action by the KPD-leadership as a mistake.

After [[World War II]] the reconstituted SPD and the ''de facto'' successor of the Centre Party (the [[Christian Democratic Union of Germany|Christian Democratic Union]] (CDU) (within Bavaria the [[Bavarian People's Party|BVP]] was ''de facto'' succeeded by the [[Christian Social Union in Bavaria]] (CSU) which together formed the [[centre-right]] ''Union'') and the DD' and DVP's joint ''de facto'' successor ([[Free Democratic Party (Germany)|Free Democratic Party]]) formed the main political basis of the democratic [[Bundestag]] of [[West Germany]].

== History ==

During the era of the [[German Empire]], before the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919]], politicians of the Centre Party and Social Democratic Party as well as the left liberals who would later form the German Democratic Party had cooperated when they censured Chancellor [[Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg]] in 1913 for his handling of the [[Zabern Affair]]<ref>((EB1922|wstitle=Bethmann Hollweg, Theobald von))</ref> and then later in 1917 with their support of the [[Reichstag peace resolution]] which called for a peace with no annexations.<ref>((Cite web |title=The Reichstag’s Peace Resolution (July 19, 1917) |url=https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=987 |access-date=23 January 2023 |website=GHDI - German History in Documents and Images))</ref> To coordinate their cooperation they also formed an inter-party committee (((Lang|de|interfraktioneller Ausschuss))) that included members of all three parliamentary groups.<ref>((Cite web |title=Der Interfraktionelle Ausschuss |trans-title=The Inter-Party Committee |url=https://weimar.bundesarchiv.de/WEIMAR/DE/Content/Downloads/Mindmaps/interfraktioneller-ausschuss.pdf?__blob=publicationFile |access-date=23 January 2023 |website=weimar.bundesarchiv.de |language=de))</ref> The three parties had to deal with opposition from the right from 1912 on even though in the course of the war the SPD split with far left-groups like the [[Spartacus League]] that were fundamentally opposed not just to the war but to all attempts at working within the political system of the Empire. The right wing, through the [[stab in the back myth]], would later pin the blame for Germany's loss in the war on the alleged "defeatist" parties of the Weimar Coalition and cited the peace resolution as well as the willingness of politicians like [[Friedrich Ebert]] (SPD) to take power after the collapse of the Empire. They also blamed the Weimar Coalition-backed government for signing the [[Treaty of Versailles]] after it had lodged no more than an ineffectual complaint.

The [[1920 German federal election|elections of 6 June 1920]] resulted in severe decline in the Coalition's parliamentary strength, despite hopes that the dramatic failure of the right-wing [[Kapp Putsch]] would lessen the political reorientation of the Reichstag parties. The SPD received 21.7% of the vote, a significant drop from the 37.9% it had in January 1919. The DDP suffered the greatest loss, dropping from 18.5% to 8.4%. The Centre Party received 13.6% of the vote, only a slight decline from the 15.1% it had previously held.((sfn|Feuchtwanger|1993|pp=80–81)) The [[swing (politics)|swing]] shows the fundamental problem the Weimar Coalition parties faced throughout the Weimar Republic. The SPD lost most of its vote share to the [[Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany]], a left wing splinter faction opposed to any cooperation between leftist and "bourgeois" parties while the democratic center-right parties lost to the monarchist and [[revanchism|revanchist]] right wing parties which capitalized on the widespread outrage at the Treaty of Versailles. Politics of pragmatism, comprise and moderation as espoused by the parties of the Weimar Coalition thus always faced attacks from strong anti-compromise forces on both the left and the right, which by [[1930 German federal election|1930]] formed a strong and growing share of the Reichstag, now mostly composed of the [[Communist Party of Germany]] and the [[Nazi Party]], with the former rejecting any [[popular front]]-style cooperation due to the [[social fascism]] thesis. The communists and to a lesser extent the Nazis particularly attacked the [[Heinrich Brüning]] government in office 1930-1932 due to the [[austerity]] measures it enacted. Given that the communists rejected any cooperation with the Social Democratic Party, the SPD backed Brüning in any [[motion of no confidence]] initiated against him by Nazis and/or communists in hope of preventing an even more right wing government.

== Heritage ==

The [[social-liberal coalition]] (SPD-FDP), the [[grand coalition]] (Union-SPD), the [[Centre-right|rightcentrist]] [[Jamaica coalition (politics)|Jamaica coalition]] (CDU/CSU-FDP-Greens) and the [[Centre-left|leftcentrist]] [[traffic light coalition]] (SPD-FDP-[[Alliance 90/The Greens]]) all share some aspects of the Weimar Coalition in that they include parties both left and right of center committed to liberal democracy. The CDU/CSU is primarily the "inheritor" of [[Political centre|centrist]] [[christian democracy]] and [[Bavarian nationalism|bavarian regionalism]], even if that influence has diminished in recent decades. FDP has at times represented [[Centre-left|leftcentrist]] [[social liberalism]] (like the old DDP) but is now mostly known for DVP reminding [[economic liberalism]], [[conservative liberalism]] and positioned more to [[Centre-right|right]]liberal party. Meanwhile [[Alliance 90/The Greens|The Greens]] combine [[green politics]], [[cultural liberalism]] and more DDP reminding [[Centre-left|leftcentrist]] [[social liberalism]] and has formally inherited DDP:s position in the [[political spectrum]].

== Electoral History ==
=== [[Weimar National Assembly]] ===
{|class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
|-
!align=center|Election
!Seats won
!Change
!Total votes
!Share of votes
!Swing
!align=center|Status in legislature
|-
|[[1919 German federal election|1919]]
|((composition bar|331|423|red))
|N/A
|23,140,617
|76.09%
|N/A
|((yes2|Majority))
|}

===[[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]===
{|class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
|-
!align=center|Election
!Seats won
!Change
!Total votes
!Share of votes
!Swing
!align=center|Status in legislature
|-
|[[1920 German federal election|1920]]
|((composition bar|208|459|red))
|((decrease))123
|12,358,733
|43.84%
|((decrease))32.25%
|((no2|Minority))
|-
|[[May 1924 German federal election|May 1924]]
|((composition bar|193|472|red))
|((decrease))15
|11,578,413
|39.54%
|((decrease))4.30%
|((no2|Minority))
|-
|[[December 1924 German federal election|Dec 1924]]
|((composition bar|232|493|red))
|((increase))39
|13,919,719
|45.96%
|((increase))6.42%
|((no2|Minority))
|-
|[[1928 German federal election|1928]]
|((composition bar|239|491|red))
|((increase))7
|14,344,505
|46.64%
|((increase))0.68%
|((no2|Minority))
|-
|[[1930 German federal election|1930]]
|((composition bar|231|577|red))
|((decrease))8
|14,024,278
|40.12%
|((decrease))6.52%
|((no2|Minority))
|-
|[[July 1932 German federal election|Jul 1932]]
|((composition bar|212|608|red))
|((decrease))19
|12,985,144
|35.03%
|((decrease))5.09%
|((no2|Minority))
|-
|[[November 1932 German federal election|Nov 1932]]
|((composition bar|193|584|red))
|((decrease))19
|11,814,893
|33.31%
|((decrease))1.72%
|((no2|Minority))
|-
|[[March 1933 German federal election|Mar 1933]]
|((composition bar|198|647|red))
|((increase))5
|11,940,776
|30.35%
|((decrease))2.96%
|((no2|Minority))
|}

== Chronology ==
* 13 February 1919 &ndash; 20 June 1919: chancellor: Philipp Scheidemann (SPD)
* 21 June 1919 &ndash; 26 March 1920: chancellor: Gustav Bauer (SPD)
* 27 March 1920 &ndash; 8 June 1920: chancellor: Hermann Müller (SPD)
* 10 May 1921 &ndash; 22 October 1921: chancellor: Joseph Wirth (Zentrum)
* 29 October 1921 &ndash; 14 November 1922: chancellor: Joseph Wirth (Zentrum)

== See also ==
* [[Great Coalition (Weimar Republic)]]

== Citations ==
((reflist))

== References ==
((refbegin))
* ((cite book| last = Feuchtwanger| first = E. J.| title = From Weimar to Hitler: Germany, 1918-33| publisher = Springer| edition = 2nd| date = 1993| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=c4awCwAAQBAJ| isbn = 9781349229482))
((refend))

[[Category:Cabinets of Germany]]
[[Category:Politics of the Weimar Republic]]
[[Category:Social Democratic Party of Germany]]

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