Biography of Friedrich Ebert: Defamation of the Reich President

On the 100th anniversary of his death, many politicians and journalists recently remembered Friedrich Ebert, the only democratically minded President of the Weimar Republic – who had to endure endless hostility from the left, but especially from the right. Especially in light of the current threats to democracy , lessons learned from how prominent politicians dealt with attacks on the Republic, but also on them personally, can be quite helpful. There is hardly anything more suitable for this purpose than Walter Mühlhausen's voluminous Ebert biography. It was first published in 2006; to mark the anniversary , the author and publisher decided to produce a new edition that was expanded by only a four-page foreword, but otherwise "largely unchanged," because the state of research has hardly changed since then. This assessment can be agreed with without reservation. After all, Mühlhausen is extremely well-versed in this field of research, having held leading positions at the "Reichspräsident-Friedrich-Ebert-Gedenkstätte" Foundation in Heidelberg for almost 40 years.

As the subtitle suggests, Mühlhausen focuses on the time of his presidency. Ebert's personal and political career as a Social Democratic labor leader during the Empire and the Revolution is explored in 120 pages: Born as the seventh child of a tailor in Heidelberg, the future head of state completed an apprenticeship as a saddler after attending elementary school. During his subsequent mandatory journeyman's period, he came into contact with the labor movement, and in 1889 he became a member of the Social Democratic Party. In 1891, his path led him to Bremen, where he worked voluntarily for the party and the saddlers' union. In 1900, he rose to the position of salaried official, and in 1894 he married 20-year-old factory worker Louise Rump—a "must-have marriage." The upbringing of his five children was characterized by a sense of family, a love of order, hard work, contentment, and thrift—the very values ​​that he had also been instilled in him.

In 1905, by then in Berlin, he rose to the party executive, and in 1913 he was elected one of two party leaders. The revolutionary events of November 1918 ultimately brought him to the six-member "Council of People's Representatives," the interim government until the establishment of the National Assembly. Mühlhausen characterizes Ebert as a "fundamentally anti-theoretical pragmatist and reformist," a "mediator between radicals and reformers," and a profoundly "national Social Democrat." These characteristics also determined his work as the first and only democratically minded President of the Weimar Republic.

The chapters on the presidency are essentially organized chronologically, but the author also manages to systematically discuss the problems that characterized a particular stage. In the chapter on Office and Task, for example, he mentions the concerns within the SPD about the president's powers being too heavily concentrated on Ebert: What if "one day another man, from another party, perhaps even from a reactionary, coup-hungry party, stood in this position" and "applied the constitution against its meaning"? As would become apparent a few years later, this was not an unreasonable fear . The SPD therefore called for the erection of "institutional barriers" against the absolute power of the president, but this was not achieved in the Constitutional Committee.

In the chapter on reactions to the Treaty of Versailles, Mühlhausen problematizes Ebert's position – "unfulfillable, unbearable, and unacceptable" – with a view to the long-term consequences of the national "frenzy of pithy public speeches." Ultimately, the Reich President soon realized that there was no realistic alternative to accepting the treaty. And in his effort to transform the Reichswehr into a republican instrument of power, Ebert pursued a course toward the military that was, from the SPD's perspective, too lenient, which ultimately promoted rather than hindered its "de-republicanization." Other topics include Ebert's role in forming the government and his use of Article 48 of the Emergency Decree – during his term in office, he issued 136 corresponding decrees, mostly to ensure law and order and in economic and financial matters.

In a comprehensive chapter toward the end of the book, Mühlhausen discusses in detail the legal battle for the reputation of his office, the republic, and his person: Like hardly any other politician, Ebert wasat the center of a hateful, slanderous, and degrading campaign by anti-democratic and anti-republican circles . The "simple lie became a common tool of political debate." Initially, these were "only" caricatures that "exaggerated reality" but did not denigrate the person, but the drawings and press articles soon became more polemical and spiteful, both from right-wing and left-wing radicals. After the murders of Matthias Erzberger and Walther Rathenau, Ebert decided to take tougher action against insults and slander: "The criminal complaint now became his weapon for the reputation of the republic."

The climax of these disputes was a trial in Magdeburg, in which Ebert sought to dispel the accusation that he had committed treason through his role in a munitions workers' strike in January 1918. This attempt failed completely. Although the accused editor was found guilty of insulting the Reich President, the court simultaneously found in its verdict of December 23, 1924, that Ebert had committed treason through his behavior during the strike. For the anti-democratic circles that had skillfully exploited and choreographed the proceedings, "the sleazy theater of Magdeburg," according to Mühlhausen, "turned out to be a tremendous propaganda success." It didn't help that numerous commentators criticized the verdict as wrong. From Ebert's perspective, it was political character assassination. Social Democratic lawyer Hugo Sinzheimer made the fatal consequences clear: Such a "'legal' conviction then forms the basis for an unrestrained war against political opponents, using all means of demagogy." The verdict deeply affected Ebert. He was not finally rehabilitated until six years after his death.

Would it have been politically wise to forgo a lawsuit? Possibly – but the Reich President believed he could not ignore the accusation of treason, especially since it was directed not only at him but at the Weimar democracy as a whole. Mühlhausen's tribute to this great statesman, who tirelessly advocated cooperation between the democratic labor movement and the democratic middle class, demonstrates in an equally impressive and disturbing way the threats to this democracy and the difficulties involved in finding the "right" means and ways to defend it.

Werner Bührer is a contemporary historian. He lives in Munich.