Evdokimova T.V. The “Weimar democrats ‘of the first hour’” between government and society

Abstract: The aim of this research is to examine the activities of the “Weimar democrats ‘of the first hour’” at the formative stage of the Weimar republic. The analysis is carried out from a critical viewpoint towards the widespread opinion that the Weimar republic was a “democracy without democrats”. The author differentially considers the composition of the ruling political elite of Weimar Germany, singling out the representatives of the Social-Democratic party of Germany, the Centre party, and the Civic-Democratic party which held government positions in the first cabinet. The founders of the first German republic aimed to create a model democracy starting with meetings in Weimar, the European spiritual centre, and adopting the “most democratic constitution in Europe”. However, the given experiment was complicated in the first place by the defeat of Germany in the First World War and by the overthrow of the monarchy. In addition, the “Weimar democrats ‘of the first hour’”, caught between the political past comprehensible to the masses and the democratic present comprehensible only to a handful of leaders, were subjected to attacks from the right- and left-radical forces. The perfectionism of Weimar democrats was met with serious resistance from the electorate, army, officials, and justice system. The German society was not ready to function on the democratic principles proposed by the “Weimar democrats ‘of the first hour’”, and even less ready to accept democracy as a value.

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