Vernunftrepublikaner

("rational republican")

   a term applied to those who supported the Republic out of political necessity rather than moral conviction. Historians note that the establishment of the Republic on 9 Novem-ber 1918 was less deliberate act than improvisation. Even Friedrich Ebert,* leader of the SPD and the Republic's first President, was horrified when his colleague Philipp Scheidemann* impetuously proclaimed "die deutsche Repub-lik from a Reichstag* balcony; Ebert, an erstwhile saddlemaker and union leader, was at heart a monarchist.

   Weimar was dubbed "a republic without republicans." While this facile quip oversteps the mark, it accurately suggests that many of the regime s dedicated leaders—for example, Walther Rathenau* and Gustav Stresemann*—came to support and labor gallantly for a regime that they accepted, at least initially, only with reluctance. Since such people viewed the Republic as the best from a list of poor possibilities, the term suggests a Republican "by intellectual choice rather than passionate conviction (Peter Gay). Although this disposition was first linked to Stresemann by Party colleague Wilhelm Kahl, it also describes Thomas Mann,* Max Weber,* Friedrich Meinecke,* and even Carl Schmitt*— all individuals who sought to preserve prewar aristocratic trappings within the new republican framework. Finally, while one can easily identify political parties pledged to Weimar s demise, one should also note that no party was passionately committed to its future. When it expired in 1933, many Germans faced the future with foreboding; few mourned the Republic.

   REFERENCES:Peter Gay, Weimar Culture; Peukert, Weimar Republic; Turner, Strese-mann.