Friedrich Ebert: Germany

Makers of the Modern World: The peace conferences of 1919-23 and their aftermath
By Harry Harmer

Friedrich Ebert (1871-1925). On 9 November 1918 Ebert became Imperial Chancellor as revolution broke out in Berlin. He had been influential in securing SPD support for the war in 1914 and maintained close relations with the Imperial government and military authorities throughout. Two of his sons were killed in the conflict, a tragedy he used to emphasise his own patriotism.

In February of 1919 he became Germany's first democratically elected head of state, the President of the new Weimar Republic.

Only reluctantly did he accept the need for Germany to sign the Treaty of Versailles, at one point saying that he might be prepared to resume the war. It was left to Johannes Bell and Hermann Muller to sign on behalf of Germany.

There were arguments among the Allies over how Germany should be treated, as France, Britain and the United States sought different objectives. In May 1919, the terms of the Treaty - on reparations, the war, guilt clause, the loss of territories in Europe and colonies, and the limitations of arms - were presented to German representatives, participating widespread opposition in government and the Armed forces.

This book follows Ebert's rise to national prominence in the pre-war Social Democratic Party, his role in the First World War, and his short tenure as the first president of the Weimar Republic.

 ‘Harry Harmer gives a long overdue introduction in English to the saddler’s son who, though not present at Versailles, shakily presided over the establishment of German’s Weimar Republic. ... a beautifully produced series’
Nigel Jones, Literary Review, November 2008

Harry Harmer's particular interest is late 19th and early 20th century European history. He has studied the history of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler, and his PhD involved research into the Communist International and the European Communist parties, of which the German was the most significant. He is the author of a number of biographies.

Preview the book online here.

Review from the H-Diplo Review Project (USA) by V.R. Berghahn, Columbia University

http://www.h-net.org/~diplo/essays/PDF/Haus-Germany.pdf

'All this is ably recounted by Harmer, but I have spent some time summarizing his study of Ebert as a 'maker of the modern world' to bring out the huge dilemmas that Ebert faced and how he became the target of both right-wing and left-wing hatred. He was no doubt the great tragic figure of a crucial period of German history the end of which no-one could possibly know. He who had suffered distressing humiliation and discrimination under the monarchy; who had patriotically worked for the defense of the Fatherland in World War I and for a reform of a political system that was no longer capable of coping with the democratic pressures ‘from below’; who had lost two of his sons at the front and who wanted to build an economically and politically stable and modern republic, was never able to resolve the enormous social tensions left by a war that the emperor had started and by a civil war that exacerbated wartime hardships and traumatization.'