Friedrich Ebert

:This is not the same Friedrich Ebert who was briefly the GDR's head of state, but rather his father. For the son, see Friedrich Ebert (GDR)

Related Topics:
GDR - Head of state - Friedrich Ebert (GDR)

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Friedrich Ebert (February 4, 1871–February 28, 1925) was a German politician (SPD), who served as the 9th Chancellor of Germany and its first president during the Weimar period.

Related Topics:
February 4 - 1871 - February 28 - 1925 - German - Politician - SPD - Chancellor - President - Weimar

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Born in Heidelberg as the son of a tailor, he himself was trained as a saddlemaker. He became involved in politics as a trade unionist and Social Democrat, and soon became a leader of the more moderate "revisionist" wing of the Social Democratic Party, becoming Secretary-General of the party in 1905, and party chairman in 1913. He also was a politician in Elberfeld (now Wuppertal), too.

Related Topics:
Heidelberg - Trade union - Social Democrat - Social Democratic Party - 1905 - 1913

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In August 1914, Ebert led the party to vote almost unanimously in favor of war appropriations, accepting that a war was a necessary patriotic, defensive measure. This refuted the belief of the German Emperor who, on December 31, 1905, had written to chancellor Bülow that an "external war" was only possibly if the socialists were "shot, decapitated and defanged".

Related Topics:
1914 - December 31 - 1905

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The party's stance, under the leadership of Ebert and other revisionists like Philipp Scheidemann, in favor of the war eventually led to a split, with the more left wing elements in the party leaving in early 1917 to form the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD).

Related Topics:
Philipp Scheidemann - 1917 - Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany

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When it became clear that the war was lost, a new government was formed by Prince Maximilian of Baden which included Ebert and other members of the Social Democratic party in October 1918. Following the outbreak of the German Revolution, Prince Max resigned on November 9, and Ebert was appointed Imperial Chancellor. The next day, however, in response to the unrest in Berlin, Ebert's associate Scheidemann declared the Kaiser had abdicated, ending the German Monarchy and proclaimed the German Republic, and an entirely Socialist provisional government took power under Ebert's leadership.

Related Topics:
Prince Maximilian of Baden - October - 1918 - German Revolution - November 9 - Kaiser

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Ebert accepted this position only reluctantly. He was a supporter of the monarchy until the abdication of the Kaiser ("If the Kaiser abdicates, the social revolution is inevitable. But I do not want it, I hate it like sin", he said to Max von Baden on November 7), and when Schneidemann proclaimed the Republic he responded: "Is that true? You have no right to proclaim the Republic!" By this he meant that the decision was to be made by an elected national assembly, even if that decision would be the restoration of the monarchy.

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Ebert led the new government for the next several months, notably using the army to suppress an uprising by the leftist Spartacist movement, commonly identified with Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, even though many of its members were centrist SPD supporters. (Ironically, years later, Ebert's son, Friedrich "Fritz" Ebert, became a Communist, served as Mayor of East Berlin, and briefly acted as East German interim head of state.) When the Constituent Assembly met in Weimar in February, 1919, Ebert was chosen to be the first president of the German Republic.

Related Topics:
Spartacist - Rosa Luxemburg - Karl Liebknecht - Constituent Assembly - Weimar - 1919 - German Republic

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In spite of Ebert's support for the violent suppression of revolutionary uprisings, the German workers protected his government from the Kapp Putsch in 1920 by means of a nation-wide general strike. After the strike was over, however, Ebert's government again recruited the Freikorps and the soldiers who had wanted to overthrow him in order to quell remaining uprisings in western Germany.

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While hundreds of civilians were killed (including many who had nothing to do with the uprising), most of the putschists were treated leniently. Some of the Freikorps already used the swastika as their symbol of resistance against the "red pack" at the time, and many of them as well as right-wing members of the Reichswehr would later become influential national socialists. In November 1923, Ebert rebuked his own party for leaving the coalition government of Gustav Stresemann.

Related Topics:
Swastika - November - 1923 - Gustav Stresemann

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