1L - Political authority: the political impact of the First World War on Germany
Learn how war changed the balance of political power, why authority collapsed in 1918 and how revolution led to a democratic constitution alongside important institutional continuities.
Wartime unity and growing division
War initially encouraged cooperation with the imperial state. In August 1914 the major parties supported war credits, including the SPD's parliamentary group. The Burgfrieden, or political truce, suspended many domestic conflicts in the name of national defence. It did not abolish the parties' underlying disagreements, and its durability depended on the war's course and its effects on society.
As war continued, casualty losses, shortages and strain on working households weakened confidence. The Allied blockade restricted supplies, while mobilisation and disruption to agriculture and distribution contributed to scarcity. Rationing and unequal access to food could make sacrifice appear unfair. Strikes consequently expressed both material grievances and demands for political change or peace. An explanation should connect hardship to declining trust, rather than assume every shortage immediately produced revolution.
The SPD divided over continued support for the war. Dissent increased after the initial votes, and anti-war socialists formed the Independent Social Democratic Party, or USPD, in 1917. The Spartacus group pursued a more radical opposition. By contrast, nationalist organisations such as the Fatherland Party, formed in 1917, demanded a victorious peace. The war widened political polarisation as well as producing pressure for reform.
The Reichstag Peace Resolution of July 1917, supported by the majority socialists, Centre and left liberals, called for peace without forced annexations and economic coercion. The contemporary resolution is evidence of cooperation among parliamentary groups. It did not force military leaders to negotiate on those terms. Growing parliamentary organisation and limited executive control therefore continued to coexist under wartime pressure.
Military command and civilian authority
Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff took leading positions in the Supreme Army Command, or OHL, in 1916. Their prestige and control of war strategy gave them influence extending beyond military operations. They pressed for greater economic mobilisation and a more uncompromising approach to the war. The Hindenburg Programme and the 1916 Auxiliary Service Law linked military needs to the organisation of civilian labour.
Their influence was not identical to sole legal sovereignty. The emperor, Chancellor, ministries and Reichstag continued to exist, and bargaining with labour and industry remained necessary. Nevertheless, civilian government became increasingly dependent on the military leadership's judgement and support. Bethmann Hollweg's removal in July 1917 after pressure from the OHL illustrates this shift. His successors Georg Michaelis and then Georg von Hertling did not resolve the divide between parliamentary reform and military authority.
The relative weakening of Wilhelm II is significant. The monarch still possessed formal powers, but effective wartime direction increasingly lay elsewhere. Political authority can change in practice before a constitution changes on paper. Saying Germany remained a monarchy is therefore insufficient to explain who made the decisive choices by 1917–18.
Parliamentary parties sought a different relationship. Their October 1917 request for parliamentary rule demanded a government more closely tied to the elected majority. War thus created competing pressures: military mobilisation strengthened unelected commanders, while its costs encouraged demands for civilian accountability.
Defeat and the October reforms
Germany's spring offensives in 1918 failed to secure decisive victory. Allied advances, strengthened by American participation, and the deterioration of Germany's allies made military defeat increasingly clear. In late September the OHL demanded an armistice request and supported a government based on parliamentary parties. Reform arrived in the context of defeat rather than as the culmination of an orderly peacetime transfer of power.
Prince Max of Baden became Chancellor in October and included representatives of the Reichstag majority, including the SPD. The constitutional changes of 28 October made the Chancellor dependent on Reichstag confidence and increased parliamentary control over decisions concerning war and peace. For a short period the empire was transformed into a parliamentary monarchy. The sequence matters: democratic reform began before the monarchy was overthrown.
Reform could improve the prospects of negotiations with US President Woodrow Wilson, who insisted on reliable political change. It also helped military leaders shift the political burden of seeking peace towards civilian parties. These purposes need not be mutually exclusive. Some politicians had long sought accountability; military leaders now supported it under the pressure of impending defeat.
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