The Free People's State of Württemberg () was a state of the Weimar Republic (1918–1933) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). It was formed from the Kingdom of Württemberg during the German revolution of 1918–1919 which broke out in the final days of World War I and led to the fall of the German Empire and all of Germany's reigning monarchs, including King William II of Württemberg.
The Free People's State of Württemberg was a parliamentary republic that was more stable than the Weimar Republic of which it was a part. It was led initially by parties of the moderate left, moving in the mid-1920s to the center-right and right. The Nazi Party became the strongest party in 1932 and took over control of the state after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933.
Following Germany's defeat in World War II, Württemberg was divided between the French and American zones of occupation. In 1952, after several intermediate combinations, it became part of the West German state of Baden-Württemberg.
Background: German Empire The Kingdom of Württemberg, created in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, became a member state of the German Empire when it was formed in 1871. As one of just four kingdoms in the new Empire (along with Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony), it was able to negotiate favourable terms before agreeing to join. In addition to obtaining special rights over its armed forces and taxation, Württemberg maintained its independence in matters of education, religious affairs, internal administration, the postal service and railways.
The Kingdom was a constitutional monarchy with a two-chamber parliament and a six-member Ministry of State as its government. The non-elected upper house consisted of members of the nobility, church dignitaries, representatives of the universities and appointees of the king. Following the electoral reform of 1906, the lower house was directly elected by male citizens over 25 years of age. Württemberg's last king was William II, who ruled from 1891 to 1918.
German revolution Until late September 1918, the German government had led its citizens to believe that the Central Powers would be victorious in World War I. When the Supreme Army Command abruptly admitted that the war was lost and that Germany needed to sue for peace, the public was deeply shocked. Four years of deprivation, hardship and suffering suddenly appeared to have been in vain, and the public mood rapidly darkened.
The discontent in Württemberg became manifest on 4 November 1918 when the communist Spartacus League sponsored a demonstration in Stuttgart, Württemberg's capital. Over 10,000 workers marched through the city centre and listened to Fritz Rück, leader of the city's Spartacists, call for the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II and Württemberg's King William II. On the same day, a workers' and soldiers' council was formed at Stuttgart. The council was part of the revolutionary wave that had started in the final days of October when mutinous sailors sparked the German revolution by setting up a workers' and soldiers' council at Kiel and then rapidly spreading them across Germany.
In response to the events in both Württemberg and Germany as a whole, the government under Minister President Karl von Weizsäcker of the National Liberal Party resigned on 6 November. Three days later, a new State Ministry under Theodor Liesching of the Progressive People's Party ordered on behalf of King William that a constituent state assembly be convened. It was to be elected under universal suffrage and draft a democratic constitution for Württemberg. The announcement was intended to prevent the revolution from breaking out in Stuttgart, but by the time it was made it was already too late.
Revolution in Stuttgart At a demonstration organised jointly by the moderate Social Democratic Party (SPD) and radical left Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) on 9 November, of the SPD proclaimed a "social republic" to a crowd of almost 100,000 in front of the New Castle in Stuttgart. Some revolutionaries, against the wishes of the demonstration's leaders, forced their way into the King's residence, the Wilhelm Palais, and replaced the royal standard flying over the building with the red flag of the revolution.
A provisional government consisting of members of the SPD and USPD was formed on the same afternoon when news reached Stuttgart that the Social Democrats in Berlin had proclaimed a German republic. Wilhelm Blos of the SPD and Arthur Crispien of the USPD were chosen to be leaders of the new government. Two days later it expanded beyond the socialist parties to include representatives of the liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) and Catholic Centre Party. The provisional government's most urgent priorities were security, order, providing the people of Württemberg with sufficient food and other necessities, and reintegrating demobilized soldiers into civilian life.
As reports of the revolutionary events in Stuttgart spread, local councils were formed at Heilbronn, Ludwigsburg and Ulm. On 12 November, Stuttgart workers elected a 15-member Greater Stuttgart Council made up of 11 SPD members and four from the USPD. The Württemberg soldiers' councils also chose a majority of SPD representatives when they elected a state committee on 17 November. A state convention of workers' councils on 8 December formed a Württemberg workers' executive committee that gave its support to the provisional government. As a result of the inability of radical elements to gain influence in the workers' and soldiers' councils anywhere in Württemberg, the state did not experience civil war-like conditions or set up a council republic. The majority of workers supported the SPD, which favoured a parliamentary republic and not the council republic that the more radical parties wanted.
Abdication of King William II
On 16 November the King, who had left Stuttgart for Tübingen on the evening of the ninth, had a letter sent to the provisional government releasing all civil servants from their oath of allegiance to him. The civil service, by remaining unchanged and ensuring the continuity of administration, became an important source of support for the provisional government in its fight against radical forces. The workers' and soldiers' councils were limited to supervisory functions that did not significantly disrupt the administration. The Blos government quickly gained the trust of civil servants, teachers and clergy.
In an announcement to the people of Württemberg on 30 November, King William II voluntarily abdicated the throne and thanked all those who had served him and Württemberg during his 27-year reign. William was the last of Germany's ruling monarchs to step down from his throne. Even Emperor Wilhelm II had formally submitted his abdication two days previously.
The post-World War II mayor of Ulm, Theodor Pfizer, summed up the revolution in Württemberg in the following words:The end of the monarchy brought about a turning point but not a profound break in the development of the state and its capital. The [royal] court, uniforms and orders disappeared, but the state apparatus and civil servants remained committed to their duties under the new regime ... The men of the new era, such as the Social Democrats Blos and Keil, were not inclined towards extremes. Perhaps too little room was given to new ideas in the bloodless revolution, and too much was left unchanged. But a profound change of heart was hardly necessary in Württemberg. The conservative citizens of the state who were loyal to the king were, like the king, tolerant and politically liberal, as their fathers had been, even if they voted for conservatives, and they were charitable, anointed with the often-invoked oil of democracy. They remained loyal to the state, even if they often railed against the Prussians, forgetting that behind the desks and counters in Württemberg sat South Prussians who meticulously enforced the laws that were conceived in Berlin and ridiculed in Bavaria.
Spartacist uprising and constituent state assembly The Spartacist uprising, a communist-led putsch against the revolutionary government in Berlin on 5–12 January 1919, was echoed in Stuttgart. A number of deaths occurred on 10 January when insurgents who wanted a soviet-style republic attempted to take control of the printing presses of the , but overall the level of violence did not compare to that in Berlin. Minister President Blos dismissed USPD ministers Crispien and Fischer for their support of the Spartacists and barred the USPD from further participation in his government.
The election to the constituent state assembly, which was to write a new constitution for Württemberg, took place on 12 January 1919. Even though the Spartacist uprising was then only just ending, there were no significant incidents that impeded the voting. The SPD, German Democratic Party (DDP) and Centre Party – the three moderate parties of the Weimar Coalition that built the new government at the national level – took 121 of the 150 seats. The USPD won just 3% of the vote and four seats. Thirteen members of the state assembly were women, among them Mathilde Planck and Clara Zetkin. Second Spartacist uprising In early March 1919, discontent among leftist workers in Berlin over the lack of progress towards implementation of some of their key revolutionary demands – socialisation of key industries and the legal safeguarding of workers' and soldiers' councils – erupted into violence that cost at least 1,200 lives in the Berlin March Battles. The same dissatisfaction led the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in Württemberg to call for a general strike on 31 March. The Württemberg government imposed a state of siege and actively suppressed the general strike in Stuttgart and the surrounding area. In a battle between 400 Spartacists and government forces who deployed artillery, 16 people were killed and 50 wounded.
The Württemberg government also sent troops into Bavaria in April 1919 to help Prussian and Freikorps units put down the Bavarian Soviet Republic. Württemberg's SPD state chairman spoke out against the move but found no support in the government.
Constitution
Württemberg's new constitution was adopted by the constituent assembly on 26 April 1919 and came into force on 25 September 1919. It established a republican state with a one-chamber parliament (the Landtag) whose members were elected by all citizens aged 21 or older who were residents of Württemberg. The Landtag elected a minister president who headed the government and selected and dismissed the ministers. The government was responsible to the Landtag. The constitution included an extensive list of rights and duties of the citizens. On 4 October 1919, Wilhelm Blos was sworn in as Württemberg's first minister president.
Württemberg's workers' and soldiers' councils, which had by then lost their political significance, were formally abolished when the constitution became effective.
Wilhelm Blos later wrote about the birth of the Free People's State:After all existing structures had been dismantled, the task was to protect the state from the threat of anarchy and the dictatorship of a violent minority. On the ruins of an old monarchy, a democratic republic in which the people of Württemberg could determine their own future had to be established. In cooperation with the workers' and soldiers' councils, it was possible to defeat the Spartacist coups of the winter and spring. Württemberg also successfully warded off the Bolshevik threat from Munich.
Weimar Republic Hieber government