German Peasants and Agrarian Politics, 1914-1924 by Robert G. Moeller

Author:Robert G. Moeller [Moeller, Robert G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Germany
ISBN: 9781469639741
Google: zfs4DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Published: 2017-10-10T22:18:37+00:00

The Retreat from Politics: Maintaining “Balanced Justice” in the Center

During Weimar’s early years, the obvious tensions between liberal Center leaders and the party’s antiparliamentary conservative agrarian wing were circumvented, not resolved. The priority of unity at all costs was clearly expressed at the party’s second postwar congress, convened in early 1922. Rather than directly confronting the conflicts inherent in the party, Center leaders followed the well-established pattern of emphasizing the forces unifying all social and occupational groups within their ranks. There were, at times, a few more strident voices, and the confirmed supporter of the Republic, Joseph Wirth, might well have had Kerckerinck, Loë-Bergerhausen, Luninck, and Papen in mind when he warned that “the gentlemen . . . who stand at the head of big economic organizations should not fail to consider thrice over whether it is possible from a purely economic perspective—and that is usually a partisan perspective—to bring a people, after the biggest catastrophe that its history has ever known, out of these dismal days to better ones.”84 But Wirth stopped short of addressing the conflicts of interests that were present at the party congress, and he added that now was simply not the time to enter into a discussion between right and left. Under the extraordinary circumstances of postwar reconstruction, unity was essential. The Center must remain a party in which “all occupational groups can gather.”85

The cost of achieving this objective was high. Not only were economic questions skirted, but in addition the party shied away from an unambiguous commitment to the democratic Republic. The discussion of fundamental political questions was generally carried on at a vague, uncontroversial level. The Center program ventured no further than the lowest common denominators acceptable to all members of the party—the need for a “nationalistic consciousness,” a support of the common good over individual goals, and the “cornerstone of the entire construction: the Christian way of life and the consciousness of belonging to the German people.”86

On this basis Kerckerinck and Loë-Bergerhausen could continue to advise against defection from the Center, and they themselves were not forced to leave, even if they were largely powerless to influence party policy. In the early years of Weimar, at best, their position within the party was reduced to that of spoilers. With an eye toward upcoming Reichstag elections in May 1924, Kerckerinck proposed a political strategy of planting a “number of lively and vigorous fleas in the coat of the [Center] Reichstag delegation, who look to the right and . . . serve as bridge builders to the party delegations of the right.”87 His ultimate goal was to create “in the coming Reichstag something above the parties, worthy, agricultural, with a conscious will, . . . which, it is worth noting, will not limit itself to the Center party delegation.” This was the only alternative because, “with new splinter parties and the like, ... we are building on sand. But in this form, with the flea system, our efforts cost relatively little and the success can be extraordinarily great, provided that we have luck in the selection of the fleas.

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