PDF file: History - Advanced Higher - Germany - Education Scotland

Source D
Speech by Wilhelm Keil to the SPD Congress in Heidelberg, 1925.
We Social Democrats feel ourselves to be the real representatives of the democratic
republic, and we must, therefore, defend it with all our might … In essence, the
Social Democrats are, and remain, the advocate of the poor, the workers and the
disinherited. We must use all our power in public life to defend the vital interests of
the working people and of the innocent victims of the capitalist economy against the
patronage of property. Thus when we are in opposition, our demands must not
exceed those limits which we would have to honour if we were in power.
Source E
Dr Hjalmar Schacht, memorandum, December 1929.
The Young Plan is a treaty structure which is the only possible way to solve the
reparations question and to restore world peace. This Plan expresses the most
serious sense of moral responsibility which its authors feel not only to their own
people, but to the entire civilised world. We have a right to ask the governments not
to endanger this pacific achievement by insisting upon unilateral interests… The
German people have a right to expect foreign governments to cease their efforts to
squeeze out of German industry special payments and sacrifices which go beyond the
terms of the Young Plan.
Source F
Gustav Stressemann comments on political leadership in 1929.
The supplanting of the individual by the organisation is the prime evil of modern
political life. A person is not only the representative of a professional organisation, a
local association or a mass body of one sort or another: his significance lies in
himself … We must strive to achieve reform of the parliamentary system. We must
demand that the spirit of party be confined to what is vitally required for Germany’s
development, that Parliament itself exert the pressure to produce a real and not
merely formal majority. But if that fails in the present situation, because of the
parties themselves, then let the cry go up, ‘Res venit ad triaros!’ and let responsible
individuals find the courage to govern - that is, to assume leadership.
(From The Weimar Republic, D Peukert, Allen lane 1991)
History: Germany: Versailles to the Outbreak of World War II - 1918-1939 (AH) 61