# The Political Situation in Germany

- URL: https://syn.by/en/history/archives/the-political-situation-in-germany/
- Published: 1924-06-13T18:45:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-23T21:01:15+00:00
- Section: Archives
- Language: en
- BE edition: https://syn.by/historya/arkhivy/palitychnaje-palazhennie-u-niamiechchynie.md
- RU edition: https://syn.by/ru/istoriya/arhivy/politichyeskoye-polozhyeniye-v-gyermanii.md

> After the elections in Germany, power has remained with the former Chancellor Marx. His modest programme rests on the Treaty of Versailles, but the government has a reliable majority only in the smaller part of the parliament.

As we foresaw from the composition of the new parliament, the ruling "majority" in it has remained the same as it was in the old one. President Ebert has just appointed as Chancellor (prime minister) the same Marx, confirming also the entire old composition of his cabinet.

On 5 June this "new" government presented itself to the new Reichstag.

The programme of the cabinet, announced in Prime Minister Marx's exposé, says that, in return for accepting and loyally carrying out the report of the commissions of experts (on the question of reparations), the government will demand:

1) the release of all Germans arrested by the occupation authorities, 2) the annulment of all "free" agreements made by those authorities with German industrialists, 3) the return to common German administration of all the railways seized by the occupiers, 4) the abolition of the customs frontier between Germany and the occupied territories, and 5) the evacuation of the Ruhr basin and other territories within the time foreseen in the Treaty of Versailles…

As we see, the programme is very modest and, like the government that put it forward, not new either; both stand on the ground of the Treaty of Versailles. On the ground of such a programme an understanding with the governments of France and England will not be difficult. For, as is known, the English government includes ministers who stand even on the ground of a radical revision of the whole Treaty of Versailles…

In their appeal, explaining the breakdown of negotiations on forming a government of the right-centre, the Nationalists declare that the cause was the failure to satisfy their demand for a change in foreign policy, and they prophesy a new cabinet crisis soon… The correctness of this prophecy is clear from the fact that at the very first sitting of parliament it emerged that the government has quite certain support only among 138 deputies out of a total of 470.

The People's Party members are already divided in their views between the right and the centre, but have not yet split into two separate parties, and for that reason they have no distinct face and no free hand outwardly…

A very characteristic feature of the political situation in Germany is that the Treaty of Versailles, like some steel grating, at one and the same time protects the artificially held-up government of the weak centre and revolutionizes both flanks, which grow stronger every day in the Reichstag and in the country.