Everything about Matthias Erzberger totally explained
Matthias Erzberger (
September 20,
1875 –
August 26,
1921) was a
German political figure. Prominent in the
Centre Party, he spoke out against the
First World War and eventually signed the
Armistice for the German Empire. He was assassinated for this act by the
Organisation Consul.
Early career
He was born in
Buttenhausen,
Württemberg, the son of a craftsman. In his early life he gained massive weight, which he lost in the course of thirty years. He became a journalist working for the
Deutsches Volksblatt. Erzberger joined the
Centre Party and was elected to the
Reichstag in 1903.
During the Great War
Like many of his party, he initially supported Germany's involvement in
World War I. By mid-1917, however, with the armies stalemated on both fronts, he'd come to a change of heart, which he elucidated in a brilliant speech in the Reichstag on the
July 6, in which he called on the government to denounce territorial ambition and called for a negotiated end to the war. The speech was remarkable at the time in that he carefully delineated the extent of German military weakness. Two weeks later, on the 19th, he put to the vote what he called a 'Peace Resolution', embodying all the points he'd made in his speech. The resolution passed 212 to 126, and indeed received the support of
Erich Ludendorff's nominee in the
Reichskanzlei,
Chancellor Georg Michaelis. But the Chancellor had hamstrung the resolution by adding to his support the proviso 'as I interpret it', which he then used as an excuse to completely ignore its prescriptive power.
Erzberger's political attempts failed, but by his very public attack on the war effort, and his dissemination of information about the fragility of the German military he created a climate in which the government found it increasingly difficult to maintain the belief that the war could be won. When, towards the end of the war, the German Navy mutined at
Kiel, the sailors informed their officers that what they wanted was 'Erzberger'–-his name by then being synonymous with 'peace'.
Signing the Armistice
Prince
Max von Baden's last act as Chancellor was thus to send Erzberger on the November 7, 1918, to negotiate with the Allies in the Forest of
Compiègne. He supposed that Erzberger, as a Catholic civilian, would be more acceptable to the allies than a Prussian military officer; in addition, he believed that Erzberger's reputation as a man of peace was unassailable. This decision was to have unexpected ramifications in the years that followed. Over the next few days, Erzberger obtained important concessions from
Ferdinand Foch, the chief Allied negotiator; but he was unsure whether he should hold out for further changes in Germany's favour.
Paul von Hindenburg himself telegraphed back that the armistice should be signed, modifications or no. A while later, the new Chancellor, the
socialist Friedrich Ebert, telegraphed authorizing Erzberger to sign.
As the head of the German delegation, he signed the
armistice ending World War I on
November 11 1918 at
Compiègne with French representative
Ferdinand Foch. He made a short speech on the occasion, protesting the harshness of the terms, and concluded by saying that "a nation of seventy millions can suffer, but it can't die". (Foch ignored Erzberger's attempt to shake his hand and is said to have replied, "
Très bien".)
After the War
Returning to Berlin, Erzberger agreed to serve under Ebert as Chairman of the Armistice Commission, a difficult and humiliating task. He fell out with
Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau in early
1919 for advocating handing over
Karl Radek, the
Bolshevik diplomat and agitator, to the
Entente following the collapse of the
German Revolution.
Erzberger became finance minister in June 1919, and endorsed the
Treaty of Versailles. He was treated with particular contempt by the right wing, as the man who had signed what was becoming viewed as a humiliating and unnecessary surrender. He managed, however, to stabilise national finances, and reduced the financial independence of states. He reformed and unified the
Deutsche Reichseisenbahnen, which began to make a profit for the first time and helped pay the
war reparations. In addition, he taxed luxuries and war profits, and replaced all provincial taxes with a uniform central tax code. The German tax code to this day bears his imprint.
He was forced from office in March 1920, and was later murdered in
Bad Griesbach, a spa in the
Black Forest (
Baden) by members of the
Organisation Consul, an act which was celebrated by right-wing extremists at the time. Erzberger's assassins were smuggled out of Germany and were prosecuted only after World War II.
Erzberger is buried in the Catholic cemetery of
Biberach an der Riss.
Legacy
Erzberger was instrumental in preparing the German nation for peace and in ensuring that the Catholic Centre Party, the predecessors of today's
Christian Democratic Union, retained a modicum of power in an increasingly radicalised Germany. His financial, federal and rail reforms transformed Germany. But his greatest, and most tragic legacy, was his signature, as a civilian, on the Armistice. This, despite the fact that the military was actively pressuring Erzberger to sign as soon as possible, was pointed to for decades afterwards as evidence for the
Stab-in-the-Back Legend, under which the surrender was an act by scheming Socialist politicians for personal gain that defied the German Army's will to fight, and which later helped to propel
Adolf Hitler to power.
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