The first elections to Germany’s constituent National Assembly had taken place in the immediate aftermath of World War I, on 19 January 1919. Despite severe social unrest, the elections, in which women voted for the first time, resulted in an absolute majority for the mainstream ‘Weimar Coalition’, made up of... More
The elections on 5 March 1933 came in the wake of months of political intrigue and negotiation. In December 1932 President von Hindenburg had sacked Chancellor von Papen, replacing him with the defence minister, Kurt von Schleicher, who was determined to form a coalition. The aggrieved von Papen then opened... More
Known as the ‘inflation election’, the second Reichstag elections of 4 May 1924 resulted in a minority coalition, composed of the DVP (German People’s Party), Centre (Zentrum) Party and DDP (German Democratic Party). The election came in the wake of a period of intense hyperinflation (1921–23), when the German mark... More
Four years of economic recovery consolidated the position of the democrats in the Reichstag elections held on 20 May 1928. The SPD (Social Democrats) were the clear victors, with 29.8 per cent of the vote and 153 Reichstag seats. By aligning with the Centre (Zentrum) Party, the DDP (German Democratic... More
Chancellor Franz von Papen, who was governing by legislative decree, dissolved parliament in September 1932 in order to pre-empt a motion of no confidence from the Communists, which would have been supported by the National Socialists (Nazis). The elections of 6 November 1932 were the last democratic national election until... More
The Great Depression of 1929 had led to widespread poverty and hardship throughout Germany, resulting in the radicalisation of the electorate. The cabinet of Heinrich Brüning was governing by emergency presidential decree and the elections of 14 September 1930 were called in the hope of gaining parliamentary backing. However, the... More
General Eisenhower planned the main Rhine offensives in the north. Further south Lieutenant-General Bradley’s 12th Army Group, comprising US 1st and 3rd Armies was charged with reaching the Rhine between Cologne and Koblenz in Operation Lumberjack. Lieutenant-General Devers’ 6th Army Group, comprising the US 7th and French 1st Armies was... More
The Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (1870) asserts a citizen’s right to ‘vote... cannot be denied… on account of race, colour or previous condition of servitude’. Almost a century later, this was still ‘honoured more in the breach than the observance’ in the American South. Despite Civil Rights Acts... More
The Emperor Constantine, founder of a new city at Byzantium and the first Roman emperor to espouse Christianity, steered a tortuous route to power. Born (c. 285) in the province of Moesia Superior (modern Serbia), he served with distinction in the east. His father, Constantinus, succeeded to the rank of... More
The Prussian state, which would dominate 19th-century Europe, had its origins in some mutual diplomatic backscratching in the Holy Roman Empire, over 400 years earlier. In 1411, Frederick VI of Nuremberg was rewarded with the plum seat of Prince Elector of Brandenburg for supporting Sigismund of Hungary in obtaining the... More
The ‘Great Elector’, Frederick William (1640–88), came to power with Brandenburg-Prussia in ruins from the multiple invasions of the Thirty Years’ War. His father, George William, while trying to claim neutrality, had been forced to espouse, at various points, both the Catholic and Protestant cause and consequently had his lands... More
After the final annexation of Poland between Prussia, Russia and Austria in 1795, Prussia became part of a coalition that opposed the French in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The War of the First Coalition (1792–97) consisted of Austria, Prussia, the Netherlands,... More