Cross-partisanship and the vulnerability democracy: how civility and nonpartisanship undermined civil society in interwar Germany

ABSTRACT

Exclusionary nationalist movements’ rise in recent years challenges liberal democracy’s trust in political institutions’ ability to neutralize and incorporate extremism. The crisis of liberal democracy likewise questions liberal civil society's emphasis on associational membership’s intrinsic democratic side-effects. The study proposes a partisanship spectrum integrating attitudes to conflict into civil society theory, suggesting the centrality of cross-partisanship in mediating modern society’s unavoidable conflicts, a question central to civil society theory and modern democracies. Germany’s first school of public affairs serves as a historical case study to better understand how cross-partisanship addressed the extreme political polarization, radicalization of public discourse, and violence challenging interwar Germany’s transition to democracy. While honouring political factionalism, cross-partisanship (Überparteilichkeit) countered extremism through a correct understanding of political facts and a common commitment to republican institutions. Relying on archival sources, I show that when cross-partisanship was equated to nonpartisanship, it favoured the penetration of extremism by emphasizing compromise and equal representation of all political parties, including the Nazi Party. The question of how to build a civil society is as crucial today as it was in interwar Germany.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-partisanship
• nonpartisanship
• civility
• nationalism
• public affairs
• civil society

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Gregory Witkowski, Ruth Hansen, and Jennifer Kerpelman, as well as the editor and the anonymous reviewers, for their constructive comments on earlier drafts.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 GStA PK, I. HA Rep. 303 neu, Nr. 286. The growing enrollment in the last years of the Weimar Republic reflects rising unemployment, with a growing number of unemployed students enrolling the school’s professional seminars and trainings (Korenblat, 2006, pp. 421–424).

2 Heinrich von Gleichen, Open Letter to Professor Wilbrandt, January 9, 1919, p. 1. Enclosed in Heinrich von Gleichen to Friedrich Meinecke, January 10, 1919, GStA PK, VI. HA Nl Meinecke, F., Nr. 13.

3 Heinrich von Gleichen, Open Letter to Professor Wilbrandt, January 9, 1919, p. 2. Enclosed in Heinrich von Gleichen to Friedrich Meinecke, January 10, 1919, GStA PK, VI. HA Nl Meinecke, F., Nr. 13.

4 Heinrich von Gleichen to Carl H. Becker, July 31, 1920, GStA PK, VI. HA Nl Becker, C. H., Nr. 430 and Heinrich von Gleichen to Carl H. Becker, September 9, 1920, GStA PK, I. HA, Rep. 76, Va, Sekt. 2, Tit. X, Nr. 200.

5 Deutsche Hochschule für Politik, Vorlesungsverzeichnis WS 1920/1921, pp. 10–11, GStA, Berlin, I. HA, Rep. 303 neu, Nr. 1.

6 DHfP, Vorlesungsverzeichnis WS 1923/1924, GStA PK, I. HA, Rep. 303 neu, Nr. 7 and Reichminister des Innern to Obersten Reichsbehörden, May 19, 1926, BArch, R 43-I/773.

7 DHfP, Vorlesungsverzeichnis SS 1923, GStA PK, I. HA, Rep. 303 neu, Nr. 6.

8 Aufzeichnungen über die Unterredung mit Ministerialrat Simons am 9.VII.1927. Enclosed in Martin Spahn to Reinhold Quaatz, July 13, 1927, BArch, R118/28.

9 Abkommen zwischen der Deutschen Hochschule für Politik und dem Politischen Kolleg zur Schaffung einer Arbeitsgemeinschaft angeboten 1927, GStA PK, VI. HA Nl Solger, F., Nr. 164.

10 Hans Simons to preussischer Minister für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Volksbildung, November 14, 1927, p. 3, BArch, R4901/1445.

11 Arnold Wolfers to Kleo Pleyer, June 6, 1930, BArch, R 118/23/ Heft 4.

12 DHfP, Mitteilung der Deutschen Hochschule für Politik über das SS 1932, October 1932, GStA Berlin, VI. HA Nl Becker, C. H., Nr. 1110. On the peaceful atmosphere within the school see: Lothar Wiesner, ‘Man mache den Studenten klar … ’ Der Abend, July 30, 1931, folder 177, box 19, series 717S, RG 1.1, RF Archives, RAC, ‘Jugend und Politik,’ Berliner Tageblatt, March 21, 1932, folder 177, box 19, series 717S, RG 1.1, RF Archives, RAC, and Grant Action, RF 32130, April 13, 1932, p. 1, folder 177, box 19, series 717S, RG 1.1, RF Archives, RAC.

13 Heinrich von Gleichen, ‘Das Kabinett Papen,’ Rundfunkansprache auf der ‘deutschen Welle,’ Donnerstag, den 2. Juni 1932, BArch, R 8034-III/150.

14 Ernst Jäckh, The Political Situation in Germany, Address given at Chatham House on February 6, 1933, pp. 13-14, folder 177, box 19, series 717S, RG 1.1, RF Archives, RAC.

15 John Van Sickle to Edmund E. Day, February 22, 1933, p. 2, Folder 177, box 19, series 717S, RG 1.1, RF Archives, RAC and Heuss (2008, p. 518).

16 Ernst Jäckh, Eröffnung des Lehrgangs für preussische Studienassessoren in der Deutschen Hochschule für Politik, March 27, 1933, pp. 4–5, BArch, R4901/1445 and Ernst Jäckh to Adolf Hitler, March 27, 1933, BArch, R43-II/948.