Second Wirth cabinet

Second Cabinet of Joseph Wirth

6th Cabinet of Weimar Germany
26 October 1921 – 14 November 1922
(until 22 November 1922 as caretaker government)
Chancellor Joseph Wirth
Date formed26 October 1921 (1921-10-26)
Date dissolved22 November 1922 (1922-11-22)
(1 year and 27 days)
People and organisations
PresidentFriedrich Ebert
ChancellorJoseph Wirth
Vice ChancellorGustav Bauer
Member partiesSocial Democratic Party
Centre Party
German Democratic Party
Status in legislatureMinority Weimar Coalition[a]
216 / 469 (46%)
Majority Weimar Coalition[b]
299 / 469 (64%)
Opposition partiesIndependent Social Democratic Party[c]
German National People's Party
German People's Party
History
Election1920 federal election
Legislature term1st Reichstag of the Weimar Republic
PredecessorFirst Wirth cabinet
SuccessorCuno cabinet
Gustav Bauer (SPD), Vice-Chancellor and Minister of the Treasury
Walther Rathenau (DDP), Foreign Minister. He was assassinated while in office.
Otto Gessler (DDP), Reichswehr Minister
Wilhelm Groener (Ind.), Minister of Transport

The second Wirth cabinet, headed by Joseph Wirth of the Centre Party, was the sixth democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic. It assumed office on 26 October 1921 when it replaced the first Wirth cabinet, which resigned in protest after the industrially important eastern part of Upper Silesia was awarded to Poland even though the majority of its inhabitants had voted in a plebiscite to remain part of Germany.

The cabinet was based initially on a coalition of the Centre Party and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and was later joined by the German Democratic Party (DDP) The three-party grouping was known as the Weimar Coalition.

The Wirth government won an important moratorium on war reparations payments from the Allied powers. In July 1922, Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau was assassinated by right-wing extremists after he had signed the Rapallo Treaty normalizing relations with Soviet Russia. The assassination shocked the nation and led to the passing of a law that prohibited organisations opposed to the republican form of government.

The second Wirth cabinet resigned on 14 November 1922 after it lost a key vote in the Reichstag and then failed in an attempt to restructure the coalition. It was replaced on 22 November by the Cuno cabinet led by Wilhelm Cuno, an independent.

  1. ^ "Das Deutsche Reich: Reichstagswahl 1920/22" [The German Reich: Reichstag Election 1920/22]. gonschior.de (in German). Retrieved 27 August 2023.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · View on Wikipedia

Developed by Tubidy