Reichstag (German Empire)
The Reichstag, of the German Empire was Germany's lower House of Parliament from 1871 to 1918. Within the governmental structure of the Reich, it represented the national and democratic element alongside the federalism of the Bundesrat and the monarchic and bureaucratic element of the executive, embodied in the Reich chancellor. Together with the Bundesrat, the Reichstag had legislative power and shared in decision-making on the budget. It also had certain rights of control over the executive branch and could engage the public through its debates. The emperor had little political power, and over time the position of the Reichstag strengthened with respect to both the imperial government and the Bundesrat.
Reichstag members were elected for three-year terms from 1871 to 1888 and following that for five years. It had one of the most progressive electoral laws of its time: with only a few restrictions, all male citizens 25 and older were allowed to vote, secretly and equally, in direct elections. The Reichstag met throughout the First World War, but was prevented from sitting during the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Its last session took place on 26 October 1918. Its successors were the Weimar National Assembly, followed by the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic that met for the first time in June of 1920.
Electoral franchise
The 1871 Constitution of the German Empire did not change the legal form of the parliament as it had been laid down for the Reichstag of the North German Confederation in its 1867 constitution.Members were elected by universal, equal and secret manhood suffrage, with the voting age set at 25. The suffrage was quite extensive both in comparison to other countries and to the various German state parliaments. In most countries at that time, votes were not equal but weighted by such factors as class or income. Prussia, for example, the largest state in the Empire, used a three-class franchise in elections to the Prussian House of Representatives, with votes weighted by the amount of tax paid.
Since it was thought that allowing men in active military service to vote would politicize the military, they were denied the franchise, although they had the right to stand for election. Also ineligible to vote were men dependent on public assistance for the poor, those over whose assets bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings had been initiated, and those who had been declared incapacitated or been deprived of their civil rights by a court judgment. In the 1912 Reichstag elections, 22.2% of the population were eligible to vote; by comparison the figures were 16% in Great Britain and 28% in the United States. The percentage eligible to vote in Reichstag elections was also significantly higher than in German state elections, such as in Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony, where the right to vote was subject to additional conditions.
Runoff elections
Elections were held in districts that elected a single member by absolute majority, which meant that – unlike under the proportional representation of the Weimar Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany – there were only directly elected deputies. If no candidate received an absolute majority in the first round, a runoff election was held between the two candidates with the highest number of votes. Runoff elections became increasingly important during the life of the Empire. Whereas in the 1874 Reichstag election, runoffs had to be held in 46 of the 397 electoral districts, in the 1890 election there were 147 and 190 in 1912.Consequences of electoral district boundaries
In 1871 the Reichstag consisted of 382 deputies.After the addition of fifteen electoral districts to Alsace–Lorraine in 1874, there were 397 until the end of the Empire in 1918. The electoral districts were initially drawn to include about 100,000 people each, with the exception of eight small states that formed their own electoral districts even though they had fewer than 100,000 inhabitants. Since the electoral district boundaries were based on the borders of the individual German states, some electoral districts consisted of widely separated areas. The fragmentation was particularly pronounced in the Thuringian states.
Due to differing rates of population growth caused primarily by internal migration to the big cities and industrial centers, large differences arose in the populations of the individual electoral districts. In 1912 there were twelve electoral districts with fewer than 75,000 inhabitants and twelve with more than 400,000, the largest of which, electoral district 10 in Potsdam, had 1,282,000.
The layout of the electoral districts, which was based on the 1864 census and did not change afterwards, disadvantaged those political parties that had their constituencies primarily in the cities. The small electoral districts that coincided with individual "dwarf" states continued to send one deputy to the Reichstag because the federal structure of the Reich required that each state have a seat regardless of population, as was notably the case in Schaumburg-Lippe, with a population of about 45,000 in 1912.
An 1869 electoral law stipulated that it was parliament and not a statutory order by the administration that adjusted electoral boundaries to reflect population changes. The Reichstag was suspicious of the administration because it had regularly manipulated district boundaries in Prussian state elections. But in the following decades, the Bundesrat, as a part of parliament, prevented a legislative adjustment of electoral districts.
Composition and function
| State | Seats |
| Prussia | 236 |
| Bavaria | 48 |
| Saxony | 23 |
| Württemberg | 17 |
| Baden | 14 |
| Thuringian states | 12 |
| Hesse | 9 |
| Mecklenburg | 6 |
| Hansa Cities | 5 |
| Oldenburg | 3 |
| Brunswick | 3 |
| Small states | 6 |
| Alsace–Lorraine | 15 |
| Total | 397 |
Deputies
Deputies were considered representatives of the entire German people and under the constitution were not bound by instructions. They enjoyed immunity from prosecution on the basis of their office and security against loss or other financial burden, as well as protection from disciplinary sanctions resulting from their political actions as parliamentarians.Strong emphasis was placed on the separation between the executive and parliament. A deputy who was appointed Reich chancellor or a state secretary subordinate to him, or to a state government, had to resign his seat in the Reichstag.
No allowances were paid because there were to be no professional politicians. In practice this meant that deputies had to have the time available and be able to afford the office financially. Candidates who were not wealthy or civil servants were thus at a disadvantage. Lawyers and journalists, for example, were able to combine being a member of parliament with their profession. Max Weber also counted Prussian Junkers, industrialists, pensioners and high officials among the group. The majority of businessmen, on the other hand, were rarely free because of the demands of their occupation. This was even more true for workers.
Financial compensation could come through support from a member's party or an interest group. The Social Democratic Party paid its deputies a kind of salary from 1876 on. Numerous parliamentarians were also employed as party functionaries or journalists for the party press. In 1898 about 40% of Social Democratic deputies were party employees and another 15–20% were employed by the socialist free trade unions. In the conservative camp, the German Agrarian League supported Reichstag members financially and expected political support in return. Industrial associations and the Catholic Church acted similarly. A government-funded expense allowance was made available in 1906, but the 3,000 marks per year was too little to live on. The makeup of the Reichstag showed that these types of financial provisions could not prevent something like professional political class from developing.
Convening and dissolution
The proceedings of the Reichstag were public, and the press reported widely on the debates. The electoral period was three years until 1888, then five. The Reichstag had no right of self-assembly but was convened annually by the emperor, an act that proved to be a formality.The Bundesrat was allowed to dissolve the Reichstag with the emperor's consent. New elections had to be held within sixty days, and the newly elected Reichstag had to be convened after 90 days at the latest. The Reichstag was dissolved only four times: in 1878, 1887, 1893, and 1906. The initiative always came from the chancellor, who hoped that the Reichstag parties supporting him would gain seats. Such an outcome was uncertain, which was a main factor behind the low number of Reichstag dissolutions.
Rules of procedure and the president
The Reichstag based its internal organization on the rules of procedure of the Prussian House of Representatives. They remained in force until 1922, after the end of the Empire.The expansion of parliamentary committees was halting. The number of members depended on the strength of the parliamentary parties. In the council of elders, generally made up of members of the parties' leadership, agreement was reached on committee chairmanships. Unlike the rules of procedure for the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic, there was no specification of the numbers or tasks of committees.
Reichstag members elected a president and his deputies. The president represented the parliament externally and had the task of maintaining internal order. He set the agenda, and members could reject it only by a majority vote. The president could call speakers to order, request that they be deprived of the floor if they disobeyed, or exclude them from the session. It was inadmissible to enter into a debate about the emperor. If a member dared to do so, the president intervened.
The members of the Bundesrat enjoyed a special position in parliament. They were not subject to the presidential power of order and had the right to be heard. The chancellor as such did not have the right to speak, but in practice he was almost always a member of the Bundesrat.