Republic of Baden

The Republic of Baden (German: Republik Baden) was a German state during the Weimar Republic. It was formed as the successor to the Grand Duchy of Baden during the German revolution of 1918–1919 and formally dissolved in 1945. Today it is part of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg.

Workers' and soldiers' councils peacefully replaced the government of the Grand Duchy in November 1918. The people of Baden elected an assembly in January 1919 that passed a constitution giving Baden a single-chamber parliament that elected the president and government ministers from among its ranks. Until the end of the Weimar Republic, Baden was governed by coalitions of the Catholic Centre Party and other parties of the moderate left and right.

Much of the Republic of Baden was part of the post-World War I demilitarized zone along the Rhine, and small areas were occupied by the French for varying lengths of time until 1930. Baden saw two leftist uprisings in its early years, but overall it experienced relatively little political violence during the Weimar period.

The Republic of Baden ceased de facto to exist in March 1933 following the Nazi takeover, although it was not formally abolished until September 1945 under the post-World War II Allied occupation. After a number of reorganizations of territory in southwest Germany, it became part of Baden-Württemberg in 1952.

By mid-1917, war weariness, problems with the food supply, and the state's intervention in economic and social structures (such as through the Hindenburg Program) were beginning to erode many Badeners trust in the government at both the state and national levels. In response, Baden's branch of the moderate Majority Social Democratic Party (MSPD) began to urge reform of the Duchy's Landtag (parliament). Its aims included the introduction of proportional representation and ministerial responsibility to the Landtag rather than the grand duke. There were also protests by workers who wanted economic improvements and more participation in the political process. Their efforts made little progress because many members of the Landtag thought that their liberal 1818 constitution already came closer than any other in Germany to the ideal of a parliamentary monarchy. It was not until 3 November 1918, when the German revolution of 1918–1919 was already sweeping across northern Germany, that legislators began to move seriously towards reform as a means of forestalling an upheaval in Baden, but by then too little time remained for them to complete their work.

The Armistice of 11 November 1918 put almost all of Baden in the demilitarized zone along the Rhine, where the presence of active military personnel and an armed police force were prohibited. It left Baden with few security resources at a time when it was being flooded by returning soldiers and refugees from neighboring Alsace–Lorraine, which had been returned to France. Many Badeners feared French retaliation or occupation.

The revolution spread across Germany through the establishment of workers' and soldiers' councils. They took power from the existing military, royal and civil authorities with little resistance or bloodshed. The revolution reached Berlin on 9 November, and Emperor Wilhelm II fled to Holland the next day.

The first councils in Baden were formed on 8 November in the garrison towns of Lahr and Offenburg. On the 10th, the MSPD, Progressive People's Party, Centre Party and National Liberal Party set up a Welfare Committee (Wohlfahrtsausschuss) in Karlsruhe to work with the local soldiers' and workers' council in an attempt to keep the revolution within democratic bounds. The soldiers' and workers' council took over military authority, while the Welfare Committee, following the resignation of the grand duke's ministers, acted as a provisional people's government under the leadership of Anton Geiss of the MSPD. Five ministerial posts were occupied by members of the MSPD, two by the more radical Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) and the remainder by the other three parties on the Committee.