Coalition-Building and Political Fragmentation, 1924–1930
This chapter examines the functioning and communication of arrangements for power-sharing between political parties in the middle years of the Weimar Republic. It looks at the formation of coalitions at Reich and state level; the role played both by the development of a specific parliamentary culture and by pressures stemming from symbolic and real conflicts beyond the control of the Reichstag and provisional legislatures; the place of the press and press policy; and the slide towards growing political fragmentation, especially after 1928. It also broadens the analysis of coalition-building to encompass the temporary and highly unstable alliances forged between rival forces at the time of direct elections. This includes both the two-round presidential election campaign of March–April 1925, and the two national referendums fought by popular demand during the Weimar period, one in June 1926 over the issue of confiscation of the property of former princely households, and the other in December 1929 over a right-wing proposal to reject the Young Plan.