118-455: A Reichsverweser ( German pronunciation: 'ʁaɪ̯çsfɛɐ̯ve:zɐ ) or imperial regent represented a monarch when there was a vacancy in the throne, such as during a prolonged absence or in the period between the monarch's death and the accession of a successor. The term Verweser comes from the Old High German firwesan and means "for or in the place of a person". The plural form is
236-588: A cohesive force, they dispersed to their homes. On 16 December, the Reich Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils met in Berlin and set the date for elections to the National Assembly for 19 January 1919. It also passed a resolution that was aimed at ensuring that the military would be under the strict control of the civilian government and called for a powerful position of the soldiers' councils vis-à-vis
354-600: A communist revolution in the capital. On 9 November, the revolution reached Berlin as the larger companies were hit by a general strike called by the Spartacists and the Revolutionary Stewards, but also supported by the SPD and the mainstream unions. Workers' and soldiers' councils were created, and important buildings occupied. As the striking masses marched on the centre of Berlin, the SPD, afraid of losing its influence on
472-526: A confrontation between officers and crews on board the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven on 30 October set in motion a train of events that would result in the German Revolution of 1918–1919 that spread over a substantial part of the country over the next week. Against that backdrop, the SPD led by Ebert on 7 November demanded a more powerful voice in the cabinet, an extension of parliamentarism to Prussia and
590-527: A course to be realistic. Beginning on 12 November, the function of emperor and Reich chancellor (and, to some extent, of other state offices) was exercised by the Council of the People's Deputies , of which Ebert was one of the two chairmen. The Act on Provisional Reich Power ( Gesetz über die vorläufige Reichsgewalt ) of 10 February 1919 gave Germany a provisional constitutional order and, soon thereafter,
708-505: A court in Magdeburg fined a journalist who had called Ebert a "traitor to his country" for his role in the January 1918 strike, but the court also said that, in terms of strict legalism, Ebert had in fact committed treason. These proceedings prevented him from seeking medical help for a while, as he wanted to be available to give evidence. Ebert became acutely ill in mid-February 1925 from what
826-515: A critical time, the Reichstag extended Ebert's term of office on 24 October 1922 until 30 June 1925, with a majority vote that was sufficient for a change to the constitution. As president, Ebert appointed centre-right figures like Wilhelm Cuno and Hans Luther chancellor and made rigorous use of his wide-ranging powers under Article 48 of the Weimar constitution. For instance, he used it to deal with
944-444: A curse on our actions, has been shaken off by the German people. They have made themselves masters of their own destiny. Above all, the hopes of German freedom rest on you. ... No one suffered more than you from the injustice of the old regime. We thought of you when we did away with a disastrous system; we fought for freedom for you; we won the right to work for you. After the ten divisions had arrived, however, rather than remaining as
1062-606: A distinction between a pre-literary period and the start of a continuous tradition of written texts around the middle of the 8th century. Differing approaches are taken, too, to the position of Langobardic . Langobardic is an Elbe Germanic and thus Upper German dialect, and it shows early evidence for the Second Sound Shift. For this reason, some scholars treat Langobardic as part of Old High German, but with no surviving texts — just individual words and names in Latin texts — and
1180-475: A major part in the political life of the Weimar Republic. Ebert always regarded the institutions of parliamentary democracy as a more legitimate expression of the will of the people; workers' councils, as a product of the revolution, were only justified in exercising power for a transition period. "All power to all the people!" was the slogan of his party, in contrast to the slogan of the far left's "All power to
1298-582: A member of the Bremer Bürgerschaft (city and state assembly) as the representative of the Social Democratic Party. In 1904, Ebert presided over the national convention of the party in Bremen and became better known to a wider public. He became a leader of the "moderate" wing of the Social Democratic Party and in 1905 Secretary-General of the SPD, at which point he moved to Berlin. At the time, he
SECTION 10
#17328485841741416-419: A president and government. No Reichsverweser was ever named. In the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler , it was envisioned that General Ludwig Beck would become provisional head of state as Reichsverweser after Hitler was killed. When the plot failed, Beck and many other members of the resistance were executed. The anti-Nazi Kreisau Circle outlined its ideas for a German constitution after
1534-541: A regency council could be established for the next heir to the throne, the then 12-year-old Wilhelm of Prussia . A law amending the constitution of the German Empire would have been needed to establish a Reichsverweser. Wilhelm II rejected the idea on 1 November 1918. When the Social Democratic Party demanded the emperor's abdication, von Baden urged him plainly to step down. On 9 November 1918 he announced
1652-539: A regular communication between the two that involved daily telephone conversations over a secret line, according to Groener. The agreement between the two became known as the Ebert–Groener pact . In domestic policy, a number of social reforms were quickly introduced by the Council of the People's Deputies under Ebert's leadership, including unemployment benefits, the eight-hour workday, universal suffrage for everyone over
1770-490: Is Ingemund Bengtsson , who served 2-3 July 1988 in his capacity as Speaker. Old High German Old High German ( OHG ; German : Althochdeutsch (Ahdt., Ahd.) ) is the earliest stage of the German language , conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous West Germanic dialects that had undergone
1888-439: Is given in four Old High German dialects below. Because these are translations of a liturgical text, they are best not regarded as examples of idiomatic language, but they do show dialect variation very clearly. Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert ( German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈeːbɐt] ; 4 February 1871 – 28 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and
2006-464: Is in Modern German). The following is a sample conjugation of a strong verb, nëman "to take". Any description of OHG syntax faces a fundamental problem: texts translated from or based on a Latin original will be syntactically influenced by their source, while the verse works may show patterns that are determined by the needs of rhyme and metre, or that represent literary archaisms. Nonetheless,
2124-559: Is now the deputy of the king if the king is prevented from exercising his office or if the heir to the throne is still under age. The riksföreståndare is appointed by the Government and is a member of the royal family in accordance with the line of succession to the throne, or if no such person is available, the Speaker of the Riksdag . Since 1974 the only non royal to serve as riksföreståndare
2242-560: Is the sole survivor of what must have been a vast oral tradition. Other important works are the Evangelienbuch ( Gospel harmony ) of Otfrid von Weissenburg , the Ludwigslied and the 9th century Georgslied . The boundary to Early Middle High German (from c. 1050 ) is not clear-cut. An example of Early Middle High German literature is the Annolied . The Lord's Prayer
2360-640: The Abrogans , a Latin–Old High German glossary variously dated between 750 and 780, probably from Reichenau . The 8th century Merseburg Incantations are the only remnant of pre-Christian German literature. The earliest texts not dependent on Latin originals would seem to be the Hildebrandslied and the Wessobrunn Prayer , both recorded in manuscripts of the early 9th century, though the texts are assumed to derive from earlier copies. The Bavarian Muspilli
2478-674: The Carolingian Renaissance in the 9th. The dedication to the preservation of Old High German epic poetry among the scholars of the Carolingian Renaissance was significantly greater than could be suspected from the meagre survivals we have today (less than 200 lines in total between the Hildebrandslied and the Muspilli ). Einhard tells how Charlemagne himself ordered that the epic lays should be collected for posterity. It
SECTION 20
#17328485841742596-636: The Communist Party of Germany (KPD). On 5 January 1919, the USPD and KPD called for demonstrations to protest the dismissal of the head of the Berlin police, who was a USPD member, for supporting the revolutionary sailors during the Christmas uprising. The demonstration grew into the Spartacist uprising , which had the goal of replacing the national government with a council republic. After Ebert's negotiations with
2714-667: The German Empire in 1918. It led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Finland in May 1918, for which Svinhufvud assumed the function of regent (Finnish: valtionhoitaja ) until a monarch yet to be chosen took office. In October 1918 the Finnish parliament elected the German prince Frederick Charles of Hesse as king. He initially accepted but never took office due to Germany's defeat in World War I and
2832-583: The Latinate literary culture of Christianity . The earliest instances, which date to the latter half of the 8th century, are glosses —notes added to margins or between lines that provide translation of the (Latin) text or other aid to the reader. Old High German is generally dated from around 750 to around 1050. The start of this period sees the beginning of the OHG written tradition, at first with only glosses, but with substantial translations and original compositions by
2950-540: The Middle High German forms of words, particularly with respect to the consonants. Old High German had six phonemic short vowels and five phonemic long vowels. Both occurred in stressed and unstressed syllables. In addition, there were six diphthongs. Notes: By the mid 11th century the many different vowels found in unstressed syllables had almost all been reduced to ⟨e⟩ / ə / . Examples: (The New High German forms of these words are broadly
3068-627: The Reichstag and start to work closely with the Centre Party and the Progress Party in 1916. Later those kicked out by Ebert called themselves " Spartacists ". Beginning in 1916, Ebert shared the leadership of his Reichstag delegates with Scheidemann. Although he opposed a policy of territorial gains secured through military conquest on the western front (aside from Luxembourg which was German speaking and could be easily incorporated), Ebert supported
3186-608: The Romance language of the native population , so that Langobardic had died out by the end of the OHG period. At the beginning of the period, no Germanic language was spoken east of a line from Kieler Förde to the rivers Elbe and Saale , earlier Germanic speakers in the Northern part of the area having been displaced by the Slavs . This area did not become German-speaking until the German eastward expansion ("Ostkolonisation", "Ostsiedlung") of
3304-593: The Weimar constitution but by the Reichstag. The right of nomination was vested in a Reichsrat, a body that would include the heads of the states. The document set the Reichsweser's term of office at 12 years. The Kreisau Circle's plans were never used. Most of its members were arrested following the failed July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler. Finland belonged to the Russian Empire as a Grand Duchy from 1809 to 1917. After
3422-430: The constitution was changed to make the chancellor dependent on the confidence of the Reichstag rather than the emperor. At that point, the majority parties of the Reichstag, including Ebert's SPD, were quite satisfied with the state of affairs; what they wanted was a period of calm to deal with the issue of negotiating an armistice and a peace treaty. The plans of the new German government were thrown into disarray when
3540-544: The first German presidential election , held on 11 February 1919, five days after the National Assembly convened in Weimar , Ebert was elected provisional president of the German Republic by the members of the assembly. He remained in the position after the new constitution came into force and was sworn in as president of Germany on 21 August 1919. He was Germany's first-ever democratically elected head of state, and
3658-447: The stab-in-the-back myth ": No enemy has overcome you. It was only when the superior numbers of our opponents in men and material became increasingly oppressive that we gave up the fight. And it was precisely in view of your heroic courage that it was our duty not to call for further futile sacrifices from you. ... You will not find our state as you left it. Something new has emerged: German freedom has arisen. The old rule, which lay like
Reichsverweser - Misplaced Pages Continue
3776-407: The synthetic inflectional system inherited from its ancestral Germanic forms. The eventual disruption of these patterns, which led to the more analytic grammar, are generally considered to mark the transition to Middle High German . Surviving Old High German texts were all composed in monastic scriptoria , so the overwhelming majority of them are religious in nature or, when secular, belong to
3894-472: The 14th century. In 1438 the term Reich chief (Swedish: riksföreståndare ) was used for the first time and still exists today. The riksföreståndare developed into an independent office during the Kalmar Union (1397–1523), not only representing the king of Sweden but also replacing him. Between 1470 and 1523, riksföreståndare ruled with only brief interruptions in 1497–1501 and 1520–21. The office
4012-458: The 9th century. However, the fact that the defining feature of Old High German, the Second Sound Shift, may have started as early as the 6th century and is complete by 750, means that some take the 6th century to be the start of the period. Alternatively, terms such as Voralthochdeutsch ("pre-OHG") or vorliterarisches Althochdeutsch ("pre-literary OHG") are sometimes used for the period before 750. Regardless of terminology, all recognize
4130-490: The Army's conclusion to the president. The National Assembly approved the treaty by a large majority on 24 June. The government's fight against communist forces and recalcitrant socialists went on after Ebert became president. From January to May 1919, in some areas through the summer, violence continued. Since the 19 January elections had returned a solid majority for the democratic parties (SPD, Centre , and DDP ), Ebert felt that
4248-715: The Biblical texts were translated from Greek, not Latin) raise the possibility that it was an independent development. Germanic also had no future tense, but again OHG created periphrastic forms, using an auxiliary verb skulan (Modern German sollen ) and the infinitive, or werden and the present participle: Thu scalt beran einan alawaltenden (Otfrid's Evangelienbuch I, 5,23) "You shall bear an almighty one" Inti nu uuirdist thu suigenti' (Tatian 2,9) "And now you will start to fall silent" Latin: Et ecce eris tacens (Luke 1:20) The present tense continued to be used alongside these new forms to indicate future time (as it still
4366-480: The German custom, from place to place in Germany, seeing the country and learning fresh details of his trade. In Mannheim , he was introduced by an uncle to the Social Democratic Party , joining it in 1889. Although Ebert studied the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , he was less interested in ideology than in practical and organisational issues that would improve the lot of the workers then and there. Ebert
4484-765: The Holy Roman Empire's German and Italian territories, regents were called imperial vicars ( Reichsvikare ). For Germany, the Golden Bull of 1356 formally codified an earlier rule on imperial administration: the Count Palatine of the Rhine was imperial vicar for the territories under the Frankish civil law code (Salic Law), while the Elector of Saxony was vicar for the territories under Saxon law . Their powers included continuing
4602-609: The Kapp Putsch and the Beer Hall Putsch . Through 1924, he used the presidency's emergency powers a total of 134 times. Ebert suffered from gallstones and frequent bouts of cholecystitis . Vicious attacks by Ebert's right-wing adversaries, including slander and ridicule, were often condoned or even supported by the judiciary when Ebert sought redress through the court system. The constant necessity to defend himself against those attacks also undermined his health. In December 1924,
4720-463: The Late OHG changes that affected Middle High German : Germanic had a simple two-tense system, with forms for a present and preterite . These were inherited by Old High German, but in addition OHG developed three periphrastic tenses : the perfect , pluperfect and future . The periphrastic past tenses were formed by combining the present or preterite of an auxiliary verb ( wësan , habēn ) with
4838-665: The OHG Isidor or Notker show a similar awareness. The charts show the vowel and consonant systems of the East Franconian dialect in the 9th century. This is the dialect of the monastery of Fulda , and specifically of the Old High German Tatian . Dictionaries and grammars of OHG often use the spellings of the Tatian as a substitute for genuine standardised spellings, and these have the advantage of being recognizably close to
Reichsverweser - Misplaced Pages Continue
4956-487: The OHL for help over the phone, and troops assembled on the outskirts of the capital. During the night, Ebert ordered the troops to attack, which they did in the morning of 24 December. When the fighting stopped in the afternoon, the People's Navy forces held the field, and they returned to their barracks, ending the crisis. As a result of the event, which Karl Liebknecht called "Ebert's Bloody Christmas" because it had cost 67 lives,
5074-528: The Reichstag (SPD, Centre Party and Progress Party). The goal was to shift the blame for the military defeat from the OHL to the politicians of the majority parties. On 29 September 1918, Ludendorff suddenly informed Paul von Hintze , the German Foreign Minister, that the Western Front could collapse at any moment and that a ceasefire had to be negotiated without delay. However, he suggested that
5192-535: The Reichstag and, when given the opportunity to do so, refused to speak to the masses gathered outside. Scheidemann however seized upon the opportunity, and in hopes of forestalling whatever the Communist leader Karl Liebknecht planned to tell his followers at the former royal palace, proclaimed Germany a republic . A furious Ebert promptly reproached him: "You have no right to proclaim the Republic!" By this he meant that
5310-399: The SPD leadership arrived at the chancellery and Ebert asked the chancellor to hand over the government to him. After a short meeting of the cabinet, Prince Max resigned and, in a move that was unconstitutional because only the emperor could appoint a chancellor, handed his office over to Ebert, who thus became chancellor of Germany and minister president of Prussia. He was the first socialist,
5428-482: The SPD to power, and he was in a position to put into law social reforms and improve the lot of the working class. Yet as a result of the revolution, he and his party were forced to share power with those on the left with whom he fundamentally disagreed: the Spartacists and the Independent Social Democrats (USPD). In the afternoon of 9 November, he grudgingly asked the USPD to nominate three ministers for
5546-460: The USPD members left the Council of the Peoples' Deputies on 29 December. The next day, SPD members Gustav Noske and Rudolf Wissell took their place, and from that point on, government communiques were signed Reichsregierung (i.e. federal government) instead of "Council of the Peoples' Deputies". At the same time, the Spartacists severed their remaining links with the USPD and set themselves up as
5664-567: The abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in March 1917, the Finnish parliament in December 1917 declared the country independent without having decided on the final form of government. The chief minister Pehr Evind Svinhufvud acted as provisional head of state. After the German-Russian Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that ended Russia's participation in World War I, Finland briefly came under the influence of
5782-400: The abdication of Wilhelm II and the crown prince on his own authority. He thought that the abdication was imminent and that officials were simply working out the formulation of the announcement. He also feared that a revolution was imminent. In a meeting with leading Social Democrats, von Baden transferred the office of chancellor to Friedrich Ebert . Baden's advisors had urged him to exercise
5900-411: The age of 20, the right of farmhands to organise, and increases in workers' old-age, sick and unemployment benefits. In the turbulent early weeks of the revolution, Ebert and the leadership of the SPD sided with the conservative and nationalistic elements in German society (civil servants, armed forces, police, judiciary) against the forces that wanted a more radical revolution. The majority of
6018-424: The almighty father"). By the end of the OHG period, however, use of a subject pronoun has become obligatory, while the definite article has developed from the original demonstrative pronoun ( der, diu, daz ) and the numeral ein ("one") has come into use as an indefinite article. These developments are generally seen as mechanisms to compensate for the loss of morphological distinctions which resulted from
SECTION 50
#17328485841746136-566: The autocratic regime of the Tsar in Russia . OINK In January 1916, Haase resigned. Under the leadership of Ebert and other "moderates" such as Philipp Scheidemann , the SPD party participated in the Burgfrieden , an agreement among the political parties in the Reichstag to suppress domestic policy differences for the duration of the war in order to concentrate the energies of the country solely on bringing
6254-491: The basic word order rules are broadly those of Modern Standard German . Two differences from the modern language are the possibility of omitting a subject pronoun and lack of definite and indefinite articles . Both features are exemplified in the start of the 8th century Alemannic creed from St Gall : kilaubu in got vater almahticun (Modern German, Ich glaube an Gott den allmächtigen Vater ; English "I believe in God
6372-611: The breach" and "it is our damned duty to do it". In early October, the Emperor appointed a liberal, Prince Maximilian of Baden , as chancellor to lead peace negotiations with the Allies. The new government for the first time included ministers from the SPD: Philipp Scheidemann and Gustav Bauer . The request for a ceasefire went out on 4 October. On 5 October, the government informed the German public about these events. However, there
6490-486: The conclusion of the war effort. He tried to isolate those in the party opposed to war and advocated a split. Ebert was a pivotal figure in the German Revolution of 1918–1919 . When Germany became a republic at the end of World War I, he became its first chancellor. His policies at that time were primarily aimed at restoring order in Germany and suppressing the left. To accomplish these goals, he allied himself with conservative and nationalistic political forces, in particular
6608-510: The conflict to a successful conclusion for Germany. This positioned the party in favour of the war with the aim of a compromise peace, a stance that eventually led to a split in the SPD, with those radically opposed to the war leaving the SPD in early 1917 to form the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany , or USPD. Similar policy disputes caused Ebert to end his parliamentary alliance with several left-wing members of
6726-422: The creation of the German Empire , the seventh of nine children of the tailor Karl Ebert (1834–1892) and his wife Katharina ( née Hinkel; 1834–1897). Three of his siblings died at a young age. Although he wanted to attend university, this proved impossible due to his family's lack of funds. Instead, he trained as a saddle-maker from 1885 to 1888. After he became a journeyman in 1889 he travelled, according to
6844-422: The decision on the form of government was to be left to an elected national assembly. Later that day, Ebert asked Prince Max to stay on as regent, but was refused. An entirely socialist provisional government based on workers' and soldiers' councils was about to take power under Ebert's leadership. It was called the Council of the People's Deputies . Ebert found himself in a quandary. He had succeeded in bringing
6962-689: The early 12th century, though there was some attempt at conquest and missionary work under the Ottonians . The Alemannic polity was conquered by Clovis I in 496, and in the last twenty years of the 8th century Charlemagne subdued the Saxons, the Frisians, the Bavarians, and the Lombards, bringing all continental Germanic-speaking peoples under Frankish rule. While this led to some degree of Frankish linguistic influence ,
7080-418: The end of Nazi rule in the "Principles for Reorganization" of 9 August 1943. The office of Reichsverweser that it contained was for the most part comparable to that of the Weimar Reich president . He would have appointed and dismissed members of the government, who under certain conditions could also have been removed by the Reichstag. The Reichsverweser would not have been elected by the people as under
7198-490: The end of the Old High German period, Notker Labeo was among the greatest stylists in the language, and developed a systematic orthography. Old High German marked the culmination of a shift away from runic writing of the pre-OHG period to Latin alphabet . This shift led to considerable variations in spelling conventions, as individual scribes and scriptoria had to develop their own transliteration of sounds not native to Latin script . Otfrid von Weissenburg , in one of
SECTION 60
#17328485841747316-428: The entire system of noun and adjective declensions . There is also a hundred-year "dearth of continuous texts" after the death of Notker Labeo in 1022. The mid-11th century is widely accepted as marking the transition to Middle High German . Old High German encompasses the dialects that had undergone the Second Sound Shift during the 6th century—namely all of the Upper and Central German dialects. The Franks in
7434-537: The first president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925. Ebert was elected leader of the SPD on the death in 1913 of August Bebel . In 1914, shortly after he assumed leadership, the party became deeply divided over Ebert's support of war loans to finance the German war effort in World War I . A moderate social democrat , Ebert was in favour of the Burgfrieden , a political policy that sought to suppress discord over domestic issues among political parties in order to concentrate all forces in society on
7552-420: The future government. That evening a group of several hundred followers of the Revolutionary Stewards occupied the Reichstag building and held an impromptu debate. They called for the election of workers' and soldiers' councils the next day with an eye to naming a provisional government. In order to keep control of events and against his own anti-revolutionary convictions, Ebert decided that he needed to control
7670-412: The insurgents broke down, his major concern was with maintaining internal peace. He ordered the rebellion to be quashed, and Gustav Noske, who was in charge of the Army and Navy, used both regular forces and Freikorps units to bring the uprising to an end. Around 170 people lost their lives, including KPD leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, who were murdered extrajudicially by the Freikorps. In
7788-477: The king's ongoing business, jurisdiction over the courts and granting certain imperial fiefs. The imperial vicariate over Italy, which the popes at times claimed as their right, was disputed between the dukes of Savoy and Mantua . During the frequent absences of Emperor Frederick II in the 13th century, he appointed imperial governors ( Reichsgubernatoren ) as deputies and guardians for his sons Henry (VII) and Conrad IV . On 28 June 1848, four months after
7906-427: The language of both the administration and the Church was Latin, and this unification did not therefore lead to any development of a supra-regional variety of Frankish nor a standardized Old High German; the individual dialects retained their identity. There was no standard or supra-regional variety of Old High German—every text is written in a particular dialect, or in some cases a mixture of dialects. Broadly speaking,
8024-422: The language of the Carolingian court or that it is attested in the Ludwigslied , whose presence in a French manuscript suggests bilingualism , are controversial. Old High German literacy is a product of the monasteries, notably at St. Gallen , Reichenau Island and Fulda . Its origins lie in the establishment of the German church by Saint Boniface in the mid-8th century, and it was further encouraged during
8142-431: The leadership of the military under General Wilhelm Groener and the right-wing Freikorps . With their help, the Reich government which Ebert headed crushed a number of communist and anarchist uprisings as well as those from the right, including the Kapp Putsch , a legacy that has made him a controversial historical figure. Ebert was born in Heidelberg in the Grand Duchy of Baden , on 4 February 1871, shortly after
8260-400: The left as a "traitor to the working class" and by others from the right as a "traitor to the fatherland". When it became clear that the war was lost in late summer and fall of 1918, First Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff of the military Supreme Command (OHL) ,pushed for the "parliamentarisation" of the German Empire, i.e. a transfer of power to those parties that held the majority in
8378-399: The loyalty of the military in exchange for some demands: that Ebert fight Bolshevism , end the system of workers' and soldiers' councils, call a national assembly and return the country to a state of law and order. In return Ebert promised that command of the troops would stay with the officer corps. Hindenburg remained head of the OHL to ensure and orderly return of the army. This initiated
8496-418: The main dialect divisions of Old High German seem to have been similar to those of later periods—they are based on established territorial groupings and the effects of the Second Sound Shift, which have remained influential until the present day. But because the direct evidence for Old High German consists solely of manuscripts produced in a few major ecclesiastical centres, there is no isogloss information of
8614-465: The majority of Old High German texts are religious in nature and show strong influence of ecclesiastical Latin on the vocabulary. In fact, most surviving prose texts are translations of Latin originals. Even secular works such as the Hildebrandslied are often preserved only because they were written on spare sheets in religious codices . The earliest Old High German text is generally taken to be
8732-525: The members of the workers' and soldiers' councils also viewed themselves as supporters of the government rather than of the Spartacists, the only group that wanted a dictatorship of the workers. Ebert and Groener worked out a plan to restore order in Berlin by having army units returning from the Western Front move in and disarm all paramilitary forces from 10 to 15 December. In a speech to the returning troops, Ebert told them in words that "appeared to justify
8850-456: The new revolutionary government. Ebert announced the pact between the two socialist parties to the assembled councils who were eager for a unified socialist front and approved the parity of three members each coming from SPD and USPD. Ebert and Haase (USPD) were to be the joint chairmen. The same day, Ebert received a telephone call from OHL chief of staff Wilhelm Groener , who offered to cooperate with him. According to Groener, he promised Ebert
8968-625: The other hand that organized communism was not politically relevant in Germany at the time. The actions of Ebert and his minister of Defence, Gustav Noske, against the insurgents contributed to the radicalization of the Freikorps and to increasing support for fascist ideas. Although the Weimar Constitution (which Ebert signed into law in August 1919) provided for the establishment of workers' councils on different levels of society, they did not play
9086-479: The outbreak of the German revolutions of 1848–1849, the Frankfurt National Assembly created a Provisional Central Authority ( Provisorische Zentralgewalt ) that was to take over the management of the executive branch for all of Germany until a constitution was adopted and a final head of state appointed. On the following day, Archduke John of Austria was elected Reichsverweser , an office that he
9204-498: The past participle. Initially the past participle retained its original function as an adjective and showed case and gender endings - for intransitive verbs the nominative, for transitive verbs the accusative. For example: After thie thö argangana warun ahtu taga ( Tatian , 7,1) "When eight days had passed", literally "After that then gone-by were eight days" Latin: Et postquam consummati sunt dies octo (Luke 2:21) phīgboum habeta sum giflanzotan (Tatian 102,2) "There
9322-508: The powers of the emperor as Reichsverweser in order to keep the question of the head of state open until a decision was made by a national assembly. But that same afternoon, the Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann , acting on his own, publicly proclaimed a republic in Germany. Immediately afterwards the surprised and angry Ebert asked von Baden to become Reichsverweser , but he refused because he no longer believed such
9440-420: The prefaces to his Evangelienbuch , offers comments on and examples of some of the issues which arise in adapting the Latin alphabet for German: " ...sic etiam in multis dictis scriptio est propter litterarum aut congeriem aut incognitam sonoritatem difficilis. " ("...so also, in many expressions, spelling is difficult because of the piling up of letters or their unfamiliar sound.") The careful orthographies of
9558-457: The professional officer corps. This was unacceptable to the leaders of the military, and the OHL began to establish volunteer regiments in the Berlin area. Fighting erupted on 24 December in central Berlin (the Christmas crisis ). On 23 December, dissatisfied members of the revolutionary People's Navy Division occupied the chancellery and put the Peoples' Deputies under house arrest. Ebert asked
9676-538: The renunciation of the throne by both the Emperor and his oldest son, Crown Prince Wilhelm . Ebert had favoured retaining the monarchy under a different ruler, but told Prince Max von Baden, "If the Emperor does not abdicate, the social revolution is inevitable. But I do not want it, I even hate it like sin." On the left, the Spartacists (numbering around 100 in Berlin) and a group of around 80 to 100 popular labour leaders from Berlin known as Revolutionary Stewards prepared for
9794-415: The request for the ceasefire should come from a new government sanctioned by the Reichstag majority. In his view, a "revolution from above" was needed. Chancellor Georg von Hertling and Emperor Wilhelm II agreed, although the former resigned. Scheidemann and a majority of SPD deputies were opposed to joining "a bankrupt enterprise", but Ebert convinced his party, arguing that "we must throw ourselves into
9912-403: The revolution, announced that it was resigning from the government of Prince Max. Meanwhile, Prince Max had failed to convince Emperor Wilhelm II, who was at the army headquarters at Spa, Belgium , of the need to abdicate. Wilhelm had resigned himself to the loss of the imperial crown, but still thought he could remain king of Prussia. However, under the imperial constitution, the imperial crown
10030-467: The revolutionary forces had no legitimacy left. The individual workers' and soldiers' councils across Germany had dissolved by late in the autumn of 1919. In March 1920, during the right-wing Kapp Putsch instigated by parts of the Reichswehr , some Freikorps units plus nationalist and monarchist elements, the government, including Ebert, had to flee Berlin. However, a refusal by civil servants to accept
10148-645: The same as in Middle High German.) The main difference between Old High German and the West Germanic dialects from which it developed is that the former underwent the Second Sound Shift . The result of the sound change has been that the consonantal system of German is different from all other West Germanic languages, including English and Low German . This list has the sound changes that transformed Common West Germanic into Old High German but not
10266-821: The same as the singular. In the Holy Roman Empire , Reichsverweser were used periodically, but after its dissolution in 1806, the position was occupied only for one relatively short period during the German revolutions of 1848–1849 . Although there were discussions about naming a Reichsverweser at the end of World War I and during the Nazi era , none was ever appointed. Positions similar to Reichsverweser have been used in Hungary, where they are called kormányzó , in Finland ( valtionhoitaja ) and in Sweden ( riksföreståndare ). In
10384-452: The second politician and the second commoner to hold either office. Ebert left the government of Prince Max mostly unchanged but appointed SPD members as Prussian Minister of War and military commander of the Berlin area. Ebert's first action as chancellor was to issue a series of proclamations asking the people to remain calm, stay out of the streets and to restore peace and order. It failed to work. Ebert then had lunch with Scheidemann at
10502-471: The self-declared government and a general strike called by the legitimate cabinet led to the collapse of the putsch. After it ended, striking workers in the Ruhr region refused to return to work. Led by members of the USPD and KPD, they presented an armed challenge to the authority of the government. It then sent Reichswehr and Freikorps troops to quell the Ruhr uprising by force. To avoid an election campaign at
10620-430: The set of consonantal changes called the Second Sound Shift . At the start of this period, dialect areas reflected the territories of largely independent tribal kingdoms, but by 788 the conquests of Charlemagne had brought all OHG dialect areas into a single polity . The period also saw the development of a stable linguistic border between German and Gallo-Romance , later French . Old High German largely preserved
10738-456: The socialist Bremer Bürgerzeitung . In May 1894, he married Louise Rump (1873–1955), daughter of a manual labourer, who had been employed as a housemaid and in labelling boxes and who was active in union work. He then became a pub owner that became a centre of socialist and union activity and was elected party chairman of the Bremen SPD. In 1900, Ebert was appointed a union secretary and elected
10856-455: The sort on which modern dialect maps are based. For this reason the dialects may be termed "monastery dialects" (German Klosterdialekte ). The main dialects, with their bishoprics and monasteries : In addition, there are two poorly attested dialects: The continued existence of a West Frankish dialect in the Western, Romanized part of Francia is uncertain. Claims that this might have been
10974-408: The speakers starting to abandon the language by the 8th century, others exclude Langobardic from discussion of OHG. As Heidermanns observes, this exclusion is based solely on the external circumstances of preservation and not on the internal features of the language. The end of the period is less controversial. The sound changes reflected in spelling during the 11th century led to the remodelling of
11092-485: The subsequent German Revolution of 1918–1919 . In December 1918 he formally renounced the crown. At the same time, the former regent Svinhufvud resigned and was replaced by the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army, General Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim . While Svinhufvud had primarily needed to cooperate with the Germans to secure Finland's independence, Mannerheim was concerned with the international recognition of Finland by
11210-503: The victorious powers of the Entente as a sovereign state. Since the outcome of the war had made the retention of a monarchical form of government obsolete, Finland was proclaimed a republic in July 1919, and Mannerheim as regent was replaced by an elected president. In Sweden imperial stewardship was held by the jarl – a chieftain or prince – in the 13th century and by the drots ('seneschal') in
11328-570: The war effort overall as a defensive struggle. Ebert experienced the traumatic loss of having two of his four sons killed in the war: Heinrich died in February 1917 in Macedonia, whereas Georg was killed in action in May 1917 in France. In June 1917, a delegation of social democrats led by Ebert travelled to Stockholm for talks with socialists from other countries about a conference that would have sought to end
11446-406: The war without any annexations of territory on the western front except for Luxembourg and giving back most of Alsace and Loraine with blessings from the German government. The initiative failed, however. In January 1918, when the workers in munition factories in Berlin went on strike, Ebert joined the strike leadership but worked hard to get the strikers back to work. He was pilloried by some from
11564-536: The weakening of unstressed vowels in the endings of nouns and verbs (see above). The early part of the period saw considerable missionary activity, and by 800 the whole of the Frankish Empire had, in principle, been Christianized. All the manuscripts which contain Old High German texts were written in ecclesiastical scriptoria by scribes whose main task was writing in Latin rather than German. Consequently,
11682-473: The west if Germany refused to sign. To appease public opinion, he asked Hindenburg if the army was capable of holding out if the Allies renewed hostilities. He promised to urge rejection of the treaty if there was even the remote possibility that the army could make a stand. Hindenburg, with some prodding from Groener, concluded that the army was not capable of resuming the war even on a limited scale. Rather than tell Ebert himself, he dispatched Groener to telephone
11800-529: The western part of Francia ( Neustria and western Austrasia ) gradually adopted Gallo-Romance by the beginning of the OHG period, with the linguistic boundary later stabilised approximately along the course of the Meuse and Moselle in the east, and the northern boundary probably a little further south than the current boundary between French and Dutch . North of this line, the Franks retained their language, but it
11918-409: The workers' councils and thus become the leader of the revolution while at the same time serving as the formal head of the German government. On 10 November, the SPD, led by Ebert, managed to ensure that a majority of the newly elected workers' and soldiers' councils came from among their own supporters. Meanwhile, the USPD agreed to work with him and share power in the Council of the People's Deputies,
12036-533: Was a fig tree that some man had planted", literally "Fig-tree had certain ( or someone) planted" Latin: arborem fici habebat quidam plantatam (Luke 13:6) In time, however, these endings fell out of use and the participle came to be seen no longer as an adjective but as part of the verb, as in Modern German. This development is taken to be arising from a need to render Medieval Latin forms, but parallels in other Germanic languages (particularly Gothic, where
12154-535: Was abolished with the election of the riksföreståndare Gustav I as king in 1523. The title was revived from 1595 to 1599, when the future king Charles IX took over the government in Sweden in place of King Sigismund III Vasa , and in 1809, when the future Charles XIII replaced King Gustav IV Adolf . According to the Swedish Constitutional Act on the Form of Government of 1974, the riksföreståndare
12272-480: Was also the first commoner, the first social democrat, the first civilian, and the first person from a proletarian background to hold the position. In the life of the unified German Reich from 1871 to 1945, he was also the only head of state who was unequivocally committed to democracy. One of Ebert's first tasks as president was to deal with the Treaty of Versailles . When the treaty's terms became public on 7 May 1919, it
12390-448: Was baptised a Catholic, he had officially abandoned Christian observance many years before his last illness). Some historians have defended Ebert's actions as unfortunate but inevitable if the creation of a socialist state on the model that had been promoted by Rosa Luxemburg , Karl Liebknecht and the communist Spartacists was to be prevented. Historians like Bernt Engelmann [ de ] and Sebastian Haffner have argued on
12508-681: Was buried in Heidelberg . Several high-ranking politicians and a trade union leader made speeches at his funeral, as did a Protestant minister, Hermann Maas , pastor at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Heidelberg (which until the 1930s was used by both Lutheran and Catholic congregations). By thus taking part in the obsequies, Maas caused something of a scandal in his church and among political conservatives, because Ebert had been an outspoken atheist (although he
12626-423: Was cursed by Germans of all political shades as an onerous "dictated peace", particularly because Germany had essentially been handed the treaty and told to sign without any negotiations. Ebert himself denounced the treaty as "unrealizable and unbearable". However, Ebert was well aware of the possibility that Germany would not be in a position to reject the treaty. He believed that the Allies would invade Germany from
12744-473: Was declared in early August, Ebert travelled to Zurich with party treasurer Otto Braun and the SPD's money to be in a position to build up a foreign organisation if the SPD should be outlawed in the German Empire. He returned on 6 August and led the SPD Reichstag members to vote almost unanimously in favour of war loans, accepting that the war was a necessary patriotic, defensive measure, especially against
12862-467: Was first believed to be influenza. His condition deteriorated over the following two weeks, and at that time he was thought to be suffering from another episode of gallbladder disease. He became acutely septic on the night of 23 February and underwent an emergency appendectomy (which was performed by August Bier ) in the early hours of the following day for what turned out to be appendicitis . Four days later, he died of septic shock , aged 54. Ebert
12980-477: Was intended to hold until the National Assembly appointed an emperor as head of state. The power of John's government was limited, since the larger individual states in particular cooperated with it only when it suited their interests. Executive power remained with the individual states. After the revolution was suppressed in the summer of 1849, the Provisional Central Authority remained in office. It
13098-664: Was not affected by the Second Sound Shift, which thus separated the Low Franconian or Old Dutch varieties from the more easterly Franconian dialects which formed part of Old High German. In the south, the Lombards , who had settled in Northern Italy , maintained their dialect until their conquest by Charlemagne in 774. After this the Germanic-speaking population, who were by then almost certainly bilingual, gradually switched to
13216-419: Was not until 20 December 1849 that John transferred his powers to an Austro-Prussian Federal Commission ( Bundeszentralkommission ). In the final weeks of World War I, calls increased for the abdication of Prussian King and German Emperor Wilhelm II . Walter Simons , an advisor to Chancellor Max von Baden on international issues, thought that Wilhelm and the unpopular crown prince should abdicate so that
13334-524: Was placed on a police "black list" due to his political activities, so he kept changing his place of residence. Between 1889 and 1891, he lived in Kassel , Braunschweig , Elberfeld-Barmen, Remscheid , Quakenbrück and Bremen , where he founded and chaired local chapters of the Association of Saddlers. After settling in Bremen in 1891, Ebert made a living doing odd jobs. In 1893, he obtained an editorial post on
13452-575: Was the election that also made the SPD the strongest party in the Reichstag with 110 out of a total of 397 members, surpassing the Centre Party . On the death of August Bebel on 13 August 1913, Ebert was elected as joint party chairman at the convention in Jena on 20 September with 433 out of 473 votes. His co-chairman was Hugo Haase . When the July Crisis of 1914 erupted, Ebert was on vacation. After war
13570-507: Was the neglect or religious zeal of later generations that led to the loss of these records. Thus, it was Charlemagne's weak successor, Louis the Pious , who destroyed his father's collection of epic poetry on account of its pagan content. Rabanus Maurus , a student of Alcuin and later an abbot at Fulda, was an important advocate of the cultivation of German literacy. Among his students were Walafrid Strabo and Otfrid of Weissenburg . Towards
13688-458: Was the youngest member of the party executive. Meanwhile, Ebert had run for a seat in the Reichstag (parliament of Germany) several times in constituencies where the SPD had no chance of winning: 1898 Vechta ( Oldenburg ), 1903 and 1906 Stade ( Province of Hanover ). However, in 1912, he was elected to the Reichstag for the constituency of Elberfeld-Barmen (today part of Wuppertal ). This
13806-554: Was then a delay, as the American President Wilson initially refused to agree to the ceasefire. His diplomatic notes seemed to indicate that the changes to the German government were insufficient and the fact that Wilhelm II remained head of state was a particular obstacle. Ebert did not favour exchanging the monarchy for a republic, but like many others, he was worried about the danger of a socialist revolution, which seemed more likely with every day that passed. On 28 October,
13924-619: Was tied to the Prussian crown. When Max failed to convince him of the unreality of giving up one crown and not the other, he unilaterally and untruthfully announced that Wilhelm had in fact abdicated both titles and that the Crown Prince had agreed to relinquish his right of succession. The following morning Wilhelm went into exile the Netherlands, where he signed a formal abdication statement on 28 November. Shortly after Prince Max's announcement,
#173826