User:Brickie/Sandbox/German Princes



The Expropriation of Princely Assets (German: Fürstenenteignung) was a political debate in the early years of the Weimar Republic, dealing with the question of how to dispose of the assets of the German nobility who had been stripped of political power during the German Revolution of 1918–1919.

The arguments began soon after the revolution itself, and continued mostly in the form of a series of legal and contractual wrangles between individual noble houses and German states. The culmination of the debates was a 1926 plebiscite in which the population voted on the motion put forward by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and reluctantly supported by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) for the compulsory surrender of all noble assets to the state without compensation.

The motion was supported by many members of the German Centre Party and the left-liberal German Democratic Party, as well as some conservative and nationalist voters in certain regions, while the political right broadly opposed the move; both Protestant and Catholic churches as well as agricultural and industrial pressure groups lent their weight to the campaign and, following threats of boycotts, the "no" vote was successful. Instead of blanket expropriation of the assets of the noble houses, individual commissions instead ruled on each case.

Historical interpretations of the incident have varied: East German official historians tended to emphasise and praise the leading role of the KPD in the "yes" campaign, while Western historians preferred to discuss the problems encountered by the SPD in its co-operation with bourgeois republican parties.

Background
The November Revolution ended the political power of the German princes, either resigning voluntarily or being removed from power against their will, and their assets were at that point seized but - unlike in Austria - not immediately expropriated by the states. Assets were seized at the level of individual states, rather than by the national government as there was no prince with national assets, and thus the German state waived its right to an orderly and unified approach, leaving matters to the individual states to deal with as they saw fit. Moreover, the Council of the People's Deputies was worried that the victorious powers would make reparations claims against any assets confiscated by the state.

The Weimar Constitution of 1919 guaranteed private property rights under Article 153 - but the same article also made provision for expropriations of property if they served the public good. Any such expropriations would have to be done on a legal basis, and "appropriate" compensation paid. Article 153 also provided for a legal path of redress in case of disputes.