REICHSTAG — WEIMAR REPUBLIC PARLIAMENT: OPEN AGENDA

The Reichstag of the Weimar Republic was the elected legislature of Germany between 1919 and 1933, a body that bore the full weight of one of the most consequential constitutional experiments of the twentieth century. Convened in this Special Committee, delegates will take the seats of the major political factions of the late Weimar years — the SPD, the Centre Party, the DDP and the DVP, the Communists, the Nationalists, and the rising National Socialists — at a moment when economic collapse, street violence, and the misuse of Article 48 emergency decrees were straining the republic to its limits.

The Reichstag is a historical committee that demands close engagement with the political economy of interwar Europe, the structure of coalition government under proportional representation, and the personal politics of figures such as Brüning, Stresemann, and Hindenburg. Delegates will be expected to argue from within the constraints of their party platform and the constitutional order of the day.

This is a committee for those who believe that the lessons of the twentieth century are best learned by sitting inside its dilemmas.