Second Wirth cabinet
Second Cabinet of Joseph Wirth | |
|---|---|
6th Cabinet of Weimar Germany | |
| 26 October 1921 – 14 November 1922 (until 22 November 1922 as caretaker government) | |
Chancellor Joseph Wirth | |
| Date formed | 26 October 1921 |
| Date dissolved | 22 November 1922 (1 year and 27 days) |
| People and organisations | |
| President | Friedrich Ebert |
| Chancellor | Joseph Wirth |
| Vice Chancellor | Gustav Bauer |
| Member parties | Centre Party Social Democratic Party German Democratic Party |
| Status in legislature | Minority Weimar Coalition 206 / 459 (45%)
Majority Weimar Coalition 274 / 459 (60%)
|
| Opposition parties | Independent Social Democratic Party German National People's Party German People's Party |
| History | |
| Election | 1920 federal election |
| Legislature term | 1st Reichstag of the Weimar Republic |
| Predecessor | First Wirth cabinet |
| Successor | Cuno cabinet |
The second Wirth cabinet, headed by Joseph Wirth of the Centre Party, was the sixth democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic. It assumed office on 26 October 1921 when it replaced the first Wirth cabinet, which resigned in protest after the industrially important eastern part of Upper Silesia was awarded to Poland even though the majority of its inhabitants had voted in a plebiscite to remain part of Germany.
The cabinet was based initially on a coalition of the Centre Party and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and was later joined by the German Democratic Party (DDP) The three-party grouping was known as the Weimar Coalition.
The Wirth government won an important moratorium on war reparations payments from the Allied powers. In July 1922, Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau was assassinated by right-wing extremists after he had signed the Rapallo Treaty normalizing relations with Soviet Russia. The assassination shocked the nation and led to the passing of a law that prohibited organisations opposed to the republican form of government.
The second Wirth cabinet resigned on 14 November 1922 after it lost a key vote in the Reichstag and then failed in an attempt to restructure the coalition. It was replaced on 22 November by the Cuno cabinet led by Wilhelm Cuno, an independent.