Offenbach and the Weimar Republic

On November 9, Kaiser Wilhelm II was not the only one to abdicate - on the same day in Darmstadt, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig was declared deposed by the Workers' and Soldiers' Council. The council commissioned the Offenbach SPD leader Carl Ulrich to form a new government for the "People's State of Hesse", to which the city of Offenbach now belonged. The first elections to the Hessian state parliament on January 26, 1919 led to a coalition of the SPD with democratic parties and Carl Ulrich as Minister President. The alliance between the workers' movement and the middle classes in Hesse lasted for all the years of the Weimar Republic.

On November 9, a workers' and soldiers' council was also formed in Offenbach under the chairmanship of Social Democrat Georg Kaul. As early as November 26, the city administration declared that it was subordinate to the transitional government in Darmstadt and would only accept instructions from it. 2 weeks of power vacuum were over - the old / new city administration could now devote itself entirely to dealing with the major transitional problems.

The demobilization of the army and the transition from a war economy to a peacetime economy led to high unemployment immediately after the end of the war, affecting around 5,000 people. At least there was now a new unemployment benefit, paid out by the municipal employment office. In a very short time, the city organized paid employment measures for 800 unemployed people. By 1920, the employment situation was much better and 1922 was even a year of full employment, until hyperinflation once again led to a deep depression.

The Weimar Republic had to struggle with massive problems right from its birth. The inadequate supply of the population with the basic necessities of life continued during the first two years of peace due to persistent blockades and transportation problems. And everything that was available had become much more expensive. Wages and salaries did not keep pace with the inflation that had persisted since the war years and was still increasing, despite frequent increases or increases achieved through strikes.

With a few exceptions, everyone in Offenbach had become much poorer. Anyone who worked short hours or had to live on welfare or a pension was in need. The war kitchens continued to operate in Offenbach until the end of 1920. Donations from the American Quakers were particularly helpful: the "Quaker meals" provided several thousand meals a day, mainly to malnourished children. Volunteers cooked, distributed and strictly ensured that everything was eaten and nothing was taken away.

The housing supply was also precarious. Housing construction had come to a standstill during the war, and after the war it did not get off the ground until 1923 due to impoverishment and rent control. 5,000 Offenbach residents were registered with the housing office as housing seekers.

From the fall of 1922, inflation galloped and turned into uncontrollable hyperinflation. From the middle of 1923, nothing worked. Thousands of short-time workers and unemployed people flocked to the employment office.

The currency cut came in mid-November 1923 and everything breathed a sigh of relief. In 1924, the economy got back on track surprisingly quickly, but "rationalization" now dominated the companies once prices and exchange rates were "honest" again. From now until the end of the Republic, Offenbach maintained a high level of basic unemployment. The "long-term unemployed" - previously unknown - is a new social figure who is provided with simple explanations of fate, especially by the extreme left, and incited to demand action against "welfare".

In the years from 1925, public housing was finally built by non-profit housing associations, but this could not eliminate the pent-up housing shortage in the short term.

By the end of 1929, the good times of the Weimar Republic were already over. A global economic crisis gripped the USA and Europe. In Germany, unemployment grew from month to month to terrible proportions. Although the first unemployment insurance and an employment service had been in place in the Reich since 1927, most of the unemployed were soon no longer eligible for benefits and became "welfare unemployed". From 1930 onwards, Offenbach suffered from the highest unemployment rate in the German Reich - at least 30%, at peak times almost 50% of the population were dependent on welfare for a short or long period of time with minimal benefits. Employees also had to live with a reduction in social benefits and wage cuts.

The radicalization of the political landscape was a consequence of this crisis and soon overwhelmed the Weimar Republic, which had been weakened from the outset. The extreme right-wing and extreme left-wing parties in particular achieved strong growth rates in votes from 1930 onwards. These forces were explicit opponents of the republic and promised salvation either through the dictatorship of the proletariat or through the rule of the Führer in a National Socialist people's state.

In Offenbach, the parties of the labor movement remained in the majority in the elections of these years until the beginning of 1933, but the KPD fought the "social fascists" of the SPD in the same way as the Nazis. There was no concentrated resistance against the Nazis.

At the end of January 1933, Reich President Hindenburg dismissed the incumbent Reich Chancellor and appointed a "National Government" under Adolf Hitler. This sealed the end of the republic. After Hitler's "seizure of power", the terror of the SA quickly spread; leading Offenbach Social Democrats and Communists were locked up in temporary camps.

Hitler promised to abolish unemployment within five years. The new government launched numerous job creation and investment programs in quick succession in the spring. An extraordinary spirit of optimism spread - a German characteristic that had already been evident in August 1914 and had already led to ruin at that time. On May 1, 1933 - now a non-working "Labor Day" for the first time - 20,000 Offenbach residents, including many former members of the workers' parties, appeared at the NSDAP's May Day rally under a sea of brown flags. As many as 200,000 people gathered in Frankfurt's Ostpark to cheer the Führer's radio address.

The next day, the trade union buildings were occupied without any significant resistance and the FDBG was dissolved. The leading Social Democrat Georg Kaul committed suicide on May 2; the well-known Offenbach Communist Heinrich Galm, released from the camp on May 2, saw the brown flags fluttering on the houses of his former loyal voters in Biergrund - and fell silent until 1945.