Hugo Preuss on formulating the Constitution

Hugo Preuss, head of the Commission which drew up the Weimar Constitution in 1919.

I have often listened to the debates with real concern, glancing timidly to the gentlemen of the Right, fearful lest they say to me: ‘Do you hope to give a parliamentary system to a nation like this, one that resists it with every sinew in its body?’ One finds suspicion everywhere; Germans cannot shake off their old political timidity and their deference to the authoritarian state.

 

Source Material for Classroom Use – see all of our Source Banks hereGermany 1919-39 Source Material

Sources: The Weimar Republic 1918–29 – Sources: Hitler’s rise to power, 1919–33 – Sources: Nazi control and dictatorship, 1933–39 – Sources: Life in Nazi Germany, 1933–39

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