• Source: 1907 German federal election

Federal elections were held in Germany on 25 January 1907. Despite the Social Democratic Party (SPD) receiving a clear plurality of votes, they were hampered by the unequal constituency sizes that favoured rural seats. As a result, the Centre Party remained the largest party in the Reichstag after winning 101 of the 397 seats, whilst the SPD won only 43. Voter turnout was 84.7%.
This election was known as the "Hottentot Election" due to the scandal over the ongoing genocide of the Khoisan people in German South West Africa.




Campaign


The election became known as the ”Hottentot Election”, because its causes and its campaign were dominated by the Herero and Nama genocide in the colony of German South West Africa. The Nama were referred to as “Hottentots”, a term that was derogatory even at the time. The sustained and increasingly expensive colonial war led to a political crisis in Germany on the 2nd of August, 1906, when the Government requested an appropriation of 29 million marks from the Reichstag. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), in particular, refused to approve further money given the ruthless conduct of the war with genocidal casualties among the Nama. The Government attempted to settle the conflict by making concessions, but soon met opposition from Centre Party representative Matthias Erzberger in particular, who criticised the extensive spending and argued against the colonial wars. This led to the Centre Party group, against the will of some of its members, voting against the appropriation. On the other hand, the Conservatives and National Liberals were vehemently in favour of continuing the colonial war. On the 13th of December, the vote in the Reichstag came down with a narrow majority of 177 to 168 against the appropriation.
On the same day, Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow ordered the Reichstag dissolved with the agreement of Emperor Wilhelm II. One reason for dissolving the legislature over such a minor issue was that the Emperor as well as parts of the bureaucracy had increasing reservations about the Centre Party. Bülow, who did not share this position and would’ve liked to continue relying on the Centre, gave in to this. He hoped that establishing a new political majority would allow him to restore his damaged trust with the Emperor. Under the circumstances, the only way to do this would be to resume the former “Cartel” alliance between Conservatives and National Liberals, expanded to include the left-liberal parties. Following the death of Eugen Richter the previous year, the left-liberals had tended to indicate their willingness to support the Government. This alliance came to pass and is generally referred to as the Bülow Bloc. Through the mediation of the Government, agreements were reached to cooperate during runoff elections, which had now become common.
During the election campaign, the Government itself would be responsible for setting the tone, with its demands for a reliable majority on “national issues” and the struggle against the Social Democrats, who were seen as an enemy of monarchy, religion and property, and against the “unreliable” Centre Party. The goal was to create a nationalist, anti-socialist and anti-clerical bloc out of the Cartel parties and the left-liberals. This was supported by the newly-founded National Association Against Social Democracy.




Results


The SPD gained another quarter of a million votes compared to 1903, becoming the strongest party in the popular vote by a margin of 10%, even though the high turnout meant they made losses in percentage terms. Also affecting the Social Democrats negatively were the runoff agreements between the parties of the bloc. So, despite their high share of the vote, they only won 43 seats – compared to 81 in 1903. The Centre were able to make gains, going from 100 to 105 seats. The bloc parties made minor seat gains, primarily because their electoral agreements meant they did not compete with one another. The two conservative parties increased their seat number from 75 to 84. Even more minor were the gains for the National Liberals, who rose from 51 to 54 seats. However, the left-liberals made clearer gains, improving their position from 36 to 49 seats. In total, when counting minor parties and independents aligned with it, the bloc achieved a majority of 220 out of 397 seats.
Also notable was the success of Polish candidates in Upper Silesia, winning five out of the region’s twelve constituencies. This was in contrast to the elections from 1871 to 1898, in which, despite the Polish-speaking majority, no Polish candidate ever won a seat there. This politicisation of the Upper Silesian Poles was primarily caused by the anti-Polish linguistic and cultural policies of the Prussian state government (see the Września school strike).




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References






Further reading


Epstein, Klaus. “Erzberger and the German Colonial Scandals, 1905-1910.” The English Historical Review 74, no. 293 (1959): 637–63. http://www.jstor.org/stable/558886.

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