The Budget Debate of 1926: A Case Study in Weimar Democracy

This article argues against the historiography of Borchardt and others who believe that the German government did not act against the Depression because it thought such crises were self-correcting. The budget debate of 1926 showed the government of Hans Luther and Peter Reinhold taking action against an economic crisis and working increasingly with the Social Democratic Party. The alterations to Reinhold’s original budget show a political system working in normal fashion and responding to political demands from interest groups that had their roots in civil society. The system found solutions to these demands in an orderly and democratic fashion, and this was the first budget passed on time by the Reichstag since 1911. After reviewing the process in detail, the article agrees with Gisela Upmeier that the 1926 budget was ‘a kind of revolution’.