1918 is very suitable for our exhibition,
because rarely has the future been so open to contemporaries
as it was at the end of the First World War.
Germany is on the ground the war is lost.
It is completely uncertain
what political system the country will have in the future.
And in this situation, the SPD does not use the momentum
for a truly progressive step.
Friedrich Ebert becomes famous with the quote
“Deutschland ist nicht reif für eine Republik.”
The monarchy is to remain.
And in fact, there is also
a constitutional reform in October 1918,
the so-called October Reform.
In which it is decided
that Germany is a parliamentary monarchy.
For a brief moment, this model is not
quite republic, but also not the old monarchy, Reality.
Only for a few days.
Because already in November 1918,
this system is again wastepaper.
There is a double proclamation of the republic.
And one of my favorite images in the exhibition
in the possibility space
is the satirical magazine Simplicissimus and its lead picture
on the November Revolution by Wilhelm Schulz.
A wave of time washes away
the crowns and scepters, the insignia of power.
The monarchy is gone.
Now only the republic is valid.
That means peace and progress,
social and parliamentary achievements.
At the end of this process,
there is the Weimar Imperial Constitution
with its problematic Article 48.
This is the end of our possibility space.
Because this article 48 and the outsized power, that is enough.
Presidents cast their shadows again
on the caesuras 1929 and 1933.