WEBVTT

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1918 is very suitable for our exhibition,

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because rarely has the future been so open to contemporaries

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as it was at the end of the First World War.

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Germany is on the ground the war is lost.

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It is completely uncertain

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what political system the country will have in the future.

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And in this situation, the SPD does not use the momentum

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for a truly progressive step.

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Friedrich Ebert becomes famous with the quote

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“Deutschland ist nicht reif für eine Republik.”

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The monarchy is to remain.

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And in fact, there is also

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a constitutional reform in October 1918,

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the so-called October Reform.

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In which it is decided

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that Germany is a parliamentary monarchy.

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For a brief moment, this model is not

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quite republic, but also not the old monarchy, Reality.

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Only for a few days.

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Because already in November 1918,

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this system is again wastepaper.

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There is a double proclamation of the republic.

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And one of my favorite images in the exhibition

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in the possibility space

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is the satirical magazine Simplicissimus and its lead picture

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on the November Revolution by Wilhelm Schulz.

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A wave of time washes away

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the crowns and scepters, the insignia of power.

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The monarchy is gone.

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Now only the republic is valid.

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That means peace and progress,

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social and parliamentary achievements.

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At the end of this process,

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there is the Weimar Imperial Constitution

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with its problematic Article 48.

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This is the end of our possibility space.

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Because this article 48 and the outsized power, that is enough.

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Presidents cast their shadows again

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on the caesuras 1929 and 1933.