Eduard Heinrich Rudolph David was a German politician. He was an important figure in the history of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the German political labor movement. In the immediate aftermath of the German Revolution of 1918–19, David was minister without portfolio in the government headed by Philipp Scheidemann. Later on, he became Minister of the Interior in the succeeding government headed by Gustav Bauer. In addition, Eduard David was briefly the first president of the Weimar National Assembly which drew up the Weimar Constitution and ratified the Treaty of Versailles in the summer of 1919.
EARLY LIFE
Born on June 11, 1863 in Ediger an der Mosel, Eduard David was the son of Johann Heinrich David (a Prussian civil servant) and his wife Wilhelmine Elisabeth (née Werner).
After completing a four-year commercial apprenticeship (kaufmännische Lehre), David studied at the University of Giessen… where he was introduced to socialist ideals. He worked as a teacher at a gymnasium and in 1893, David established a newspaper called the Mitteldeutsche Sonntagszeitung (“Mid-German Sunday News”). But David’s support for the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) led to his dismissal from the civil service in 1894.
THE SOCIALIST POLITICIAN
In the 1890s, David became a proponent of agricultural policies favoring small holdings. He argued for their viability in a series of articles in the Sozialdemokrat in August and September 1894. David argued against the traditional Marxist idea that small landholdings would increasingly be replaced by large estates, marking him as among the first revisionists in the SPD. The journalism on the agrarian question would later be expanded into his most important work, Sozialismus und Landwirtschaft (Socialism and Agriculture), in 1903. In it, David attempted to refute Marx’ theory of the concentration of production in agriculture and to demonstrate the “stability” of small-scale farming and its “superiority” to farming on a large scale. He also defended the so-called law of the diminishing fertility of the soil.
In 1896, David became a member of the Landtag of Hesse. By 1904, he was a member of the Reichstag for the SPD. At the Stuttgart Congress of the Second International in 1907. David supported a resolution justifying the colonial policy of imperialism.
David was also one of the leading politicians of the “majority” SPD when the party split during the First World War. He was also instrumental in framing his party’s policy stand on the conflict.
GOVERNMENT MINISTRY
In October 1918, the SPD became part of the Imperial German government for the first time under the new chancellor, Prince Max of Baden. Eduard David became the under secretary at the Foreign Office, a post he would hold until defeat and revolution came to the Fatherland.
In February 1919, David was elected president of the new National Assembly. It was part of a deal establishing the first democratically elected government (the Scheidemann Cabinet). David soon relinquished the post in favor of Constantin Fehrenbach (Zentrum) and became minister without portfolio under the new Ministerpräsident and fellow SPD member Philipp Scheidemann.
However, the Scheidemann Cabinet resigned in June 1919 due to protests over the harsh terms imposed by the victorious Allies in the Treaty of Versailles. A new government was quickly formed by Gustav Bauer (another SPD member), and David became Reichsminister des Innern (Minister of the Interior), exactly one week before the signing of the documents at Versailles.
In early October 1919, the German Democratic Party (DDP) rejoined and reestablished the Weimar Coalition of SPD, DDP and Zentrum. Erich Koch-Weser of the DDP took over as Minister of the Interior… and David once again was minister without portfolio. He retained this position in the first cabinet of Hermann Müller… who formed a new government after the Bauer Cabinet resigned in March 1920.
DEATH AND LEGACY
In 1922, David was appointed Reichsbevollmächtigter in Hesse. From 1923 to 1927, he taught political science at what was then the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt.
Eduard David died in Berlin on Christmas Eve 1930. He was sixty-seven years old.
Today, David is considered a key figure in the history of the political labor movement in Germany. He influenced the development of the SPD in the pre-Great War period as one of the leading advocates of reformist policies.
WORKS
– Zweck und Mittel einer einheitlichen Organisation der deutschen Studentenschaft, 1888
– Sozialismus und Landwirtschaft, 1903
– Referentenführer, 1907
– Sozialdemokratie und Vaterlandsverteidigung, 1915
– Die Sozialdemokratie im Weltkrieg, 1915
– Wer trägt die Schuld am Krieg? 1917
– Die Siedlungsgesetzgebung, 1921
– Um die Fahne der Deutschen Republik, 1921
– Die Befriedung Europas, 1926
– Aus Deutschlands schwerster Zeit, Schriften und Reden aus den Jahren 1914–19, 1927