(2 of 3)
Never since the War has a German Chancellor been thus publicly humiliated. The Luther Cabinet at once resigned, refused to carry on pro tempore. Promptly the President appointed as "temporary Chancellor," a noted militaristic Democrat of pronounced Monarchist leanings, Dr. Otto Karl Gessler, onetime gruff Burgomaster of Nuremberg, Defense Minister in the last seven Cabinets, appointed Dictator of Germany in 1923 to put down the Bavarian Separatist movement. At that time he said: "The Bavarians want and need a King. We can't keep a King away from them forever."
Retrospect. Herr Luther may look back upon more than a year in office as Chancellor* with pardonable pride. He formed a Cabinet (TIME, Jan. 26, 1925) after a three months' crisis; and when it fell (TIME, Dec. 14, 1925) upon an issue bound up with the Locarno Treaties, he carried on as temporary Chancellor until he managed to form another Cabinet (TlME, Feb. 1) and again carried on until last week — a difficult feat of conciliation. Like a sage attorney who has pleaded well, Herr Luther rested his case with posterity.
New Cabinet. As the week waned, former Chancellor Wilhelm Marx, Minister of Justice in the Luther Cabinet, was summoned by President von Hindenburg to form a new Government. Since he heads the Catholic Centrist party, he stands upon the same political middle ground as Luther and Stresemann. Naturally, therefore, he called back the entire Luther Cabinet, except Dr. Luther himself. To Dr. Johannes Bell he entrusted his own former Ministry, Justice.
This development merely demonstrates once more that the potent German Socialists and Nationalists are so out of touch with the rest of the electorate that the only feasible type of Cabinet continues to be one resting on a Centrist minority coalition and steering a tortuous course between the giants of the Left and the Right.
*Democratice, Socialist, Communist. †German and Bavarian Peoples Parties and Catholic Center.
*During his regime President von Hinden burg was elected (TlME, May 4 ,1925), the great Germano-Polish mutual population transfers took place (TIME, Aug.10,1925), the Dawes Plan was officially reported to have worked well during its first year (TlME, Dec. 21, 1925), the First Rhineland Occupied Zone was evacuated by the Allies (TlME, Feb. 15), the Russo-German Neutrality Treaty was signed (TlME,May 10). At this period the Locarno Pacts were negotiated—resulting in the return of Germany to the Western European diplomatic sphere — and only the Geneva fiasco (TIME, March 15, et seq., THE LEAGUE) prevented Germany from enter ing the League.
While Herr Luther's sterling political worth was made evident continuously a great deal of the credit for accomplishments belongs to his adroit Foreign Minister, Dr. Stresemann, who consistently leaped into many a breach left wide by the Chancellor's lack of political agility.