Editing Philipp Scheidemann (section)

== Writings in exile ==
In the last years of his life, Scheidemann produced a number of manuscripts in which he attempted to critically examine various aspects of Social Democratic politics between 1918 and 1933. In 1940, after the German occupation of Denmark, Scheidemann's daughter Louise buried the papers near Copenhagen. She was able to recover them in 1945 and in 1947 gave the SPD executive committee some copies for inspection. In February 1948 the deputy party chairman [[Erich Ollenhauer]] advised her in writing that it was for the time being not "in the interest of the party" to publish the material<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scheidemann |first=Philipp |title=Das historische Versagen der SPD. Schriften aus dem Exil |publisher=zu Klampen Verlag |year=2002 |editor-last=Reitzle |editor-first=Frank R. |location=Lüneburg |pages=8 |language=de |trans-title=The Historical Failure of the SPD. Writings from Exile}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ullrich |first=Sebastian |title=Der Weimar-Komplex. Das Scheitern der ersten deutschen Demokratie und die politische Kultur der frühen Bundesrepublik |publisher=Wallstein |year=2009 |location=Göttingen |pages=97 |language=de |trans-title=The Weimar Complex. The Failure of Germany's First Democracy and the Political Culture of the Early Federal Republic of Germany}}</ref> "in which your father is in part very critical of the official policy of the party in the Weimar Republic." Publication did not take place until 2002.

In his writings, Scheidemann accused Friedrich Ebert in particular of having "ruined"{{Sfn|Scheidemann|2002|p=107}} the SPD through serious political missteps. He described Ebert as a calculating lone wolf who hardly ever explained himself, who was a "master in organizational and tactical issues,"{{Sfn|Scheidemann|2002|p=91}} and who usually avoided direct confrontation and discussion in the official committees but always understood how to get his way through parallel informal consultations with different interest groups. Such maneuvering had enabled Ebert, for example, to secure the Reich presidency in February 1919, even though the majority of the SPD parliamentary group had initially wanted to nominate Scheidemann after word got out that Ebert had reacted to Scheidemann's proclamation of the Republic on 9 November 1918 with an outburst of rage.{{Sfn|Scheidemann|2002|pp=118 f}} Scheidemann stated that he soon "bitterly regretted" his withdrawal from the party leadership in the fall of 1919 and his departure for Kassel. The "struggle against the policies led by Ebert would have had to be fought out then, by hook or by crook, because the impending disaster was already palpable."{{Sfn|Scheidemann|2002|p=140}} Scheidemann was similarly harsh in his judgment of the behavior of the leading groups of the SPD and the [[General German Trade Union Federation]] in the summer of 1932 and spring of 1933, saying that the attitude of the trade union leaders in particular was "appallingly pathetic" and that their attempts to "find a modus vivendi with Hitler" were "unparalleled in the history of the international labor movement".{{Sfn|Scheidemann|2002|p=38}} Scheidemann demanded of the SPD executive committee in exile that self-criticism not be limited to the years 1918 and 1919; what was required was "at least a few lines about the fifteen years that lie behind us, but at a minimum about 20 July 1932"{{Sfn|Scheidemann|2002|p=85}} – the date of [[1932 Prussian coup d'état]], when Reich President [[Paul von Hindenburg]] invoked an emergency clause of the Weimar constitution to replace the elected government of the state of Prussia with [[Franz von Papen]] as Reich Commissioner. Scheidemann himself, like many other Social Democrats, had counted on the call for a general strike in July 1932 and February 1933, partly because "influential comrades" had repeatedly assured him that "the button would be pressed" at the decisive moment. He had "believed in the Berlin slogan because I considered a complete failure of the leadership, in which, admittedly, I had not had great confidence for years, to be impossible".{{Sfn|Scheidemann|2002|pp=30 f}}