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Philipp Scheidemann
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=== Rise in the party and the Reichstag === In the [[1903 German federal election|1903 Reichstag elections]], Scheidemann entered the [[Reichstag of the German Empire]] for the constituency [[Düsseldorf]] 3, the city and district of [[Solingen]]. He was reelected in January 1907 and January 1912. From 1906 to 1911 he also held a seat as a city councilor in his home town of Kassel.<ref name="DHM" /> When in 1911 he was elected to the SPD's executive committee, of which he remained a member until 1918, he resigned his municipal mandate because the election required that he move to [[Berlin]]. After the death in 1913 of [[August Bebel]], the long-time leader of the SPD, Scheidemann took over the chairmanship of the SPD parliamentary group together with [[Hugo Haase]].<ref name="DHM" /> He held the position until 1918. In 1912 Scheidemann became the first Social Democrat to be elected one of the vice presidents of the Reichstag,<ref name="Bio" /> but since he refused to make the inaugural visit to the emperor – the "going to court" that the party had always frowned on – he was unable to take office.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nipperdey |first=Thomas |title=Deutsche Geschichte 1866–1918. Machtstaat vor der Demokratie |publisher=C. H. Beck |year=1992 |isbn=3-406-34801-7 |location=Munich |pages=748 |language=de |trans-title=German History 1866-1918. Power-state Before Democracy}}</ref> It was not until June to October 1918 that he actually held the office. Unlike [[Friedrich Ebert]]''',''' who became party co-chairman with Hugo Haase in 1913, Scheidemann had rhetorical talent. He could speak convincingly before mass meetings as well as small audiences. Wilhelm Keil, a friend and party comrade of both men, described Ebert as "always serious, dignified and energetic", while Scheidemann was a "brilliant rhetorician with somewhat boisterous manners ... which at times allowed doubts to arise as to what percentage of his seemingly holy fire was to be ascribed to theatricality".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keil |first=Wilhelm |title=Erlebnisse eines Sozialdemokraten |publisher=DVA |year=1948 |volume=2 |location=Stuttgart |pages=171 |language=de |trans-title=Experiences of a Social Democrat}}</ref> Scheidemann's down-to-earth manners, his sense of humor and unshakeable cheerfulness<ref>{{Cite book |last=Müller-Franken |first=Hermann |title=Die November Revolution |publisher=Der Bücherkreis |year=1928 |location=Berlin |pages=78 |language=de}}</ref> earned him recognition outside the party.<ref name="Bio" /> His political style was on the pragmatic side. Whenever he could he avoided conflicts in which he saw little hope of resolution. He championed a cause only when it seemed possible that he would be successful in it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kittel |first=Manfred |title=Neue Deutsche Biographie |publisher=Duncker & Humblot |year=2005 |isbn=3-428-11203-2 |volume=22 |location=Berlin |pages=630f |language=de |chapter=Scheidemann, Philipp}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Winkler |first=Heinrich August |title=Weimar 1918–1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie |publisher=Verlag Beck |year=1998 |isbn=3-406-44037-1 |location=Munich |pages=72 |language=de |trans-title=Weimar 1918–1933. The History of the First German Democracy}}</ref> Before World War I he was a regular speaker on budgetary and army issues and regarded as a representative of the party's center. When he directed sharp attacks against the imperial [[Hohenzollern]] family in the Reichstag in 1912, Reich Chancellor [[Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg]] and the members of the [[Bundesrat (German Empire)|Bundesrat]] who were present left the hall in protest.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Flemming |first=Jens |title=Männer der Revolution |pages=56 |language=}}</ref> On several occasions Scheidemann represented German social democracy at congresses abroad. Publicity trips took him to France, Switzerland, and the United States.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scheidemann |first=Philipp |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PkJ4AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA113 |title=Memoiren eines Sozialdemokraten |publisher=Severus Verlag |year=2010 |isbn=978-3-86347-571-0 |volume=1 |location=Hamburg |pages=113 ff |language=de |trans-title=Memoirs of a Social Democrat}}</ref> A speech given by Scheidemann in Paris in 1912 caused a great public stir and was published in Germany in a distorted form to defame him specifically and the Social Democrats in general as "traitors to the fatherland". In a Reichstag debate on 3 December 1912, Scheidemann's party colleague [[Eduard David]] felt compelled to reproduce the true wording of Scheidemann's disputed statements:<blockquote>"Against those who try to push us down into the bestiality of a European war, we will defend ourselves with the courage of despair. The German workers and socialists also respect and love the French proletarians and socialists like brothers. ... Our enemy is ... in another place. It is where yours also is. That is capitalism. Let us wage the struggle together, comrades, for the progress of humanity, for the freedom of labor, for world peace."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Arbeiterbewegung |editor-last=Schulz |pages=368 f |language=de |trans-title=Workers' Movement}}</ref></blockquote>
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