Yesterday evening, the Wirth cabinet was formally forced to resign due to the Social Democrats' official rejection of the coalition with the German People's Party.
The factual necessity of the resignation arose from the fact that Dr.
Wirth had finally failed with his plans for a cabinet reshuffle.
He had committed himself to including the German People's Party in the previous coalition and also did not want to do without the Social Democrats in his cabinet.
And so he left his fate entirely to the decision of factors over which he had little or no influence.
In political circles close to the previous coalition, the chancellor's main error is seen in this unnecessary determination, and on the social democratic side he is accused of unnecessarily provoking the whole crisis at the most inopportune point in time, at a moment when a government capable of taking action in relation to the Reparations Commission was more necessary than ever.
Now the Wirth cabinet in its present composition could not have been sustained much longer;
His parliamentary position and the conditions within the cabinet had already become too fragile for that.
The Reich President, to whom Dr.
Wirth transmitted the government's decision to resign yesterday evening, so he will have to look around for other men.
Mr. Ebert himself initially seems to be thinking of the Lord Mayor of Cologne, Dr.
Adenauer thought to have been the President of the Prussian State Council, which belongs to the Center.
Adenauer arrives in Berlin today.
Whether he comes into question is doubtful, because the central faction of the Reichtag seems to have little desire for the time being instead of Dr.
Wirths to present a new man from their camp as chancellor.
Herr Marx, the leader of the Zentrum parliamentary group, who was received by the Reich President around noon, must have formulated the view of his political friends in such a way that if Dr.
Wirth would like to foresee
the task of forming a cabinet should fall to a representative of the group that formally appointed Dr.
Wirth had overthrown, i.e. the social democracy.
However, apart from the fact that the Social Democrats could hardly come up with a personality suitable for this, at least for the current circumstances, they also seem to have no inclination at all to give a man of their kind the inheritance of Dr.
to let Wirth pass.
We believe we know that the Social Democratic leaders, who called on the Reich President yesterday evening after the Chancellor's visit, gave him the ambassador in Paris, Dr.
Mayer, recommended as a candidate for chancellor.
Mr. Mayer is formally a member of the Bavarian People's Party and was already a member of the Reich Cabinet before his appointment to Paris.
His previous links with industrial circles would, it seems, seem to the Social Democrats to facilitate the new government's contact with influential groups.
The idea of a “cabinet of personalities”
If it were up to the wishes of the Social Democrats, he would have to form a cabinet which would have to be based on the previous coalition in parliamentary terms and into which a significant part of the previous ministers would probably be taken over;
a transfer of individual portfolios to personalities in business life in the sense that Dr.
Wirth had originally planned, the Social Democrats would not object now either and they would, just as they have done up to now, urgently want the Foreign Office to be filled by a suitable person.
Of course, we cannot rate the prospects for the restoration of the old coalition very highly at the moment, because the Center made it clear yesterday that it does not want this solution.