At the extreme right were the German Nationalists (Deutschnationalen) with forty-two members. They were the former Conservatives of whom the least one can say is that they had learned but little from the war. It was the party of the big landed proprietors and the big manufacturers. Politically they declared themselves in December, 1918, in favour of the restoration of the monarchy and willing to accept a parliamentary monarchy. Economically they did not ask a single reform. Reactionary in politics they were in economic matters strongly conservative. Their leaders, Clemens von Delbrück, former minister of the Emperor and former chief of the Emperor’s civil cabinet, Düringer, raised their voices whenever it was necessary to defend the old régime, opposing all diminution in Prussia’s share of the government, and combatting every democratic institution. To the left of them sat twenty-two members of the German People’s Party (Deutsche Volkspartei). The name is new; their ideas resembled those of the former National-Liberals.[6] It was the party of business men. Of the future form of government they said nothing. In fact, most of them remained monarchists, but that was a minor question. Their main concern was to establish in a tranquil and well regulated state freedom of commerce and a guarantee of protection for private property. They did not shut their eyes completely to the realities of the hour and intended to scrutinize certain reforms which it would be useless to oppose; such as new governmental monopolies, the participation of workers in industry control, etc. They were nationalist in feeling and would not sign a peace except one that safeguarded the economic prosperity of Germany. They were democrats in the sense that they were in favor of a strict legal equality for all persons. This group was presided over by Stresemann, whose cleverness in manipulating the parliamentary game was widely recognized. Then came the Centre with eighty-nine deputies. Of all the parties it was this one that remained since its inception most faithful to itself. Its programme had not changed. It contained several propositions which formed its solid framework and for which the party was prepared to fight with all its power: the union of Church and State, confessional public schools, liberty of instruction, etc. On the political and economical problems of the hour the Centre certainly had its opinions; but it always ended by conceding whatever was necessary to safeguard the essential principles of a religious state and of freedom of instruction. Among those elected to the Centre there were Fehrenbach, who presided over the Assembly, Trimborn, Professor Beyerle, and Erzberger, whose indefatigable activities and limitless fertility of resources assured him perhaps a preponderant rôle in the government for some months, and who as much as the Minister of Finance was to effect a fundamental reform in the German fiscal system.