Map S.13.4 Reichstagswahlkarte
vom Januar 1912 mit den Bildern der sozialdemokratischen Abgeordneten
Two things jump out at the viewer
of this electoral map. First, the map’s publisher was hard-pressed to squeeze
in portraits of all 110 Social Democratic deputies elected to the Reichstag in
the “red” elections of January 1912. Those deputies now held over one-quarter
of all Reichstag seats (397). Second, one can see that the constituencies
belonging to the Kingdom of Saxony formed only part of a large mass of
constituencies in central Germany, shown in pink, that were now represented by
Social Democrats. For the enemies of socialism, it might have seemed that
Germany’s heart – to quote Bertolt Brecht’s lyric to Mack the Knife – was “oozing life.”
Source:
Reichstagswahlkarte vom Januar 1912 mit den Bildern der sozialdemokratischen
Abgeordneten
(Leipzig: C. Opitz Geogr. Anstalt, 1912). © Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, LeMO Lebendiges Museum Online, Do 62/858.
Copyright © 2017 James Retallack. All rights reserved. This page is part of the Online Supplement to James Retallack, Red Saxony: Election Battles and the Spectre of Democracy in Germany, 1860-1918 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). ISBN 978-0-19-966878-6. Last updated: 4 March 2022.