[THE WEIMAR CONSTITUTION AS A MODEL FOR SHORT-LIVED GEORGIAN INDEPENDENCE] Germaniis k'onst'it'utsia (გერმანიის კონსტიტუცია) [The German constitution].

Tbilisi: Al. Arabidze and Company, 1920. Octavo (22.5 × 14.8 cm). Original staple-stitched printed wrappers; 60 pp. Private exlibris stamp (Vasil Chantladze). A few small nicks to wrappers and overlapping edge; else about very good. Item #55243

Georgian translation of the German Weimar Constitution (1919), printed at a time when the Caucasian state was urgently trying to transform itself into a constitutional democracy. Georgia had gained independence in 1918, following the collapse of the Russian Empire. The Democratic Republic of Georgia was led by the Georgian Menshevik Party and was initially a protectorate of Germany following the Treaty of Poti (May 1918). After Germany's defeat, British forces arrived to forestall a Bolshevik invasion. They left after May 1920, when Russia recognized Georgia's independence in the Treaty of Moscow, yet by February 1921 the country was invaded by the Red Army and eventually transformed into a satellite state of the Soviet Union.

In many ways, the Georgian Democratic Republic was ideologically aligned with the Social-Democratic Party of Germany and the Weimar Constitution would have been an obvious model for its own vision of a democratic state. For instance, Georgia granted women the right to vote as one of very few European democracies at the time, while also being open to women and various minority groups being elected to Parliament. Its orientation was pluralistic, stressed civil rights, as well as union rights and labor protections.

Translated from the German by a translator only identified as "N. Re.", with a few explanatory footnotes at the beginning ("Constitutional, legal and other terms are, as far as possible, rendered in Georgian as they have generally entered our usage. In addition, the word "Reich" is used everywhere in the text...").

A rare testament to the far reach of the Weimar Constitution as a model for modern democratic governance.

Price: €800.00

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