The Right to Vote Is an Obligation

German women were allowed to vote for the first time on 19 January 1919. The Weimar Republic established this in the electoral law of November 1918. In the same month the Deutsche Demokratische Partei (DDP) [German Democratic Party] was founded, which was one of the parties most closely committed to the new republic. In the beginning of 1919 they actively campaigned to let women participate in the elections: 'Wahlrecht ist Wahlpflicht' [The right to vote is an obligation]. The elections were successful for the DDP and for the women. The DDP got 75 of 423 seats, and 37 women took were elected to parliament.