Proles’?13 For the German right, the line was clear. Democratization was a prelude to capitulation. More sophisticated exponents of German strategy could see other possibilities. For men such as Matthias Erzberger, or Bethmann Hollweg’s close collaborator Kurt Riezler, democratization at home was the only possible basis on which Germany could pursue a great-power policy capable of matching that of Britain and the United States.
