Thus we have at least a national song that unites all Germans, and is the symbol of our sixty-million nation.

A moderate social democrat Ebert supported the Burgfrieden and tried to isolate the war opposers in the party. His death which resulted in the monarchist Paul von Hindenburg as his Presidential successor is seen as an important break in the Weimar Republic which ended less than a decade later. For that he followed a policy of brittle coalitions.