Entry Into Politics
Distressed by the revolution, Kaas also decided to engage in politics and joined the Centre Party. In 1919 he was elected to the Weimar National Assembly and in 1920 to the Reichstag, of which he was a member until 1933. He was also elected to the Prussian state council, the representation of Prussia's provinces. As a parliamentarian Kaas specialized in foreign policy. From 1926 to 1930 he was a German delegate to the League of Nations.
Kaas considered himself a "Rhenian Patriot" and advocated the creation of a Rhineland state within the framework of the German Reich. In 1923, a year of crisis, he – just like Konrad Adenauer, then mayor of Cologne – fought the separatists that wanted to break away the Rhineland from Germany. Despite French occupation, he sought reconciliation with France and voiced this desire in a famous Reichstag speech on December 5, 1923.
Despite personal reservations towards the Social Democrats (SPD), he developed a cordial relationship with President Friedrich Ebert and willingly acknowledged the SPD's accomplishments after 1918. Kaas supported foreign minister Stresemann's policy of reconciliation and denounced nationalist agitation against this policy - agitation he considered to be irresponsible.
Read more about this topic: Ludwig Kaas
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