I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 6 x l v i i about the touted reparations agreements sparked unprecedented attacks against the parliamentary system from right-wing Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP) lead- er Alfred Hugenberg. The aggressive hatred against the Weimar “system” was re- kindled. The young republic’s political stability deteriorated further when, in May 1929, physical and armed conflict between factions on the left and right escalated in the streets of Berlin and throughout Germany.[19] During this period, the malaise of the German economy lingered because of multiple factors: alleged high salaries, the cartelization of German industry, subsi- dies for large-scale agriculture and heavy industry, protective tariffs, and mandato- ry arbitration. The crisis deepened in the winter of 1928–1929 when the Dawes Plan annuities reached their full maturity, foreign loans faltered, tax revenues sank, and unemployment reached two and a half million.[20] On matters of domestic German policy, Einstein continued to support and adopt left-wing positions. In August 1927, he opposed the center–far right government’s draft for a school law that would grant the churches extensive influence on the Ger- man education system (Doc. 35). He reiterated his stance against what he perceived as the overreach of the German judiciary in October 1927, expressing his concern that grave injustices were being committed in political cases (Doc. 68). One year later, gay rights activist Richard Linsert solicited Einstein’s opinion on proposals for reforms to paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code on the prosecution of male homosexual acts. Einstein conveyed his support for Linsert’s criticism of the proposed legislation (Doc. 287). In November 1928, his signature was requested on a draft law for submission to the Reichstag regarding penalties for judges, pros- ecutors, and police officers who indicted or sentenced innocent persons through gross negligence. He declared his support in principle but made his signature conditional upon the review of a noted jurist who could assert potential legal res- ervations (Doc. 310). And on the question of women’s suffrage, while expressing sympathy for his younger son’s various positions, he nevertheless belittled Eduard’s canvassing efforts: “only women with masculine character fight for that” (Doc. 472). Einstein’s position on the death penalty continued to evolve. In August 1927, he cosigned an appeal for mass demonstrations against the capital punishment of Italian–American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, as well as a telegram to Massachusetts Governor Alvin T. Fuller to stay their executions. Three months later, he was asked for permission to republish his earlier statement defending the death penalty,[21] but refused to grant it. He had since decided that he opposed capital punishment because of the “irreparability in case of a judicial error” and the execution procedure’s adverse moral impact on those directly and in- directly involved in it (Doc. 80). Possible factors that informed this change of opin- ion were the eventual execution of Sacco and Vanzetti and a campaign of the Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte warning of the risk of “judicial murder.”