Fehrenbach's government was the first since the fall of the German Empire in 1918 that did not include the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

The Reichstag elections of 6 June 1920 brought a defeat for the Weimar Coalition, the three parties that had carried the previous government – SPD, DDP and Centre.

Nationalist voters blamed the Weimar Coalition for the lost war, for accepting the severe terms of the Treaty of Versailles and for domestic unrest by workers such as during the Ruhr uprising.

Those on the left felt betrayed by the SPD and the other parties of the political centre for siding with the military and other forces that had been powerful under the Empire (the bureaucracy, industrialists and land owners) against communist or socialist protests.

On 11 June Ebert, following the tradition of approaching the strongest party first, asked Hermann Müller, the caretaker chancellor, to form a new cabinet.

[2] Since the next two parties in terms of the share of the vote were the USPD and DNVP and they occupied extreme positions in the political spectrum that made it unlikely that they would be able to form a government, Ebert on 13 June turned to Rudolf Heinze of the DVP.

[2] On 14 June Ebert asked Karl Trimborn [de] (Centre), who accepted but apparently signalled that he might be working only as a negotiator.

In a conversation between Ebert and Fehrenbach on 15 June, the latter said he did not feel up to the job and suggested Wilhelm Mayer [de; fr] instead.

Problems with the DVP over appointments held matters up for several more days, since the "industrialist" wing of the party objected to Joseph Wirth as minister of Finance and made other demands.

Germany rejected the amount, and at the ensuing London Conference (1921) [de] in March, Foreign Minister Walter Simons again refused to accept the Allied demands.

[8] The failure of the London Conference put a heavy strain on the coalition on which the government was based, with the DVP arguing that they could not support the policies of Foreign Minister Walter Simons any longer.

On 4 May, despite the uprising in Upper Silesia that had erupted the previous day, the cabinet decided to resign after the parties were unable to agree on whether to present the Allies with a new German proposal on reparations.