government and that Braun resign. When he refused, the DVP withdrew its ministers from the government and brought an end to the coalition. Forming a new government proved as difficult as it had been in 1920. On 10 February the former Reich Chancellor Wilhelm Marx (Centre), supported by the Centre, DDP and SPD, was elected Minister President. He formed a cabinet consisting of the Centre and DDP, keeping Severing as Minister of the Interior. After losing a vote of confidence, Marx resigned but remained in office until April in an acting capacity. New state parliamentary elections were held on 7 December 1924. High point of political stability Otto Braun was elected Minister President on 3 April 1925, with 216 of 430 votes. Like Marx, his base was SPD, Centre and DDP. Braun took over the majority of Marx's cabinet and looked to continuity in policy. He blamed the months-long government crisis on what he called the "German national communist bloc", by which he meant all the opposition parties from the DVP and DNVP to the various small parties, which included the NSDAP and the Communists. Braun said that "they are as incapable of building as they are unanimous in destroying." The new cabinet was a minority government, but it proved remarkably stable. Settlement with the Hohenzollerns The question of financial settlements with Germany's former ruling dynasties was in principle a matter for the states. In Prussia negotiations with the Hohenzollerns failed in 1920 because the SPD rejected the proposal in the state Parliament, and the former royal house objected to it in 1924. In 1925 the Ministry of Finance under Hermann Höpker-Aschoff (DDP) submitted another draft proposal. It was extraordinarily favorable to the Hohenzollerns and led to fierce criticism from the SPD and DDP. The DDP then introduced a bill in the Reichstag that would authorize the states to find a solution without recourse to the courts. It was the starting point for a political process that led to the failed referendum on princely expropriation at the Reich level in 1926. The Braun government subsequently intensified negotiations with the Hohenzollerns over the former royal house's assets. In the end a compromise was reached that the SPD viewed very critically. The main Hohenzollern line received 250,000 acres of land and 15 million Reichsmarks. The Prussian state also received 250,000 acres, plus the royal palaces along with the Bellevue and Babelsberg palaces,