After the Reichstag elections of December 1924 the parties supporting the minority Marx cabinet were unable to agree on whether the coalition should be extended to include those on the left (SPD) or those on the right (DNVP), president Friedrich Ebert on 9 January 1925 asked the independent Luther to form a government. On 16 January, Luther presented his cabinet that combined features of a party-based government with one made up of experts/technocrats. Each of the coalition parties (Zentrum, BVP, DVP, DNVP) had one representative in the cabinet, the other positions were filled with civil servants who were either members of one of the parties or were politically close to it. Although the DDP was not a member of the coalition, Luther was able to keep Otto Gessler at the "Reichswehrministerium".