Gustav Bauer | |
---|---|
11th Chancellor of Germany | |
In office 21 June 1919 – 26 March 1920 |
|
Preceded by | Philipp Scheidemann |
Succeeded by | Hermann Müller |
Personal details | |
Born |
Gustav Adolf Bauer 6 January 1870 Darkehmen, Prussia |
Died | 16 September 1944 Berlin, Nazi Germany |
(aged 74)
Political party | SPD |
Spouse(s) | Hedwig Moch |
Religion | Lutheran |
Gustav Adolf Bauer ( listen ; 6 January 1870 – 16 September 1944) was a German Social Democratic Party leader and Chancellor of Germany from 1919 to 1920. He served as head of government for a total of 219 days. Prior to becoming head of government, Bauer had been Minister of Labour in the first democratically elected German cabinet. After his cabinet resigned in March 1920, Bauer served as vice-chancellor, Minister of Transportation, and Minister of the Treasury in other cabinets of the Weimar Republic.
Bauer was born on 6 January 1870 in Darkehmen, near Königsberg in East Prussia (now Ozyorsk, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia) as the son of bailiff Gustav Bauer and his wife Henriette (née Groß). From 1876 to 1884, he attended the Volksschule in Königsberg. After 1884, he worked as a clerk and later head clerk for a lawyer at Königsberg.
In 1895, he became president of the Verband der Büroangestellten, a white-collar union that he co-founded. He also was editor of the publication Der Büroangestellte ("The Office Worker") and in 1903 was named head of the Zentral-Arbeiter-Sekretariat der Freien Gewerkschaften in Berlin ("Central Secretary of Independent Unions"). In 1908, Bauer became second chairman of the Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften (General Commission of Trade Unions) in Berlin, a position he kept until 1918.
On 2 October 1911, Bauer married Hedwig Moch.
In 1912, Bauer was elected to the Reichstag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in a Breslau constituency. In October 1918, Bauer became Secretary of State at theReichsarbeitsamt (Labour) in Max von Baden's cabinet. Bauer remained in this position throughout the revolution of 1918/19. After Max von Baden resigned in November 1918, Bauer continued to serve under Reichskanzler Friedrich Ebert and then under the Council of the People's Deputies, also headed by Ebert. While serving as Minister of Labour, Bauer introduced the Factory Constitution Law and issued a number of decrees, including universal voting rights for those aged 20 and above in all types of elections, regulated wage agreements, protection from arbitrary dismissal with appeal as a right, the re-instalment of demobilised workers, a national health insurance, local municipality social welfare (split between the states and government), the right of civil-service associations, agricultural labour reform, domestic labour reforms, and the eight-hour workday.