Otto Braun
| Otto Braun | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Minister President of the Free State of Prussia | |
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In office 6 April 1925 – 20 July 1932 |
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| Preceded by | Wilhelm Marx |
| Succeeded by | Franz von Papen |
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In office 5 November 1921 – 18 February 1925 |
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| Preceded by | Adam Stegerwald |
| Succeeded by | Wilhelm Marx |
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In office 27 March 1920 – 21 April 1921 |
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| Preceded by | Paul Hirsch |
| Succeeded by | Adam Stegerwald |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
28 January 1872 Königsberg, East Prussia |
| Died | 15 December 1955 (aged 83) Locarno, Switzerland |
| Political party | SPD |
Otto Braun (28 January 1872 – 15 December 1955) was a German Social Democratic politician who served as Prime Minister of Prussia for most of the time from 1920 to 1932. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Braun went into exile in Switzerland.
Born in Königsberg, East Prussia, as the son of a railway employee, Braun attended Volksschule and then completed an apprenticeship in lithography. In 1888, he joined the Social Democratic Party, illegal at the time. He advanced in the typical manner for a local functionary: chairman of the local Arbeiter-Wahlvereins (the legal front of the party) and later publisher, editor and printer of the party newspaper Volkstribüne (later Königsberger Volkszeitung). In 1904, he was one of several social democrats charged with high treason for smuggling pamphlets calling for the toppling of the Tsar into Russia but was not found guilty, due to inconclusive evidence. Braun was active in supporting the rights of farm labourers in East Prussia, dominated by large landowners. From 1909-20, he was a member of the board of the Deutscher Landarbeiter-Verband, a farmworker association, which he had co-founded. He also became an expert on agricultural issues within his party. Braun rose to chairman of the East Prussian Social Democratic Party, in 1911 became a member of the board of the national SPD and in 1913 was elected to the Prussian House of Representatives.
During World War I he supported the Burgfrieden policy of the majority SPD. His only child died in the war: his son had volunteered for service and died of diphteria in 1915.
After the German Revolution Braun became Prussian Minister for Agriculture. In 1919, he was elected to the Weimar National Assembly. Following the abortive Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch in March 1920, Braun became Minister President of Prussia, a position in which he served from 1920 and 1932, except for brief periods in 1921 and 1925. He also held a seat in the Prussian Landtag (1913–33) and in the Reichstag (1920–33). He was the Social Democratic presidential candidate in the first round of presidential elections in 1925, coming second. He then withdrew his candidacy during the run-off in order to help the Centre Party's Wilhelm Marx defeat Paul von Hindenburg, who had not stood in the first round. Marx was eventually defeated by Hindenburg.
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