Matthias Erzberger

Matthias Erzberger (20 September 1875 – 26 August 1921) was a politician of the Catholic Centre Party, member of the Reichstag and minister of finance of Germany from 1919 to 1920.

Matthias Erzberger
Erzberger in 1919
Vice-Chancellor of Germany
In office
21 June 1919  3 October 1919
ChancellorGustav Bauer
Preceded byBernhard Dernburg
Succeeded byEugen Schiffer
Minister of Finance
In office
21 June 1919  12 March 1920
ChancellorGustav Bauer
Preceded byBernhard Dernburg
Succeeded byJoseph Wirth
Minister without portfolio
In office
9 November 1918  20 June 1919
Minister-PresidentFriedrich Ebert (de facto)
Philipp Scheidemann
Serving withEduard David
Georg Gothein
Member of the Reichstag
for Württemberg
In office
24 June 1920  26 August 1921
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byHermann Eger
Member of the Reichstag
for Württemberg 16
In office
3 December 1903  9 November 1918
Preceded byGebhard Braun
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born(1875-09-20)20 September 1875
Buttenhausen, Württemberg, German Empire
Died26 August 1921(1921-08-26) (aged 45)
Bad Griesbach, Baden, Germany
Political partyCentre Party
OccupationPolitician

Erzberger was first elected to the Reichstag of the German Empire in 1903. During the early years of World War I he enthusiastically supported Germany's position but later became a leading opponent of unrestricted submarine warfare and proposed the successful 1917 Reichstag peace resolution which called for a negotiated peace without annexations. In November 1918 he headed the German delegation to negotiate an end to the war with the Allies and was one of the signatories of the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

He was elected to the Weimar National Assembly in 1919 and under Minister President Friedrich Ebert was chairman of the Armistice Commission. After Philipp Scheidemann resigned as minister president in protest over the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Erzberger – who supported the treaty because he saw no alternative to it – became finance minister and vice-chancellor under Gustav Bauer. He pushed through the "Erzberger reforms" that transferred supreme taxing authority from the states to the central government and redistributed the tax burden more towards the wealthy. Under attack for corruption from a member of the right-wing German National People's Party, he was forced by the Centre Party to resign in March 1920 but was elected to the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic later in the year.

Both his role in ending the war and his financial policies earned him the enmity of the political right. On 26 August 1921, he was assassinated by two members of the right-wing terrorist group Organisation Consul.

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