Вильгельм Маркс: Германияның Веймар Республикасының канцлері

German politician (1863–1946)

Wilhelm Marx (15 January 1863 – 5 August 1946) was a German judge, politician and member of the Catholic Centre Party. During the Weimar Republic he was the chancellor of Germany twice, from 1923–1925 and 1926–1928, and served briefly as the minister president of Prussia in 1925. With a total of 3 years and 73 days, he was the longest serving chancellor during the Weimar Republic. After being a member of the Reichstag of the German Empire for ten years, Marx was elected in 1919 to the Weimar National Assembly that drafted Germany's new constitution and then in 1920 to the Republic's Reichstag where he served until not long before the Nazi takeover. As chancellor he helped steer Germany through the crisis year of 1923 with its hyperinflation and rebellious state governments. The following year his government worked to end the immediate crisis over Germany's war reparations and then in 1927 successfully brought Germany into the League of Nations. His terms in office saw a number of progressive pieces of legislation pass, including family allowances for state employees and comprehensive unemployment insurance. After resigning from the Reichstag in 1932, Marx worked with various civic organizations. He remained in Germany through the Nazi era and died in Bonn in 1946.

Marx was born in 1863 in Cologne to the Catholic school rector Johann Marx (1822–1882) and his wife, Gertrude (1826–1909). He had a sister, Barbara, who later headed the Cologne Ursulines. Marx was awarded his secondary school certificate (Abitur) at the Marzellengymnasium in 1881. He then studied jurisprudence at the University of Bonn from 1881 to 1884. As a student he became a member of Catholic Student Association Arminia of Bonn. Marx married Johanna Verkoyen (1871–1946) in 1891. They had three sons and a daughter. Independent Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno received Marx's help in mobilizing civil disobedience against the Occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium. Marx then helped replace Cuno's cabinet with the grand coalition headed by Gustav Stresemann of the German People's Party (DVP). When Stresemann's government fell in November 1923, Reich President Friedrich Ebert requested that Marx form a government.

On 30 November 1923, Marx formed his minority first cabinet based on the Centre Party, the right liberal German People's Party (DVP), the conservative Catholic Bavarian People's Party (BVP) and the center left liberal German Democratic Party (DDP). The financial and economic situation of the Reich at the time was dire – Germany's hyperinflation peaked in late 1923 – and the central government's authority was challenged by right and left wing state governments as well as by separatism in the Rhineland. Marx pushed through the Enabling Act of December 1923 that gave his government the authority "to take such measures as it deems necessary and urgent in view of the plight of the people and the Reich". The government's achievements included stabilizing the currency following the introduction of the Rentenmark, fiscal consolidation, the resolution of the conflict between the Reich and Bavaria's right wing government and de escalation of tensions in the occupied Rhineland territories. Following the May 1924 election, the second Marx cabinet was formed on 3 June. It was once again a minority government made up this time of the Centre Party, DVP and DDP; it lasted until December 1924. Its focus was on relations with the Allies and on regaining control of the occupied territories in the west. In August the government signed up to the Dawes Plan which settled the diplomatic crisis over Germany's war reparations. After the December 1924 Reichstag elections, Marx was unable to form a cabinet and resigned on 15 December. He remained in office as caretaker until 15 January 1925 when the independent Hans Luther took over as chancellor. Marx lost by 13.7 million to Hindenburg's 14.6 million votes. In April Otto Braun replaced Marx as Prussian Minister President. In June 1926 a referendum to expropriate the assets of the former ruling houses of Germany without compensation failed to reach the fifty percent needed to pass. Marx's cabinet survived the referendum's failure and shortly afterwards succeeded in bringing Germany into the League of Nations. He resigned as chancellor on 17 December 1926 when he lost an SPD initiated vote of no confidence on the issue of the recently uncovered clandestine military relations between the Reichswehr and the Soviet Union. In January 1927 Marx formed a new government with the same parties as before but with the addition of the right wing German National People's Party (DNVP). The fourth and final Marx cabinet extended the 1922 Law for the Protection of the Republic, although in order to gain the DNVP's support the extension was limited to two years. It also passed a law on working hours (14 April 1927) as well as the Law on Employment Services and Unemployment Insurance (Gesetz über Arbeitsvermittlung und Arbeitslosenversicherung) of 16 July 1927 which established a comprehensive unemployment insurance system. In 1933, under Nazi Germany, Marx was charged in the trial of the People's Association for Catholic Germany, an organization which he had chaired, but the charge against him was dropped in 1935. After the end of World War II, he continued to live in Bonn, where he died in 1946. Marx is buried at the Melaten cemetery in Cologne.