Otto Wels

Otto Wels
Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
In office 14 June 1919 – 16 September 1939
Preceded by	Friedrich Ebert Philipp Scheidemann
Succeeded by	Hans Vogel
Executive representative of the Labour and Socialist International
In office 1923–1938
Personal details
Born	15 September 1873 Berlin, German Empire
Died	16 September 1939 Paris, French Third Republic
Political party	Social Democratic Party of Germany
Occupation	Paper hanger

Otto Wels (15 September 1873 – September 16, 1939) was the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1919 and a member of parliament from 1920 to 1933.

Born in Berlin the son of an inn-keeper, Wels in 1891 began an apprenticeship as a paper hanger and joined the SPD. From 1895 to 1897 he served in the German Army. From 1906 he worked as a trade union official, party secretary in the Province of Brandenburg and the Vorwärts press committee. In 1912 he achieved a mandate for the Reichstag parliament and by the agency of August Bebel joined the SPD executive committee the next year.

In the German Revolution of 9 November 1918, Wels was a member of the Berlin Workers' council (Arbeiter- und Soldatenrat) of SPD and USPD and appointed military commander of the city, whereby he had to deal with the occupation of the Stadtschloss by revolutionary forces including violent fights with Freikorps units. Upon the election of Friedrich Ebert as Reich President on 11 February 1919 he acted as presiding officer of the SPD and was formally elected chairman together with Hermann Müller on June 14th.

In 1920 Wels and Carl Legien organised the general strike defeating the right-wing Kapp Putsch, whereafter Wels enforced the demission of his party fellow Gustav Noske as Reich Minister of Defence. He urged for the foundation of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold and the Iron Front paramilitary oganisations against the rising extremist forces of SA, Stahlhelm or Rotfrontkämpferbund. From 1923 Wels also held the office as an executive representative at the Labour and Socialist International. After the 1930 Reichstag election, Wels advocated the toleration of the cabient of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning, who had lost the support of the DNVP deputies. Even after the Preußenschlag of July 1932 against Otto Braun's government in the Free State of Prussia, he spoke against a general strike, however after the Reichstag election of November 1932 he rejected any negotiations with the new Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher.

On March 23, 1933 Wels was the only member of the Reichstag to speak against Adolf Hitler's Enabling Act (the "Law for Removing the Distress of People and Reich"). The vote took place during the last session of a multi-party Reichstag, on March 23, 1933. Because the Reichstag building itself had suffered heavy burning damage in February, the March session was held in Berlin's Kroll Opera House. Despite the incipient persecution of leftist and oppositional politicians and the presence of the SA, he made a clear speech opposing the Enabling Act, which formally took the power of legislation away from the Reichstag and handed it over to the Reich cabinet for a period of four years.

He declared:

"At this historic hour, we German Social Democrats pledge ourselves to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and Socialism. No Enabling Law can give you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible ... From this new persecution too German Social Democracy can draw new strength. We send greetings to the persecuted and oppressed. We greet our friends in the Reich. Their steadfastness and loyalty deserve admiration. The courage with which they maintain their convictions and their unbroken confidence guarantee a brighter future." [Noakes and Pridham, 1974].

Looking directly at Hitler, Wels proclaimed,

"You can take our lives and our freedom, but you cannot take our honour. We are defenseless but not honourless."

All 96 SPD members of parliament voted against the act; the rest of the Reichstag (besides the Communists, who were barred from voting) voted in favour. The passage of the Enabling Act marked the end of parliamentary democracy in Germany and formed the legal authority for Hitler's dictatorship. Within weeks of the passage of the Enabling Act, the Hitler government banned the SPD, while the other German political parties chose to dissolve themselves to avoid prosecution, making the Nazi party the only legal political party in Germany.

In June 1933, Wels went into exile to the Territory of the Saar Basin, which at the time was under League of Nations control; in August 1933, he was deprived of his citizenship. He then moved to build up the expatriate SPD, first in Prague, then in Paris, where he died in 1939.

External links

• German Resistance Memorial Center Biography

Persondata
Name	Wels, Otto
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 15, 1873
Place of birth
Date of death	September 16, 1939
Place of death