View source for Gustav Bauer

{{short description|Chancellor of Germany from 1919 to 1920}}
{{For|the American wrestler|Gustav Bauer (wrestler)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Gustav Bauer
| image               = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J0113-0500-001, Gustav Bauer(cropped).jpg
| caption             = Bauer in 1920
| order               = [[Chancellor of Germany]]<br/>{{small|([[Weimar Republic]])}}
| term_start          = 21 June 1919
| term_end            = 26 March 1920<br /><small>Minister President: 21 June 1919 – 14 August 1919</small>
| president           = [[Friedrich Ebert]]
| predecessor         = [[Philipp Scheidemann]]
| successor           = [[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]]
| order2              = [[Vice-Chancellor of Germany#Weimar Republic (1918–1933)|Vice-Chancellor of Germany]]
| term_start2         = 10 May 1921
| term_end2           = 22 November 1922
| chancellor2         = [[Joseph Wirth]]
| predecessor2        = [[Rudolf Heinze]]
| successor2          = [[Robert Schmidt (German politician)|Robert Schmidt]]
| order3              = Minister of the Treasury
| term_start3         = 10 May 1921
| term_end3           = 22 November 1922
| chancellor3         = [[Joseph Wirth]]
| predecessor3        = Gustav Bauer
| successor3          = [[Heinrich Albert]]
| term_start4         = 31 January 1920
| term_end4           = 21 June 1920
| chancellor4         = Gustav Bauer<br/>[[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]]
| predecessor4        = {{ill|Wilhelm Mayer (politician, born 1874)|de|Wilhelm Mayer (Politiker, 1874)|fr|Wilhelm Mayer|lt=Wilhelm Mayer}}
| successor4          = [[Hans von Raumer]]
| order6              = [[List of German labour ministers|Minister of Labour]]
| term_start6         = 4 October 1918
| term_end6           = 21 June 1919<br /><small>''Staatssekretär'': 4 October 1918 – 13 February 1919</small>
| chancellor6         = [[Prince Maximilian of Baden|Max von Baden]]<br />[[Friedrich Ebert]] (''de facto'')<br />[[Philipp Scheidemann]]
| predecessor6        = Office established
| successor6          = [[Alexander Schlicke]]
| order5              = [[List of German transportation ministers|Minister of Transport]]
| term_start5         = 2 May 1920
| term_end5           = 21 June 1920
| chancellor5         = [[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]]
| predecessor5        = [[Johannes Bell]]
| successor5          = [[Wilhelm Groener]]
| office8             = Member of the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]
| term_start8         = 24 June 1920
| term_end8           = 13 June 1928
| constituency8       = [[Magdeburg (electoral district, 1919–1938)|Magdeburg]]
| office9             = Member of the [[Weimar National Assembly]]
| term_start9         = 6 February 1919
| term_end9           = 21 May 1920
| constituency9       = [[Breslau (electoral district)|Breslau]]
| birth_name          = Gustav Adolf Bauer
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1870|1|6|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Darkehmen]], [[Province of Prussia]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[North German Confederation]]
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1944|9|16|1870|1|6|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Berlin]], [[Nazi Germany]]
| spouse              = Hedwig Moch
| party               = [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]]
}}
'''Gustav Adolf Bauer''' ({{Audio|De-Gustav_Adolf_Bauer.ogg|listen}}; 6 January 1870 – 16 September 1944) was a German [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]] leader and the [[Chancellor of Germany#Weimar Republic (1919–1933)|chancellor of Germany]] from June 1919 to March 1920. Prior to that, he was [[List of German labour ministers|minister of labour]] in the last cabinet of the [[German Empire]] and during most of the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|German Revolution]] that preceded the formal establishment of the [[Weimar Republic]].

Bauer became minister president of the [[Weimar National Assembly]] in June 1919 after [[Philipp Scheidemann]] resigned in protest against the [[Treaty of Versailles]]. Following the adoption of the [[Weimar Constitution]] in August 1919, Bauer's title formally changed to "chancellor". During his term of office, a crucial tax restructuring was enacted, as were a series of important social reforms that affected unemployment relief, maternity benefits and health and old age insurance. 

After his cabinet fell in March 1920 as a result of its response to the [[Kapp Putsch]], Bauer served as vice-chancellor, minister of the treasury, and minister of transportation in other cabinets from May 1920 to November 1922. In 1925 he was forced to resign his seat in the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]] due to his involvement in the fraud and bribery of the [[Barmat scandal]]. He was allowed to resume his seat in 1926. He kept it until 1928 when he retired from public life.

==Early life==
Bauer was born on 6 January 1870 in [[Darkehmen]], near [[Königsberg]] in the [[Province of Prussia]] (now [[Ozyorsk, Kaliningrad Oblast]], Russia) as the son of court bailiff Gustav Bauer and his wife Henriette (née Gross). From 1876 to 1884, he attended primary school in Königsberg. After 1884, he worked as an office assistant and then as head clerk for a lawyer at Königsberg.<ref name="DHM">{{cite web |last1=Kock |first1=Sonja |last2=Albrecht |first2=Kai-Britt |date=14 September 2014 |title=Gustav Bauer 1870–1944 |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/biografie/gustav-bauer |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=26 March 2024 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum |publisher= |language=de}}</ref>

In 1895, he became president of the [[Union of Office Employees of Germany]], a white-collar union that he co-founded. He also was editor of the publication {{Lang|de|Der Büroangestellte}} ("The Office Worker") and in 1903 was named head of the Central Labour Secretariat of the Free Trade Unions in Berlin. In 1908, Bauer became second chairman of the General Commission of Trade Unions in Berlin, a position he held until 1918.<ref name="DHM"/>

On 2 October 1911, Bauer married Hedwig Moch.<ref name="DHM"/>

==Political career==
===Imperial Germany and revolutionary period===
In 1912, Bauer was elected to the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]] for the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD) in a constituency of [[Breslau (electoral district)|Breslau]] in the Prussian province of [[Province of Silesia|Silesia]]. In October 1918, he became state secretary (similar to a minister) in the Ministry of Labour in the [[Baden cabinet|cabinet]] of [[Max von Baden]],<ref name="DHM"/> a position he remained in throughout the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|Revolution of 1918/19]]. After Baden resigned on 9 November 1918, Bauer continued to serve under Chancellor [[Friedrich Ebert]] (SPD) and then under the [[Council of the People's Deputies]], also headed by Ebert, which replaced the imperial chancellorship. 

On 12 November the Council issued an appeal "To the German People" that included a number of promises related to labour, notably the introduction of the eight-hour workday and the creation and protection of jobs. In the following weeks, the Council issued decrees regulating the hiring, dismissal and pay of industrial workers, including war invalids and demobilised military personnel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rat der Volksbeauftragten, Aufruf "An das deutsche Volk", 12. November 1918 |trans-title=Council of the People's Duputies, Appeal to the German People, 12 November 1918 |url=https://www.1000dokumente.de/index.html?c=dokument_de&dokument=0238_rev&object=context&st=&l=de |access-date=28 March 2024 |website=100(0) Schlüsseldokumente zur deutschen Geschichte im 20. Jahrhundert |language=de}}</ref> In the [[Stinnes–Legien Agreement]] of 15 November, industry agreed to introduce the eight-hour workday, guarantee demobilised workers the right to their pre-war jobs and recognise trade unions as the sole representatives of the workers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Scriba |first=Arnulf |date=10 May 2011 |title=Das Stinnes-Legien-Abkommen |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/industrie-und-wirtschaft/stinnes-legien-abkommen-1918.html |access-date=28 March 2024 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum}}</ref>

===Weimar Republic===
==== Chancellor ====
{{See also|Bauer cabinet#Actions}}  In January 1919, Bauer was [[1919 German federal election|elected]] to the [[Weimar National Assembly]] for [[Magdeburg (electoral district, 1919–1938)|Magdeburg]] in [[Prussian Saxony]].<ref name="Bio">{{cite web |last=Mayer |first=Paul |date=1953 |title=Bauer, Gustav Adolf |url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118507281.html#ndbcontent |access-date=31 October 2013 |website=Deutsche Biographie |publisher= |page=638 [Online-Version]}}</ref> In February, he became minister of labour in [[Scheidemann cabinet|Philipp Scheidemann's cabinet]], Germany's first democratically elected national government. After Scheidemann resigned on 20 June 1919 in protest against the terms of the [[Treaty of Versailles]], both [[Eduard David]] and [[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]] of the Social Democrats refused the offer to succeed him as minister president. Bauer accepted the position on 20 June even though he had until then been a vocal critic of the Treaty. Part of his willingness to take on the difficult responsibility of getting the Treaty through the Assembly came from his personal friendship with Friedrich Ebert and part from a sense of duty: "We are not standing here out of the interest of our parties, and even less – believe me – out of ambition. We are standing here out of a feeling of responsibility, in the awareness that it is our damned duty to save what can be saved."<ref>{{cite web |title=Das Kabinett Bauer. Regierungsbildung und Annahme des Versailler Vertrags |trans-title=The Bauer Cabinet. Formation of the Government and Acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles |url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0000/bau/bau1p/kap1_1/para2_2.html |accessdate=28 March 2024 |website=Das Bundesarchiv |language=de}}</ref> The National Assembly approved the Treaty 237 to 138 on 23 June, and representatives of Bauer's government signed it on 28 June.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Henßler |first=Patrick |date=4 September 2007 |title=Versailler Vertrag, 1919/20 |trans-title=Treaty of Versailles, 1919/20 |url=https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Versailler_Vertrag,_1919/20#Der_Friedensvertrag_von_Versailles |access-date=28 March 2024 |website=Historisches Lexikon Bayerns |language=de}}</ref>

On 31 July, the Assembly passed the proposal for the [[Weimar Constitution]] that it had drawn up and debated. President Ebert signed it on 11 August, and when it came into force on 14 August, Bauer's position took the name "[[Chancellor of Germany#Weimar Republic (1919–1933)|chancellor]]". The National Assembly dissolved itself on 21 May 1920. After the [[1920 German federal election|Reichstag election on 6 June 1920]], the Republic's first Reichstag took its place.<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 January 2019 |title=Vor 100 Jahren: Weimarer Nationalversammlung |trans-title=100 Years Ago: The Weimar National Assembly |url=https://www.bpb.de/kurz-knapp/hintergrund-aktuell/284871/vor-100-jahren-weimarer-nationalversammlung/ |access-date=28 March 2024 |website=Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung |language=de}}</ref> 

Some of the most far-reaching changes implemented during Bauer's term of office were the tax reform packages developed by Finance Minister [[Matthias Erzberger]]. The Reich Revenue Law of July 1919 gave the federal government sole authority for levying and administering taxes, unlike under the Empire when the states had control. The result was a considerable strengthening of the Reich's position with respect to the constituent states. Erzberger's measures also attempted to shift the burden of taxes more towards wealthier citizens. They levied "war taxes" on income and wealth, imposed an inheritance tax in July 1919 and a one-time wealth tax in December 1919.<ref name="dhm">{{cite web |last1=Altmann |first1=Gerhard |last2=Scriba |first2=Arnulf |date=13 September 2014 |title=Die Erzbergersche Reichsfinanzreform |trans-title=The Erzberger Finance Reform |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/innenpolitik/die-erzbergersche-reichsfinanzreform.html |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=26 September 2014 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum |language=de}}</ref> 

The Bauer cabinet was also responsible for a number of extensions of social benefits. They included maternity care covering the costs of childbirth and confinement,<ref>{{cite book |author=van der Klein |first=Marian |url={{Google books|77Fj06zjqfMC|page=94|plainurl=yes}} |title=Reciprocity and Redistribution: Work and Welfare Reconsidered |publisher=Plus-Pisa University Press |year=2007 |isbn=9788884924650 |editor-last=Hagemann |editor-first=Gro |location=Pisa, Italy |page=94 |chapter=Risks of Labour: Maternity Insurance and Economic Citizenship in pre-1940 Europe}}</ref> youth welfare,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dickinson |first1=Edward Ross |url={{Google books|yM0y7LOn6x0C|page=150|plainurl=yes}} |title=The Politics of German Child Welfare from the Empire to the Federal Republic |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1996 |isbn=9780674688629 |location=Cambridge, MA |pages=150}}</ref> increased unemployment relief<ref>{{cite book |author=Feldman |first=Gerald D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zH-I31gx7MMC |title=The Great Disorder: Politics, Economics, and Society in the German Inflation, 1914–1924 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1993 |isbn=9780199880195 |location=Oxford, UK |page=232}}</ref> (a form of welfare not to be confused with unemployment insurance, which was not introduced in Germany until 1927)<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Jeanne C. |first=Barber |date=7 November 1934 |title=Unemployment Insurance in Germany |url=https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/ces/ces1barber.html#:~:text=Committee%20on%20Economic%20Security%20(CES)&text=An%20act%20of%20July%2018,of%20unemployment%20insurance%20in%20Germany. |access-date=28 March 2024 |website=Social Security Administration Reports & Studies}}</ref> and expanded health and old age insurance.<ref>{{Cite EB1922|wstitle=Labour Legislation}}</ref> In addition, the Factory Council Act of February 1920 established [[works councils]] at workplaces with 20 or more employees as a means of improving lines of communication between labour and management.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Fischer |first=Conan |url={{Google books|ZfonC162wuoC|page=206|plainurl=yes}} |title=Wilhelminism and Its Legacies: German Modernities, Imperialism, and the Meanings of Reform, 1890–1930 |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2003 |isbn=9780857457110 |editor-last=Eley |editor-first=Geoff |location=New York, NY |page=206 |chapter=Continuity and Change in Post-Wilhelmine Germany |editor-last2=Retallack |editor-first2=James}}</ref>

In March 1920, the participants in the [[Kapp Putsch]] attempted to depose the government in Berlin. Bauer, along with other SPD members of the cabinet and President Ebert, signed a call for a general strike against the putsch. After a ''[[Freikorps]]'' unit took control of the government buildings in Berlin and [[Wolfgang Kapp]] set himself up as head of a new government, most of the cabinet left the city for [[Dresden]] and then [[Stuttgart]]. Some ministers, led by Vice-Chancellor [[Eugen Schiffer]], remained in the capital and negotiated with the putschists. The putsch quickly collapsed due to the general strike and the refusal of government employees to do their work, but the Bauer government was forced to resign on 27 March, mostly as a result of the negotiations conducted with Kapp and his fellow conspirators. Bauer was succeeded as chancellor by [[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]] of the SPD.<ref name="DHM" />

==== Post-chancellorship ====
Bauer joined the new cabinet as minister of the treasury, a position he held until June 1920; from May to June 1920, he was also minister of transportation. In the [[1920 German federal election|Reichstag elections of June 1920]], he was re-elected to parliament,<ref name="DHM"/> but the new government that [[Constantin Fehrenbach]] ([[Centre Party (Germany)|Centre Party]]) formed on 25 June did not include the SPD, whose share of the vote had dropped from 38% in 1919 to 22%.

Bauer rejoined the government in the cabinet of [[Joseph Wirth]] (Centre Party) in May 1921 as minister of the treasury and vice-chancellor. He held the positions throughout Wirth's term of office (until November 1922). Bauer remained a member of the Reichstag for Magdeburg and retained his seat after leaving the government. 

In November 1924 he became involved in the [[Barmat scandal#Bauer|Barmat scandal]], which involved accusations of corruption, war profiteering, fraud and bribery against the SPD due to its alleged involvement with the merchant Julius Barmat. Bauer was accused of taking commissions from Barmat,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kauders |first=Anthony |title=German Politics and the Jews: Düsseldorf and Nuremberg, 1910–1933. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=9780198206316 |location=Oxford |pages=414}}</ref> a claim he consistently denied in spite of strong evidence against him.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fulda |first=Bernhard |title=Press and Politics in the Weimar Republic |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780199547784 |location=Oxford |pages=94–95}}</ref> On 7 February 1925, the SPD parliamentary group forced him to relinquish his seat in the Reichstag. On 14 February he was expelled from the party.<ref name="DHM" />

The expulsion was overturned on 14 May 1926. He returned to the Reichstag, retaining his seat until 1928, at which point he left parliament and retired from public life.<ref name="DHM"/>

==Later life==
Five months after the [[Nazi Party]] took power, Bauer was arrested (29 June 1933) for supposedly having misappropriated public funds. The charge was based on statements allegedly made in school by his son. When it was ascertained that Bauer's marriage was childless, he was released after a week in custody. The proceedings against him were not dismissed until 1935.<ref name="DHM"/>

Bauer died in [[Hermsdorf (Berlin)|Hermsdorf]] (Berlin [[Reinickendorf]]) on 16 September 1944.<ref name="DHM"/>

==Literature==
* Braun, Bernd: ''Die Reichskanzler der Weimarer Republik. Zwölf Lebensläufe in Bildern''. Droste, Düsseldorf 2011, p.&nbsp;100 – 133. {{ISBN|978-3-7700-5308-7}}.
* {{NDB|1|638||Bauer, Gustav Adolf|Mayer, Paul|118507281}}
* Rintelen, Karlludwig: ''Ein undemokratischer Demokrat: Gustav Bauer. Gewerkschaftsführer – Freund Friedrich Eberts – Reichskanzler. Eine politische Biographie'', Lang, Frankfurt/M. 1993, {{ISBN|3-631-45299-3}} (the only biography of Gustav Bauers and a very critical account)
* Voigt, Martin: "Gustav Adolf Bauer". p.&nbsp;177–190. In: Wilhelm v. Sternburg (Hrsg.): ''Die deutschen Kanzler. Von Bismarck bis Schmidt.'' Königstein/Taunus: Athenäum 1985. {{ISBN|3-7610-8382-3}}.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commons-inline}}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/001156}}

{{S-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{Succession box | before=None | title=[[Labour Minister of Germany]] | years=1918–1919 | after=[[Alexander Schlicke]]}}
{{Succession box | before=[[Philipp Scheidemann]] | title=[[Chancellor of Germany (German Reich)|Chancellor of Germany]] | years=1919–1920 | after=[[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]]}}
{{Succession box | before=[[Johannes Bell]] | title=[[Transportation Minister of Germany]] | years=1920 | after=[[Wilhelm Groener]]}}
{{Succession box | before=[[Rudolf Heinze]] | title=[[Vice Chancellor of Germany]] | years=1921–1922 | after=[[Robert Schmidt (German politician)|Robert Schmidt]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{GermanChancellors}}
{{Cabinet Baden}}
{{Cabinet Scheidemann}}
{{Cabinet Bauer}}
{{Cabinet Muller I}}
{{First Wirth cabinet}}
{{Second Wirth cabinet}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bauer, Gustav}}
[[Category:1870 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Ozyorsky District, Kaliningrad Oblast]]
[[Category:Politicians from the Province of Prussia]]
[[Category:Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians]]
[[Category:Vice-chancellors of Germany]]
[[Category:Ministers of labor of Germany]]
[[Category:Transport ministers of Germany]]
[[Category:Federal government ministers of Germany]]
[[Category:Members of the 13th Reichstag of the German Empire]]
[[Category:Members of the Weimar National Assembly]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag 1920–1924]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag 1924]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag 1924–1928]]
[[Category:Prussian politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century chancellors of Germany]]
[[Category:Expelled members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany]]