Konstantin Fehrenbach

Konstantin Fehrenbach studied law and theology in Freiburg, where he became a well-known criminal lawyer. Fehrenbach was elected to the Baden Landtag in 1885 as a representative of the Catholic Center Party. He resigned his seat because of differences with the party leadership in 1887. In 1901-1913 Fehrenbach again took his seat in the Baden Landtag and in 1907-1909 chaired the parliament. In 1903 Fehrenbach was elected to the Reichstag from the Center Party. In 1917 he headed the main parliamentary commission and in July 1918 was elected president of the Reichstag. As a member of the German National Assembly in Weimar, he succeeded Eduard David as the assembly's president (14 Feb 1919 - 21 May 1920). After the election to the first republican Reichstag, Fehrenbach was commissioned to form a government. His three-party cabinet composed of the members of the Center Party, German People's Party and Democratic Party was unable to win concessions from the Allies in the matter of war reparations. Fehrenbach headed two German delegations at the conferences in Spa and London. When the Reparation Commission in Paris set the amount of reparations on 132 billion gold marks (27 Apr 1921) Fehrenbach resigned (4 May 1921). In 1923-1926 he headed the parliamentary group of the Center Party in the Reichstag. Biography source: [4]