Joseph Karl Wirth

Joseph Wirth studied mathematics, economics and natural sciences in Freiburg. He quit his job as a school teacher in 1913, when he was elected to the Baden Landtag from the Catholic Center Party. In 1914 Wirth became a member of the Reichstag (1913-1918), but joined the Red Cross as a volunteer during World War I. Forced by illness to return to parliamentary activities, Wirth supported peace initiatives and was made finance minister in the people's government of Baden in November 1918. He participated in the sessions of the Verfassungsgebende Nationalversammlung (National Constituent Assembly) in Weimar and was appointed finance minister of the Free State of Baden in April 1919. Wirth joined the Reich governments of Herman Müller and Konstantin Fehrenbach as finance minister (27 Mar 1920 - 10 May 1921), and when the latter resigned on 4 May 1921, Reich President Friedrich Ebert appointed Wirth the new Reich Chancellor (10 May 1921). Wirth formed a coalition government composed of the Center Party, Social Democrats (SPD) and Democrats (DDP), where he retained the post of finance minister (10 May 1921 - 26 Oct 1921). The policy of Wirth's governments was targeted at fulfillment of Germany's obligations under the Versailles Treaty, but on 22 Oct 1921 he and his cabinet resigned in protest against the division of Upper Silesia in favor of Poland. President Ebert again entrusted Wirth with the formation of government on 26 Oct 1921. Wirth formed his second cabinet and acted as foreign minister (26 Oct 1921 - 31 Jan 1922) until Walther Rathenau was appointed to the post. In April 1922 Wirth and Rathenau signed the Treaty of Rapallo with Soviet Russia. After the murder of Rathenau by right extremists (24 Jun 1922), Wirth again assumed the management of foreign ministry (25 Jun 1922). He insisted on adoption of the Law on Defense of the Republic in July 1922. Failing to achieve consensus over the reparation issues, Wirth resigned as Reich Chancellor on 14 Nov 1922. In 1925 Wirth broke with the parliamentary group of the Center Party in the Reichstag due to growing differences with the party's leadership. He served as minister for the occupied territories (13 Apr 1929 - 30 Mar 1930) in the second government of Hermann Müller and as interior minister (30 Mar 1930 - 9 Oct 1931) in the cabinet of Heinrich Brüning. The installation of Nazi regime forced Wirth to immigrate. He returned to Germany in 1948 and settled in Freiburg. In 1948 he founded a Christian social workers' party "Union der Mitte". Wirth participated in numerous peace conferences and condemned the creation of Bundeswehr and Germany's membership in NATO. Biography source: [1]