Erich Koch-Weser
Erich Friedrich Ludwig Koch -Weser ( born February 26, 1875 in Bremerhaven, † October 19, 1944 at the Fazenda Janeta in Rolândia, State of Paraná, Brazil ) was a German jurist and politician ( DDP). He was a minister in the Weimar Republic.
Life and career
Koch ( he put the origin aptly named part Weser itself until 1927 in order to distinguish themselves from other members of the Reichstag of the same name ) was the son of a head teacher Anton Koch ( 1836-1876 ), a Protestant school principal in Bremerhaven and the Minna Lowenstein ( 1841-1930 ), daughter of a Jewish merchant from Burhave.
He attended from 1884 to 1893 the Gymnasium in Oldenburg and studied after high school from 1893 to 1897 law and economics at the University of Lausanne, the University of Bonn, the University of Munich and the Friedrich -Wilhelms -University of Berlin and received a doctorate in law. . Between 1897 and 1898 he was a soldier and from 1898 to 1902 clerk and assessor in Oldenburg.
After leaving politics, he worked from 1930 - the end in common law firm with his son Reimer - as a lawyer in Berlin. Because of his parentage, his mother was Jewish, the evangelical Christian Koch-Weser was by the Nazis in April 1933 - despite the intercession of President Hindenburg - occupied by a representation ban for his law practice. His book And yet up. A German war aftermath, in which he took a critical look at the influence of the parties during the Weimar Republic, was also burned in the infamous book burnings in May 1933.
He and his wife Irma and four sons, he embarked in late 1933 in his home city of Bremerhaven on the Lloyd steamer Madrid to South America and immigrated to Brazil. Here he bought a 100 -acre coffee plantation - the Fazenda Janeta - in the province Nordparaná in the state of Paraná near founded by his friend, the tropical farmers Oswald Nixdorf city Rolândia - named after the landmark Bremen Roland - a well-known colony of German settlers. In this forest plantation lived 400 German families. He also advised the Brazilian government.
Caio Koch-Weser is his grandson.
Party
Koch-Weser participated in 1918 in the founding of DDP and was from 1924 to 1930 chairman of the party of the DDP in the kingdom.
In July 1930, Koch-Weser - without the knowledge of DDP Reichstag - merger negotiations with the Young German Order of Artur Mahraun that led to the founding of the German State Party. Given the lack of intra-party support for his actions occurred Koch-Weser in October 1930 back from the party chairmanship and from all other political offices. He belonged to the Reich banner black-red- gold.
Member of Parliament
From 1901 to 1909 Koch was a member of the Oldenburg State Parliament. From 1909 to 1913 he was a member of the Bremen City Parliament. From 1913 to 1918 he was a member of the Prussian House of Lords.
From 1919, he was sitting - with the additional location " Cassel " in the name - for the DDP in the Weimar National Assembly and was there to that committee to which had the preliminary discussion of the draft constitution to the task.
In 1920 he was elected in the constituency Weser- Ems in the Reichstag. He belonged to him until October 1930, from 1924 to 1928 as chairman of the DDP Group.
Public offices
Koch-Weser was 1901-1909 Mayor of Delmenhorst, from April 2, 1909 City Manager in Bremerhaven and 1913-1919 Mayor of Kassel.
Koch-Weser held office from 3 October 1919 to 4 May 1921 as Minister of the Interior in the cabinet Bauer, Müller I and the Cabinet in the Cabinet Fehrenbach. From June 1928 to April 13, 1929 he was Minister of Justice in the Cabinet Müller II In the subsequent Government he lost his ministerial office at Theodor von Guérard from the center, since the DDP could reach only 4.9% of the vote in the general election in 1928.
Works
- Russia Today - diary of a politician; 1928 Reprint from Aschenbeck & Holstein Verlag, Berlin 2003 & Delmenhorst
- And yet up - A German post-war balance sheet; Ullsteinhaus, Berlin 1933
- Hitler and beyond. A German testament, New York ( A. Knopf ) 1945.