Robert Schmidt (politician)

Robert Schmidt ( born May 15, 1864 in Berlin, † September 16, 1943 in Berlin- Tempelhof ) was a German politician ( SPD).

After attending elementary school in Berlin Schmidt learned from 1878 to 1883 the profession of piano maker. In 1890 he was elected chairman of the piano maker union. Since 1893 he worked as a laborer and secretary also Chairman of the Committee of Woodworkers Associations. In addition, he was from 1893 to 1903 editor of the Socialist newspaper forward. In 1903 he was elected to the General Commission of Trade Unions of Germany.

Schmidt was a member of the SPD. He was since 1890 a delegate to the Nazi Party and represented the party at the First International Congress 1891 in Brussels. In 1925 he was co-opted member of the program committee for the Heidelberg Programme of the SPD.

Schmidt sat from 1893 to 1898 and again from 1903 to 1918 in the Reichstag of the Empire and took there the constituency Berlin V. After the November Revolution, he became a member of the Weimar National Assembly and remained until 1930, member of the Reichstag.

In the Weimar Republic Schmidt Food Minister in the Cabinet Scheidemann (1919), Economy Minister since the Cabinet Bauer ( 1919) and Vice Chancellor and Minister for Reconstruction in the Cabinet Stresemann was I ( 1923).