Georg Gothein

Georg Gothein (15 August 1857 – 22 March 1940) was a left-liberal German politician of Jewish origin. He was a member of the liberal political parties, including Progressive People's Party and German Democratic Party and served as the minister of treasury between February 1919 and 1920.

Georg Gothein
Minister of Treasury
In office
February 1919 – 1920
Prime MinisterPhilipp Scheidemann
Personal details
Born
Otto Fürchtegott Georg Gothein

15 August 1857
Neumarkt in Schlesien, Kingdom of Prussia
Died22 March 1940(1940-03-22) (aged 82)
Berlin
Resting placeStahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery
Political party

Early life

Gothein was born in Neumarkt in Schlesien, Silesia, on 15 August 1857.[1] He hailed from a Jewish family.[2] He received a degree in engineering.[3]

Career

Gothein had various waterway related business activities in Silesia.[4] He was a liberal politician and first became a member of the Progressive People's Party.[5] In 1894 he was elected to the Prussian parliament.[1] Between 1901 and 1918 he was a member of the German Reichstag.[3] Gothein was among the founders of the German Committee for the Promotion of Jewish Settlement in Palestine which was established in April 1918.[5] He was also a member of its central board, and the committee was dissolved in 1919.[5]

Gothein was confounder of the German Democratic Party, a liberal political party.[3][6] In February 1919 he was appointed minister of treasury to the cabinet led by Philipp Scheidemann.[7] He served in the post until 1920.[6] He was one of the leaders of the Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftstagung (German: Central European Economic Union) which had been established in 1928 to promote the economic development in Central Europe.[4] He was active in the organization until 1931 when Tilo von Wilmowsky replaced him in the post.[4]

Later years, personal life and death

After retiring from politics he worked as a journalist.[8] He was a follower of the Protestant church.[5]

Gothein was married and had four daughters.[1] He died in Berlin on 22 March 1940 and was buried at the Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery.[1]

References
  1. Andrea Ditchen (2022). "Gothein, Otto Fürchtegott Georg". Deutsche Biographie (in German).
  2. Eric Kurlander (Fall 2002). "Nationalism, Ethnic Preoccupation, and the Decline of German Liberalism: A Silesian Case Study, 1898–1933". The Historian. 65 (1): 109. doi:10.1111/1540-6563.651018. JSTOR 24450935. S2CID 143653617.
  3. Steffen Kailitz; Sebastian Paul; Matthäus Wehowski (2020). "The Politics of Diversity in Disputed Border Regions during Times of Uncertainty: Upper Silesia, Teschen Silesia, and Orava (1918-19)". Studies on National Movements. 5 (29): 9.
  4. Jiří Janáč (2012). European Coasts of Bohemia. Negotiating the Danube-Oder-Elbe Canal in a Troubled Twentieth Century. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 39, 62. ISBN 978-90-4851-813-5. JSTOR j.ctt45kd2k.
  5. Lucia Juliette Linares (2020). German Politics and the 'Jewish Question', 1914-1919 (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. pp. 60–61, 164. doi:10.17863/CAM.50099.
  6. Andreas Kunz (1986). Civil Servants and the Politics of Inflation in Germany, 1914–1924. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter. pp. 170, 425. doi:10.1515/9783110852998. ISBN 978-3-11-085299-8.
  7. "The first cabinet meeting of the Scheidemann Cabinet on February 1919". topfoto.co.uk. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  8. "Georg Gothein. Aufstieg und Niedergang des deutschen Linksliberalismus" (in German). Droste Verlag. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
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