Joseph Wirth

Doctor Karl Joseph Wirth (September 6, 1879 – January 3, 1956) was a German politician of the Center Party, who served as chancellor of Germany from May 10, 1921 to October 22, 1921 and again from October 26, 1921 to November 14, 1922. Together with his Foreign Minister, Walther Rathenau, Wirth attempted to pursue a policy of compliance regarding reparations of war, to demonstrate that Germany was incapable of payment.

After the Nazis came to power, Wirth went into exile, traveling to numerous countries in Europe and the US and warning about the dangers of Nazism.

Later, after the end of the Second World War, he was one of the founders of the Bund der Deutschen movement, opposed to the Western integration policies of Konrad Adenauer, and which was supported by the Socialist Unified Party of Germany (SED) of the German Democratic Republic. He sought agreements with the Soviet Union according to the Treaty of Rapallo, which earned him being considered by the CIA as a Soviet spy. He won the Stalin Peace Prize in 1955 and died the following year at the age of 76, due to heart problems.

Biography

From 1899 to 1906 Joseph Wirth studied Mathematics, Sciences and Economics. He earned a doctorate in Mathematics. He then worked as a teacher at a secondary school (from 1906 to 1913). In 1909 he was one of the founders of a charitable society that supported poor people.

In 1911 he began his career as a politician when he became a member of the assembly of councilors of the city of Freiberg. From 1913 to 1921 he was a member of the Baden parliament for the Center Party. From 1914 to 1933 he was a member of the Reichstag, the German parliament at the time. When World War I broke out, Wirth wanted to take part in the war as a volunteer, but was classified as unfit for service. He then became a member of the Red Cross and from 1914 to 1917 he was a nurse on the Western Front and on the Eastern Front.

From 1918 to 1920 he was Minister of Finance of Baden. He was a member of the German parliament (then under the name Nationalversammlung), when it agreed to the constitution of the Weimar Republic. From 7 From March 1920 to October 22, 1921 he was Minister of Finance of the Weimar Republic. He was Chancellor of Germany from May 10, 1921 to November 14, 1922. On April 16, 1922, Wirth and his Foreign Minister, Walther Rathenau, signed the Treaty of Rapallo. Wirth resigned on November 14, 1922. From March 30, 1930 to October 7, 1931, he was Minister of the Interior.

After the National Socialists took power, Wirth found himself exposed to smear campaigns and on March 24, 1933, one day after the enabling law was passed, of which he was a declared enemy, he emigrated to Vienna to avoid being arrested. From 1933 he traveled through numerous European States and the United States to warn of the danger posed by the National Socialists. From 1933 to 1948 he lived in exile in Switzerland. In 1939 or 1940 he established a dialogue between the Prime Minister of Great Britain and the German opposition over a peace agreement, but because of Germany's military campaign in France and the resignation of the British Prime Minister, the dialogue failed.

After World War II Wirth founded a humanitarian organization that organized the shipment of aid materials from Switzerland to Germany.

In 1948 he returned from exile and founded a social-Christian party for workers called Union der Mitte (Union of the Center). From 1952 he took part in numerous peace conferences throughout Europe., and that same year he participated in the founding of the group Bund der Deutschen (BdD). In 1953 he was one of the founders of an organization against Germany's integration into Western bloc alliances. In 1955 he spoke out resolutely against the establishment of the Bundeswehr (the German army) and West Germany's entry into NATO.

He died on January 3, 1956 at the age of 76.