Otto Geßler (6.2.1875 Ludwigsburg – 24.3.1955 Lindenberg/Allgäu)

Otto Geßler, who had lived in Bavarian Swabia since the age of 12, decided to pursue a career in public administration after completing his law studies in Erlangen, Tübingen and Leipzig. In 1910, he successfully ran for Mayor in Regensburg and in 1913 moved to the even more prestigious post of Lord Mayor of Nuremberg. In 1918, the national liberal local politician joined the DDP (German Democratic Party), and they appointed him to the cabinet as Minister for Reconstruction in 1919.

From March 1920 onwards, Geßler cultivated a lasting influence on the development of the Weimar Republic in the post of Reich Defense Minister. As an exponent of the ideal of a 'Reichswehr' as far removed from political life as possible, he encouraged the formation of an army as a ‘state within the state’. The relationship between the military command under General von Seeckt and himself as its civilian superior nevertheless remained rather distant. Regardless, Geßler, who in the national crisis of 1923 held executive power for a short time, was a member of the cabinet for an exceptionally long time by Weimar standards and even remained in office after breaking with his party in 1927. The Reich Minister was brought down only a year later by what was known as the Lohmann Affair or Phoebus Affair, a financial scandal that involved a secret rearmament program. After his resignation, Geßler took over the leadership of the German War Graves Commission and the Association for Germanness Abroad.

Although initially not fundamentally opposed to the Nazi regime, he made contact with the civilian resistance at the end of the 1930s, especially the “Sperr-Kreis” and the Beck-Goerdeler-von Hassell group. This was probably why the latter earmarked him as a political commissioner in Military District VII (South Bavaria) during the coup on 20 July 1944. The former politician was then arrested and interned until March 1945 in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp.

After the end of the war, Geßler did not return to active political life, but, as President of the Bavarian and German Red Cross organizations, contributed to the reconstruction of civil society structures. His posthumously published memoirs are an important source on the history of the Weimar Republic.