Hugo Preuß

Hugo Preuß
Reich Minister of the Interior Weimar Republic
In office 13 February 1919 – 20 June 1919
Chancellor	Philipp Scheidemann
Preceded by	Friedrich Ebert (Council of the People's Deputies)
Succeeded by	Eduard David
Personal details
Born	(1860-10-28)28 October 1860 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	9 October 1925(1925-10-09) (aged 64) Berlin, Weimar Republic
Nationality	German
Political party	German Democratic Party
Alma mater	University of Berlin, University of Heidelberg

Hugo Preuß (28 October 1860 – 9 October 1925) was a German lawyer and liberal politician.

Preuß is often regarded as the father of the German constitution of the Weimar Republic (1919). However, his idea was more of a skeletal structure and not a word for word democratic plan. In many cases, his idea for the Weimar Constitution was skewed by articles used by President Paul von Hindenburg, such as Article 48. During the early months of the formation of the German republic, Preuss opposed vehemently the Triple Entente prohibition of the incorporation of German Austria into Germany as a contradiction of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination of peoples.

Preuß was the state secretary of home affairs during the revolutionary cabinet of 1918 and 1919. His ideas about the constitution were influenced by the French social scientist Robert Redslob. In 1919 he became Minister of the Interior.

Due to Preuß's Jewish heritage, the Nazi Party used this as a major attack on the Weimar Republic to say that it was authored by a Jew, and inherently "un-German". He is mentioned by name in the 1940 Nazi propaganda film Der Ewige Jude produced by Fritz Hippler.

Preuß was born in Berlin, where he also died. He was a member of the German Democratic Party and the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold.

Bibliography

• Franz Lieber, ein Bürger zweier Welten. Habel, Berlin 1886 (Digital version)
• Gemeinde, Staat, Reich, 1889
• Stadt und Staat, 1909
• Zur preussischen Verwaltungsreform, 1910
• Deutschlands republikanische Reichsverfassung, 1921
• Um die Weimarer Reichsverfassung, 1924
• Staat, Recht und Freiheit. Aus vierzig Jahren deutscher Politik und Geschichte, 1926 (Collected works, collected by Theodor Heuss)

See also

• Carlo Schmid (German politician)