17 Facts About Eugen Schiffer

Eugen Schiffer was a German lawyer and liberal politician.

Eugen Schiffer served as Minister of Finance and deputy head of government in the Weimar Republic from February to April 1919.

Eugen Schiffer was born in Breslau in the Prussian Province of Silesia on 14 February 1860 as the son of Bernhard Schiffer and his wife Mathilde.

Eugen Schiffer graduated from the Elisabeth-Gymnasium in Breslau with the Abitur and went on to study law at Breslau, Leipzig and Tubingen.

Eugen Schiffer entered the Prussian judicial service in 1880 and after positions in Zabrze and Magdeburg became Kammergerichtsrat in Berlin in 1906.

Eugen Schiffer was in favor of strengthening the power of the parliament but as a monarchist opposed the revolution.

From 1918 to 1919, Eugen Schiffer was a founder-member of the German Democratic Party and was a member and leader of the DDP parliamentary group in both the Weimar National Assembly and the Reichstag.

Eugen Schiffer remained a delegate to the Landtag of Prussia until 1924.

From February 1919 until his resignation in April 1919, Eugen Schiffer was deputy to Ministerprasident Philipp Scheidemann and Minister of Finance in the first democratically elected German government.

Eugen Schiffer asked Scheidemann for his dismissal from the cabinet on 28 March 1919, giving "personal reasons".

Eugen Schiffer named disagreement about the creation and filling of several public sector positions as an issue.

Eugen Schiffer opposed plans to socialize industries and worked towards a fundamental reform of the civil service.

However, in March 1920, during the Kapp-Luttwitz-Putsch Eugen Schiffer did not flee the capital with the majority of the cabinet.

Since he negotiated with the putschists without a formal mandate from the government, made promises in the name of president Friedrich Ebert and offered those responsible for the putsch amnesty, Eugen Schiffer was forced to resign by the SPD after the end of the putsch.

From May to October 1921, Eugen Schiffer was Minister of Justice in the first cabinet of Joseph Wirth.

In 1924, Eugen Schiffer supported the acceptance of the Dawes Plan.

For three years after August 1945, Eugen Schiffer headed the central administration of Justice under the Soviet military government.