10 Facts About Otto Suhr

Otto Ernst Heinrich Hermann Suhr was a German politician as a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

Otto Suhr received his doctorate in 1923 and from 1925 taught economics at the University of Jena.

From 1935 on, Otto Suhr worked as a journalist at the Frankfurter Zeitung and other newspapers.

Otto Suhr remained in contact with Social Democratic members of the German resistance like Adolf Grimme and had to face several interrogations by the Gestapo.

From 1946 Otto Suhr was president of the Berlin Stadtverordnetenversammlung city assembly, and from 1951 until 1954 of its successor, the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin.

Otto Suhr had to cope with the forceful SED merger of Social Democrats and Communists in the Soviet occupation zone and East Berlin, the Berlin Blockade and the final division of the city, when the assembly was compelled to move into the Rathaus Schoneberg in the American sector.

Otto Suhr lectured as an honorary professor at the Free University of Berlin and re-established the private Deutsche Hochschule fur Politik academy, the biggest and one of the most important institute for political science in Germany, which he led from 1948 to 1955.

Otto Suhr nevertheless decided to form a coalition with the CDU and was elected Regierender Burgermeister on 11 January 1955.

Otto Suhr's incumbency was driven by the efforts to rebuild the city, marked by the 1957 Interbau exhibition.

On 19 July 1957 Otto Suhr asserted his regular appointment as President of the Bundesrat despite Allied reservations, however he did not step into office as he died from leukemia six weeks later and was succeeded by Willy Brandt.