Joseph Wirth

Joseph Wirth
Chancellor of Germany (Weimar Republic)
In office 10 May 1921 – 22 November 1922
President	Friedrich Ebert
Deputy	Gustav Bauer
Preceded by	Constantin Fehrenbach
Succeeded by	Wilhelm Cuno
Foreign Minister
Acting 26 October 1921 – 31 January 1922
Chancellor	Joseph Wirth
Preceded by	Friedrich Rosen
Succeeded by	Walther Rathenau
Acting 24 June 1922 – 22 November 1922
President	Friedrich Ebert
Chancellor	Joseph Wirth
Preceded by	Walther Rathenau
Succeeded by	Hans von Rosenberg
Minister of Finance
In office 27 March 1920 – 22 October 1921
Chancellor	Hermann Müller Constantin Fehrenbach Joseph Wirth
Preceded by	Matthias Erzberger
Succeeded by	Andreas Hermes
Minister of the Interior
In office 30 March 1930 – 7 October 1931
Chancellor	Heinrich Brüning
Preceded by	Carl Severing
Succeeded by	Wilhelm Groener
Minister for the Occupied Territories
In office 13 April 1929 – 27 March 1930
Chancellor	Hermann Müller
Preceded by	Carl Severing
Succeeded by	Gottfried Treviranus
Member of the Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
In office 1920–1933
Constituency	National list (1932-1933) Liegnitz (1930-1932) National list (1928-1930) Baden (1920-1928)
(German Empire)
In office 1914–1918
Constituency	Baden 7
Member of the Weimar National Assembly
In office 6 February 1919 – 21 May 1920
Constituency	Baden
Personal details
Born	Karl Joseph Wirth (1879-09-06)6 September 1879 Freiburg im Breisgau, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire
Died	3 January 1956(1956-01-03) (aged 76) Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
Political party	Zentrum Christian Democratic Union of Germany Alliance of Germans

Karl Joseph Wirth (German pronunciation: [kaɐ̯l jo:zɛf vɪɐ̯t]; 6 September 1879 – 3 January 1956) was a German politician of the Catholic Centre Party who was chancellor of Germany from May 1921 to November 1922, during the early years of the Weimar Republic. He was also minister of four government departments between 1920 and 1931 (Foreign Affairs, Finance, Interior, and Occupied Territories). Wirth was strongly influenced by Christian social teaching throughout his political career.

He was named chancellor in May 1921 when Germany was facing difficult negotiations with the Allies of World War I over German war reparations. Wirth accepted the Allies' conditions and began a policy of fulfilment – an attempt to show that Germany was unable to afford the reparations payments by making the effort to meet them. He resigned after less than six months in protest against the partition of Upper Silesia by the League of Nations and formed a second, minority cabinet a few days later. Following the assassination of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau by members of a right-wing terrorist group in April 1922, his government attempted to confront political violence with the Law for the Protection of the Republic. Wirth's second government resigned after just over a year when it was unable to expand its political base.

After his two terms as chancellor, Wirth continued to fight right-wing political forces as a Reichstag member and government minister. During the Nazi era he went into exile and worked with several anti-Nazi groups. Following the end of World War II, he opposed Konrad Adenauer's policy of integration with the West. Although he lived in West Germany, he had contacts with the Soviet Union and East Germany, the latter of which awarded him two prestigious honours. He died in his hometown of Freiburg in 1956.