Otto Wels

Otto Wels
Wels in 1924
Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
In office 14 June 1919 – 16 September 1939
Preceded by	Friedrich Ebert Philipp Scheidemann
Succeeded by	Hans Vogel
Executive representative of the Labour and Socialist International
In office 1923–1938
Member of the Reichstag
In office 6 February 1919 – 22 June 1933
1919–1920	Weimar National Assembly
Constituency	Frankfurt (Oder)
In office 7 February 1912 – 9 November 1918
Constituency	Frankfurt (Oder)
Personal details
Born	15 September 1873 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	16 September 1939(1939-09-16) (aged 66) Paris, French Third Republic
Resting place	Cimetière Nouveau de Châtenay-Malabry, France
Political party	Social Democratic Party of Germany
Occupation	Politician

Otto Wels (15 September 1873 – 16 September 1939) was a German politician who served as a member of the Reichstag from 1912 to 1933 and as the chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 1919 until his death in 1939. He was military commander of Berlin in the turbulent early days of the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and during the 1920 Kapp Putsch he was instrumental in organizing the general strike that helped defeat the anti-republican putschists. Near the end of the Weimar Republic's life, however, he saw the futility of calling a general strike against the 1932 Prussian coup d'état because of the mass unemployment of the Great Depression.

His 1933 speech in the Reichstag in opposition to Adolf Hitler and the Enabling Act marked the end of the Weimar Republic prior to the Act becoming law. After Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Wels fled the country and established the SPD exile organization Sopade. He died in Paris in 1939, two weeks after the start of World War II.