AOL Web Search

Matthias Erzberger, (born Sept. 20, 1875, Buttenhausen, Württemberg, Ger.—died Aug. 26, 1921, Black Forest, Baden), leader of the left wing of the Roman Catholic Centre Party in Germany and signatory of the Armistice of World War I.

Who was Matthias Erzberger? From very humble beginnings Matthias Erzberger went on to become one of the Weimar Republic’s most influential politicians. Born in 1875, he was a self-made man, hard-working, ambitious, and with encyclopaedic knowledge, who became the youngest member of Reichstag at 28 for the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrumspartei).

As a Member of Parliament 1917, Erzberger, the former annexationist, played an important role in drafting the Reichstag’s Peace Resolution and the setting up of the ''Interfraktioneller Ausschuss'' (Interparty Committee). As secretary of state of the first German parliamentary government, Erzberger signed the armistice of Compiègne.

The proto-Nazis demonized Matthias Erzberger personally as a traitor for signing the armistice. Matthias Erzberger was assassinated on August 26, 1921, by a German ultra-nationalist death squad. Nationalist propagandists only cast more attacks on Matthias Erzberger's character in the years after his murder. Extremists smeared his name with a false narrative that Erzberger had stabbed Germany's soldiers in the back when in fact, military leaders explicitly authorized his actions.

Matthias Erzberger (1875-1921) was a German politician from the Centre Party, a signer of the 1918 armistice and the Weimar finance minister in 1919-20. He was assassinated in August 1921. Erzberger was born in Württemberg, southern Germany, the son of a Catholic artisan.

Before the outbreak of war in 1914, Erzberger held leading positions in colonial and financial policy and supported the military build-up of the German army and navy in 1912 and 1913.

8/26/2021, 10:43:36 AM. The ultra-right hated Matthias Erzberger since he signed the armistice treaty of 1918 - and as a minister of the Weimar Republic. 100 years ago terrorists shot the middle man. It was a cloudy and rainy summer's day when the former German Finance Minister Matthias Erzberger of the Catholic Center Party met with a party friend, Reichstag member Karl Diez, while on vacation in the Black Forest.

Matthias Erzberger. Erzberger 1919 als Abgeordneter der Weimarer Nationalversammlung. Matthias Erzberger (* 20. September 1875 in Buttenhausen, Königreich Württemberg; † 26. August 1921 bei Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald, Republik Baden) war ein deutscher Publizist und Politiker ( Zentrum) im Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik .