Constantin Fehrenbach

Constantin Fehrenbach (January 11, 1852, Bonndorf, Baden – March 26, 1926, Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German Catholic politician who was one of the major leaders of the Centre Party. He served as President of the Reichstag in 1918, and then as President of the Weimar National Assembly from 1919 to 1920. Upon the resignation of the Social Democrats from the government in June 1920 as a result of their poor showing in the elections of that year, Fehrenbach became Chancellor of Germany, forming a coalition with the left-wing liberal DDP and the national-liberal DVP. His government lasted 323 days, the government resigning in April 1921 in protest against the allied reparations assessment which was announced that month. Fehrenbach headed the Center Party's Reichstag fraction from 1923 until his death in 1926. His critique of the military as a state within the state is well known in modern political Germany.