|
Otto Wels is a German politician and co-chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD.
Biography[]
Wels attended elementary school in Berlin from 1879 to 1887, then learned the trade of upholstering and, after passing his journeyman’s examination in 1891, went on a journey through northern and southern Germany, which brought him back to Berlin in 1893. Already in his father’s tavern, a meeting place for Social Democrats persecuted under the Anti-Socialist Laws, Wels became involved in the labour movement. He intensified his engagement in the party (joining in 1891) and trade union after completing his military service (1895–97), working as a local functionary on a voluntary basis in Berlin’s 5th Reichstag constituency and in his union. In 1906, he became one of the two chairmen of the Upholsterers’ Association and, in 1907, party secretary for the province of Brandenburg.
Wels initially positioned himself on the far-left of the party, but after disputes with radical spokesmen over alleged deficiencies in the party leadership during the Agadir Crisis, he moved significantly toward the center at the Jena party conference in 1911. His close election as an assessor to the party executive in 1913 was also a directional decision against his left-wing opponent. Since 1912, Wels held a mandate in the Reichstag, where he remained largely unnoticed until 1918, delivering only three speeches during this time. Wels did not build his career through parliament but rather through the party apparatus.
During the Weltkrieg, Wels was a staunch advocate of the Burgfrieden policy and one of the fiercest critics of the party minority. In the autumn of 1918, he argued in the Reichstag faction - unsuccessfully - against the SPD’s entry into the government of Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau.
WIP