Georg Michaelis

Georg Michaelis (Haynau, today Chojnów, Silesia, September 8, 1857 - Bad Saarow, Brandenburg, July 24, 1936), was a German jurist and politician. He held the position of Chancellor of Germany from July 14, 1917 to October 31 of that same year.

Biography

Michaelis was born in the town of Haynau (today Chojnów, Poland), in Prussian Silesia, into a family of the wealthy Prussian bourgeoisie.^{[citation needed]} He grew up with six brothers in Frankfurt (Oder) and then studied jurisprudence at the universities of Breslau, Leipzig, and Würzburg, between 1876 and 1884, graduating with a doctor of jurisprudence. From 1885 to 1889 he served as a professor of law in Japan, within of the German Studies Society (Verein für deutsche Wissenschaften) created in that country. He returned to Germany in 1889 and entered the public administration of the Kingdom of Prussia, reaching the position of Undersecretary of the Prussian Treasury in 1909.

At the outbreak of World War I, Michaelis worked as head of an organization responsible for purchasing, storing, milling and selling grain. In 1915 this organization was merged into the Reichsgetreidestelle (Reich Grain Department). On March 4, 1915 he became head of the Reichsgetreidestelle. He was the person in charge of the organization of the state food supply in Germany during the First World War. The Reichsgetreidestelle was in charge of managing the wheat and corn supplies of the German Empire to ensure the feeding of the troops and the civil population. When in July 1917 the Reichstag and military leaders forced the dismissal of Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg as chancellor of the Empire, Michaelis was serving as minister-president of Prussia.

Faced with the urgency of the chief generals of the Reichsheer to obtain a chancellor who would avoid disorder in the civil rear, Kaiser William II supported the election of Michaelis as the new chancellor of the Empire, perceiving that the Reichstag was dominated by center-left politicians who resented the influence of military leaders (such as Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff) on political decisions.

Although the center-left deputies of the Reichstag agreed to elect Michaelis, they soon noticed that he refused to bow to their opinions. More of an official than a statesman, Michaelis acted as chancellor trying to avoid discontent among the civilian population, without being able to restore the power of the politicians in the face of the growing influence of the military leaders who also had the support of the conservatives and the Kaiser himself. .

In constant conflict with the Reichstag, and accepting the preeminence of military leaders over civilian politicians, Michaelis was dismissed by parliamentarians on October 31, 1917, and was replaced by the centrist aristocrat Georg von Hertling.

At the end of the war in 1918, Michaelis wrote his memoirs titled Für Staat und Volk. Eine Lebensgeschichteand joined various political groups of a monarchical and conservative nature, although respecting the Weimar Constitution. Turning away from politics, he died in 1936.