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Otto Braun * 28 Otto Braun * 28. 1. 1872 † 15. 12. 1955 Otto Braun Born on 28 January 1872 in Königsberg (today Kalin- ingrad) as the son of a railway employee and raised A Prussian Democrat in conditions of depressing poverty, Otto Braun graduated from elementary school to enter an ap- prenticeship as a lithographer. In 1888, he joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD) which was illegal at the time. Braun took a stand in particular on behalf of the rights of agricultural workers in Eastern Prussia then much characterized by large property-holdings. Out of the chairmanship of the SPD District of East Prussia, Braun rose in the central party leader- ship until 1911. In 1913, he became a member of the Prussian House of Representatives. In World War I, Braun supported the national unity policy (Burg- friedenspolitik) of the majority of the SPD. After the early death of his daughter, the war took from him Landtag Brandenburg his only remaining child when his son died of diph- Alter Markt 1, 14467 Potsdam theria as a war voluntary in 1915. Telephone 0331 966-0 During the revolution of 1918 / 19, Braun became Fax 0331 966-1210 Prussian Minister of Agriculture. After the failed [email protected] Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch against the Republic, Braun www.landtag.brandenburg.de assumed on 27 March 1920 the office of Prussian Minister President which he held with two short in- terruptions until the end of the Republic. In 1925, he became the SPD candidate to succeed Friedrich Ebert as Reich President, however, he was unable to hold his ground against General Fieldmarshal von Hindenburg on account of squabbling by the demo- cratic parties among other reasons. The coalition which Braun led as Minister President consisted next to the SPD of the Christian conserva- tive centre and the left-liberal DDP and also includ- Photography credits: ed until 1924 the national-liberal DVP. During Braun’s Front, Landtag Brandenburg/Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert; Otto Braun, bpk (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz); Bust, Landtag Brandenburg; time in office, Prussia developed into modern, free Street sign, Landtag Brandenburg; Map, City of Potsdam. state which through its democratization of the civil Text credits: service and in particular of the police became one of Archiv der sozialen Demokratie; Dr. Kristina Hübener, Brandenburgische the main stays of Germany‘s first democracy. Historische Kommission e. V.; City of Potsdam; Landtag Brandenburg. Bulwark of Democracy The Bust Otto Braun Square “For the square newly created In Otto Braun, the Landtag, the Land government On 30 September 2014, the On 19 December 2012, the Municipal Assembly of by the new construction of the and the Land capital honour a fair-mind democrat. completed bust of Otto Braun Potsdam resolved to name the open space in urban Under his responsibility, the new Prussian govern- was exhibited to the public to- development area SAN P13 between the Landtag, State Parliament can be no better ment introduced a systematic democratization on all gether with an accompany- Lange Brücke and Alte Fahrt created by the Landtag levels of state administration during the years of the ing publication on the life construction “Otto Braun Square”. name than that of the great de- Weimar Republic. In fact, Prussia developed into a of Otto Braun. The “bulwark of democracy”. cast was financed mocrat of Otto Braun. His work Already on 19 March 2013, Landtag President by means of the Günther Fritsch, Minister President Matthias Platzek, F. C. Flick Foundation, represents an essential part of the When after the Landtag elections in 1932, Otto Lord Mayor Jann Jakobs and the Chairman Erdgas Mark Branden- Braun stayed initially in the office as acting Minis- of the Municipal Assembly Peter Schüler burg GmbH, Brandenburg tradition of our democracy which ter President, Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen unveiled a street sign with the name Otto Lotto GmbH and the Land governing by decree used the opportunity to topple Braun Square as well as government. The bust is in once again must withstand extre- the Prussian government on 20 July 1932 in a coup a bronze- fact a replica. It was made in d’etat withdrawing its powers and to put the state the plaster forming shop of the mism from the right today.” under federal control. Braun feared a violent con- State Museums of Berlin. The frontation with unknown results. Instead, he attempt- Former Landtag President Gunter Fritsch original now stands in the Otto Braun Hall of the Ber- ed to oppose the illegal measures of the Reich gov- lin State Library Building. ernment with legal steps of his own. However, the coloured For the public embankment promenade Alte Fahrt as measures undertaken before the Reich constitution- memorial plate with information on the life well as for Otto Braun Square, the Potsdam rehabili- al court were not graced with speedy success. The original bust was created in 1931 by sculptor Her- and work of the last freely elected Prussian tation provider launched a design tender on instruc- mann Brachert, born in Stuttgart in 1890. Brachert Minister President on the banks of the Havel tions of the state capital. The contest results will be produced many portrait busts, among them of Hein- River between Lange Brücke and the newly After the Hitler / Papen Reich government was reviewed starting early 2015, the first building sec- rich Hertz, Reich Presidents Friedrich Ebert and Paul built Landtag. formed on 30 January 1933, the official persecution tion is to be completed by early 2016. von Hindenburg as well as of WW I flying aces Böl- of democratic parties and associations commenced, ke and von Richthofen. After the National Social- Otto Braun, mentally drained and physically ex- By naming the future city square at the Havel bank, ist assumption of power in 1933, several busts were hausted, resigned. Following a warning of his immi- erecting a bust and a memorial plate in the heart of withdrawn from public display and stored either for nent arrest, Braun on 4 April 1933 followed his great- the Land capital and with the accompanying publica- artistic reasons – some works of Brachert were con- ly ill wife to Ascona in Switzerland. The couple now tion which sensitively introduces Otto Braun and his sidered “degenerate” (“entartet”) – or for race-related lived in personal safety but in great material distress. political merits as a person, the Landtag, the Land reasons. Political inclinations came into play as well, With the war and subsequent acts of National So- as well as the city of Potsdam jointly commemorate such as in the case of the busts of Friedrich Ebert cialist Germany, the dismemberment of Prussia and Braun as the outstanding democrat he was. Thus, in and Otto Braun, the main representatives of the hated the founding of two new German states, Otto Braun this public space, a separate positive line of tradition “Weimar system period”. was passed over by time. His name was too close- reaching from the Prussian Free State to the first Ger- ly connected with the defeat of the first German de- man democracy up to today’s democratically organ- mocracy, although he was one of the most decisive Until its erection on Otto Braun Square still to be de- ized Brandenburg has been laid. defenders of the Republic. signed, the bust has found a worthy place of rest in the foyer of the Landtag. Under the patronage of then Landtag President Günther Fritsch, an initiative to recall Otto Braun was brought to life in 2012..
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