Walther Rathenau information

Walther Rathenau


Foreign Minister of Germany
In office 1 February – 24 June 1922
President	Friedrich Ebert
Chancellor	Joseph Wirth
Preceded by	Joseph Wirth (acting)
Succeeded by	Joseph Wirth (acting)

Personal details
Born	(1867-09-29)29 September 1867 Berlin, North German Confederation
Died	24 June 1922(1922-06-24) (aged 54) Berlin, Weimar Republic
Political party	German Democratic Party
Relations	Emil Rathenau (father)
Profession	Industrialist, politician, writer

Liberalism
Part of a series on

Schools Classical Conservative Cultural Democratic Feminist Equity Green Internationalist Muscular National Neo Ordo Radical Religious Christian Catholic Islamic Jewish Secular Social Techno Third Way
Principles Consent of the governed Due process Democracy Economic liberalism Economic globalization Equality Gender Legal Federalism Freedom Economic Market Trade Press Religion Speech Harm principle Internationalism Invisible hand Labor theory of property Laissez-faire Liberty Negative Positive Limited government Market economy Natural monopoly Open society Permissive society Popular sovereignty Property Private Public Rights Civil and political Natural and legal To own property To bear arms Rule of law Secularism Secular humanism Separation of church and state Separation of powers Social contract Social justice Social services Welfare state State of nature
History Age of Enlightenment List of liberal theorists (contributions to liberal theory)
Philosophers Milton Locke Spinoza Montesquieu Voltaire Rousseau Smith Kant Turgot Burke Priestley Paine Beccaria Condorcet Bentham Korais De Gouges Wollstonecraft Staël Say Humboldt Constant Ricardo Guizot List Bastiat Martineau Emerson Tocqueville Mill Spencer Arnold Acton Weber Hobhouse Croce Cassirer Mises Ortega Keynes Collingwood Čapek Hu Hayek Popper Aron Berlin Friedman Rawls Sen Nozick Kymlicka Badawi
Politicians Jefferson Kołłątaj Madison Artigas Bolívar Broglie Lamartine Macaulay Kossuth Deák Cobden Mazzini Juárez Lincoln Gladstone Cavour Sarmiento Mommsen Naoroji Itagaki Levski Kemal Deakin Milyukov Lloyd George Venizelos Ståhlberg Gokhale Rathenau Madero Einaudi King Roosevelt Pearson Ohlin Kennedy Jenkins
Organizations Africa Liberal Network Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party Arab Liberal Federation Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats European Democratic Party European Liberal Youth International Alliance of Libertarian Parties International Federation of Liberal Youth Liberal International Liberal Network for Latin America Liberal parties Liberal South East European Network
Regional variants Europe Latin America Albania Armenia Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile China Hong Kong Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia Denmark Ecuador Egypt Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Venizelism Honduras Hungary Iceland India Iran Israel Italy Liberism Japan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Mexico Moldova Montenegro Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Cracovian Portugal Romania Russia Senegal Serbia Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Tunisia Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Cobdenism Gladstonian Manchester Whiggism United States Arizona School Classical Jeffersonian Modern Uruguay Venezuela Zimbabwe
Related topics Anti-authoritarianism Anti-communism Bias in American academia Bias in the media Capitalism Democratic Centrism Radical centrism Economic freedom Egalitarianism Empiricism Humanism Individualism Anarchist Land value tax Libertarianism Left Right Pirate Party Sexually liberal feminism Utilitarianism
Liberalism portal Politics portal
v t e

Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and politician who served as foreign minister of Germany from February to June 1922.

Rathenau was the son of Emil Rathenau, a prominent Jewish businessman and founder of the electrical engineering company Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG). After obtaining a doctorate in physics from the University of Berlin, he held a number of industry positions before joining the AEG board, establishing himself as a leading industrialist in the late German Empire. In 1915, he became the chairman of AEG upon his father's death. During the First World War, he was heavily involved in the organisation of the German war economy and headed the War Raw Materials Department.

After the war, Rathenau helped found the German Democratic Party and was a influential figure in the postwar Weimar Republic. In 1921, he was appointed minister of reconstruction by Chancellor Joseph Wirth, and a year later he became foreign minister. Rathenau negotiated the 1922 Treaty of Rapallo, which normalised relations and strengthened economic ties between Germany and Soviet Russia. The agreement, along with Rathenau's insistence that Germany fulfill its obligations under the Treaty of Versailles, led right-wing nationalist groups (including a nascent Nazi Party) to brand him part of a Jewish-Communist conspiracy.

Two months after the signing of the treaty, Rathenau was assassinated by the ultra-nationalist paramilitary group Organisation Consul in Berlin. His death was followed by national mourning as well as widespread demonstrations against counter-revolutionary terrorism, which briefly strengthened the Weimar Republic. Rathenau came to be viewed as a democratic martyr during the Weimar era. Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, all commemorations of Rathenau were systematically banned.

Walther Rathenau information

and 25 Related for: Walther Rathenau information

Walther Rathenau

Walther Rathenau Institut

Ernst Werner Techow

Emil Rathenau

Rathenau

On the German Republic

Committee of 300

Queen Rania of Jordan

Organisation Consul

The Magic Mountain

Joseph Wirth

Weimar Republic

Timeline of the Weimar Republic

Walther

Hermann Willibald Fischer

Michael Gotthelf

German Democratic Party

Kriegsrohstoffabteilung

Dawes Plan

Edvard Munch

Huis Doorn

History of the Jews in Germany

Second Wirth cabinet

List of liberal theorists

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg