Otto Karl Gessler (or Geßler; 6 February 1875 – 24 March 1955) was a liberal German politician during the Weimar Republic. From 1910 until 1914, he was mayor of Regensburg and from 1913 to 1919 mayor of Nuremberg. He served in numerous Weimar cabinets, most notably as Reichswehrminister (Minister of Defence) from 1920 to 1928.
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Early life
Otto Karl Gessler was born on 6 February 1875 in Ludwigsburg in the Kingdom of Württemberg as the son of the non-commissioned officer Otto Gessler and his wife Karoline (née Späth). He finished school in 1894 with the Abitur at the Humanistisches Gymnasium in Dillingen an der Donau. He studied law in Erlangen, Tübingen and Leipzig and received his doctorate there in 1900. Initially, he worked for the judicial service of Leipzig. He then moved to Bavaria and served in various positions in the Bavarian justiciary (1903 clerk in the Bavarian Ministry of Justice, 1904 prosecutor in Straubing, 1905 Gewerberichter in Munich) before moving into public administration. In 1903, Gessler married Maria Helmschrott (died 1954).
Political career
Empire and Weimar Republic
Gessler was mayor of Regensburg from 1910 to 1914 and lord mayor of Nuremberg from 1913 to 1919. Because of reduced mobility due to a handicap he did not serve during World War I. He successfully headed the town administration of Nuremberg in the war years and contributed to the fact that there were no leftist takeovers in Nuremberg and Franconia the immediate aftermath of the war during the German Revolution of 1918-19.
Gessler was close to Friedrich Naumann and became one of the founders of the DDP in November 1918. In October 1919, he was appointed as Reichsminister für Wiederaufbau (Minister for Reconstruction) in the cabinet of Gustav Bauer. Gessler was not a staunch supporter of the new republic, describing himself as a "republican by reason" only.
After the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch in March 1920 he assumed the office of Reichswehrminister (Minister of Defence) from Gustav Noske who was forced to resign as a result of the putsch.
Gessler kept that position for the next eight years, despite numerous changes of government. As Reichswehrminister he worked closely with Chef der Heeresleitung Hans von Seeckt in setting up the Reichswehr and turning it into a modern army. Gessler did not see his role as controlling the military, but rather in cooperating with the military command staff, which for its part viewed the Reichswehr's position as an independent and autonomous "state within the state". From 1920 to 1924, Gessler was also a member of the Reichstag.
Gessler played a key role in the 1923 German October. He and left-wing SPD premier of Saxony Erich Zeigner, an outspoken critic of the Reichswehr, shared a mutual antipathy. Gessler and conservative elements considered the Saxon and Thuringian governments suspect due to their reliance on the Communist Party for a parliamentary majority. Tensions grew throughout August and September as public clashes increased and Gessler cut contact with Zeigner. In early October, he called for the federal government to exercise its emergency powers, granted in response to the ongoing economic crisis and occupation of the Ruhr, to depose the state government. In the interim, he handed executive power to the Reichswehr commanders in the two states, who banned public gatherings and took control of the state police. At the same time, Gessler sought to avoid confrontation with the ultraconservative Bavarian government, who established a quasi-dictatorship in the latter months of the year and were known to be plotting a putsch against Berlin. The KPD were in fact planning a national uprising, and as preparation entered into coalition government in both Saxony and Thuringia alongside the SPD. However, after a joint conference in Chemnitz on 21 October indicated no desire for even a general strike among the left, plans were called off. Nonetheless, Chancellor Gustav Stresemann and the cabinet were swayed to Gessler's side and approved action; the state was occupied by the Reichswehr on 22 October.
After 1933
After the Machtergreifung of the Nazis in 1933, he retired from politics, in part due to ill health, and at first lived in seclusion at Lindenberg im Allgäu. Later in World War II, however, he became a member of the resistance group around Franz Sperr, had contacts with the Kreisau Circle, was included the resistance’s 1944 plans, and, in the event that the coup succeeded, was slated to be political commissioner in Military District VII (Munich) in the shadow cabinet of General Ludwig Beck and Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. He was named in documents of Claus von Stauffenberg and was arrested two days after the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler of 20 July 1944. He was detained and tortured at Ravensbrück concentration camp and then held at various Berlin prisons until his release in February 1945.
After the end of World War II, Gessler became involved in humanitarian organizations. In 1949, he became president of the Bavaria Red Cross (a post he retained until his death) and in 1950 president of the German Red Cross. He was instrumental in the post-war reconstruction of the organization, serving as president until 1952.
From 1950 to 1955, Gessler was member of the Bavarian senate.
Death and legacy
Gessler died on 24 March 1955 in Lindenberg im Allgäu. In 1958, his memoirs Reichswehrpolitik in der Weimarer Zeit were published posthumously.
The hospital in Lindenberg is named for Gessler.