Georg Michaelis

Common card · No. 300749

Georg Michaelis (8 September 1857 – 24 July 1936) was the imperial chancellor of the German Empire for a few months in 1917 during the First World War. He was the first (and, in the German Empire, the only) commoner to hold the post, though the Supreme Army Command under Paul von Hindenburg had de facto control over the country. After graduating from law school, Michaelis moved to Tokyo where he taught at the German Studies Society School. Upon his return to Germany, he joined the Prussian civil service. He was appointed undersecretary of state in the Prussian Finance Ministry in 1909, and from 1915 on he headed he headed the Imperial Grain Office and was responsible for food procurement in Prussia during the First World War. When Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg was forced to resign as chancellor by the Reichstag and the Supreme Army Command, Michaelis was chosen as his successor. His government was wholly dependent on the support of the Supreme Army Command. Shortly after his appointment...

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