Eduard David

David remained in that position until October of that year. David was also briefly the first president of the Weimar National Assembly, which drew up the Weimar Constitution and ratified the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

Eduard David studied at University of Giessen. The recorded working language is German. Places of work recorded in the authority are Berlin. Positions recorded include member of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic and member of the Reichstag of the German Empire.

• Name — Eduard David • Office — Minister of the Interior • Term Start — 21 June 1919 • Term End — 4 October 1919 • Chancellor — Gustav Bauer • Predecessor — Hugo Preuss • Successor — Erich Koch-Weser • Order2 — President of the Weimar National Assembly • Term Start2 — 7 February 1919 • Term End2 — 13 February 1919 • President2 — Friedrich Ebert • Chancellor2 — Philipp Scheidemann • Predecessor2 — Constantin Fehrenbach (as President of the Reichstag) • Successor2 — Conrad Haußmann (acting) Constantin Fehrenbach • Office3 — Member of the Reichstag • Term Start3 — 1903 • Term End3 — 1918 • Constituency3 — Hessen 9 • Born — 11 June 1863 • Birthplace — Ediger-Eller • Died — 24 December 1930 • Place of death — Berlin • Party — Social Democratic Party of Germany

Eduard David was born on 11 June 1863 in Ediger/Mosel as the son of Johann Heinrich David, a Prussian civil servant, and his wife Wilhelmine Elisabeth (née Werner). After completing a four-year commercial apprenticeship (kaufmännische Lehre), David studied at the university at Giessen, where he was introduced to socialist ideals. He worked as a teacher at a gymnasium and established a newspaper, the Mitteldeutsche Sonntagszeitung, in 1893. David's support for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) led to his dismissal from the civil service in 1894. David was married twice. In 1896, he married Gertrud Swiderski (one daughter) and in 1911, Hermine Schmidt (one son).

In the 1890s, David became a proponent of agricultural policies favouring small holdings, arguing for their viability in a series of articles in the Sozialdemokrat in August and September 1894. David argued against the traditional Marxist idea that small landholdings would increasingly be replaced by large estates, marking David as among the first Revisionists in his party. This journalism on the agrarian question would later be expanded into his major book-length work, Sozialismus und Landwirtschaft (Socialism and Agriculture), in 1903. From 1896, David was a member of the Landtag of Hesse and after 1903 a member of the Reichstag for the SPD. He was one of the leading politicians of the "Majority" SPD when the party split during the First World War and was instrumental in framing his party's policy stand on the war.

In October 1918, when the SPD became part of the Imperial government for the first time under the new chancellor Max von Baden, David became Under Secretary at the Foreign Office. In February 1919, David was elected president of the new National Assembly, but as part of a deal establishing the first democratically elected government, the Scheidemann cabinet, he relinquished that post in favour of Constantin Fehrenbach (Centre Party) and became Minister without Portfolio under the new Ministerpräsident, Philipp Scheidemann (SPD). After Scheidemann's cabinet resigned in June 1919 in protest over the stipulations of the Treaty of Versailles, a new government was formed by Gustav Bauer (SPD) and David became Reichsminister des Innern (Minister of the Interior), a position he held from 21 June to 4 October 1919. In early October, the German Democratic Party (DDP), which had left the coalition government in June, rejoined, thus reestablishing the Weimar Coalition of SPD, DDP and Centre Party. Erich Koch-Weser (DDP) took over as Minister of the Interior and David once again was Minister without Portfolio. He retained this position in the first cabinet of Hermann Müller, who formed the new government when the Cabinet Bauer resigned in March 1920.

In 1922, David was appointed Reichsbevollmächtigter in Hesse and from 1923 to 1927, he taught political sciences at what was then the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt.

• Zweck und Mittel einer einheitlichen Organisation der deutschen Studentenschaft, 1888 • Sozialismus und Landwirtschaft, 1903 • Referentenführer, 1907 • Darwinismus und soziale Entwicklung, 1909 • Sozialdemokratie und Vaterlandsverteidigung, 1915 • Die Sozialdemokratie im Weltkrieg, 1915 • Wer trägt die Schuld am Krieg? 1917 • Die Siedlungsgesetzgebung, 1921 • Um die Fahne der Deutschen Republik, 1921 • Die Befriedung Europas, 1926 • Aus Deutschlands schwerster Zeit, Schriften und Reden aus den Jahren 1914–1919, 1927.

Recorded positions include member of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic, member of the Reichstag of the German Empire and Reichsminister des Innern. He belonged to Bonner Burschenschaft Germania. He worked at Berlin.

Eduard David is recorded as politician, university teacher, merchant, writer and opinion journalist.