Otto Braun

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This article is about the Prime Minister of Prussia. For the Communist writer see Otto Braun (Li De).

Otto Braun (28 January 1872 - 14 December 1955) was a German Social Democratic politician who was Prime Minister of Prussia.

Originally from Königsberg in East Prussia, Braun became a leader of the Social Democratic Party there, and was elected to the Prussian Diet in 1913. In 1919, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly in Weimar. He became most noted as Prime Minister of Prussia, a position in which he served almost continually from 1920 to 1932. He was also the Social Democratic presidential candidate in the first round of presidential elections in 1925, leading the vote count in the first round of elections but withdrawing his name for the second round to make way for the Centre Party's Wilhelm Marx as a united Republican candidate against the right's candidate, Field Marshall Hindenburg, who had not stood in the first round. Marx eventually lost to Hindenburg.

Braun's coalition government, one of the strongest bastions of the Weimar Republic, lost their majority in the 1932 state election, but remained in office as the opposition, comprised mainly of Communists and National Socialists, could not cooperate. In this situation, Braun's government was deposed in the Preußenschlag of July 1932, when Germany's chancellor Franz von Papen assumed direct federal control of Prussia's administration. Braun however remained de jure Prime Minister and continued to represent the state of Prussia in Reichsrat until April 1933, when the NSDAP took control of Prussia's parliament and elected Hermann Göring as successor. Braun had already emigrated to Switzerland after Adolf Hitler had assumed power as Chancellor in January 1933.

After the end of the Second World War from his exile Braun approached the victorious allies to reinstate the legal Prussian government, but the occupation allies declined due to their plans to abolish the state of Prussia.

Otto Braun died in Locarno in 1955.

Preceded by Paul Hirsch	Prime Minister of Prussia 1920–1921	Succeeded by Adam Stegerwald
Preceded by Adam Stegerwald	Prime Minister of Prussia 1921–1925	Succeeded by Wilhelm Marx
Preceded by Wilhelm Marx	Prime Minister of Prussia 1925–1932	Succeeded by Franz von Papen

Prime Ministers of Prussia
Arnim-Boitzenburg, Camphausen, Auerswald, Pfuel, Brandenburg, Ladenberg, Manteuffel, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, Bismarck, Roon, Caprivi, Eulenburg, Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Bülow, Bethmann Hollweg, Michaelis, Hertling, Baden, Hirsch, Braun, Stegerwald, Marx, Göring