Arthur Hobrecht

Arthur Heinrich Rudolph Johnson Hobrecht (14 August 1824 – 7 July 1912) was a German liberal politician, mayor of Breslau (Wrocław) and Berlin. Hobrecht served as Prussian minister of Finances under Otto von Bismarck and was a member of the Prussian House of Representatives and the German Parliament.

Biography Hobrecht was born in Kobierczyn, West Prussia (Kobierzyn, Poland) to Ludolf Hobrecht. His mother, née Johnson, was of English descent.

Hobrecht studied law at the Universities of Königsberg (Kaliningrad), Leipzig and Halle. From 1841 to 1844 he worked at courts in Elbing (Elbląg), Graudenz (Grudziądz) and Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) in West Prussia and was deputy head of the district administration in Rybnik and Grottkau (Grodków) in Prussian Silesia from 1847 to 1849. Until 1860 he held several administrative positions in Posen (Poznan), Gleiwitz (Gliwice) and Marienwerder. He then served as Prussian minister of finances from 1878 to 1879 but soon came into conflict with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. After his dismissal he ran for the German National Liberal Party and was elected a member of the Prussian House of Representatives in 1880, a mandate he would hold until his death in 1912. Hobrecht also became a member of the German Reichstag, representing the Marienwerder 1 constituency from 1881 to 1884 and Marienwerder 3 from 1886 to 1890.

On his 80th birthday, 14 August 1904, Hobrecht became an Honorary citizen of Berlin. He died on 7 July 1912 in Lichterfelde (Berlin).