Erich Koch-Weser

Erich Koch-Weser (born Erich Koch; 26 February 1875 – 19 October 1944) was a German lawyer and liberal politician. One of the founders and later chairman (1924–1930) of the liberal German Democratic Party, he served as minister of the Interior (1919–1921), vice-chancellor of Germany (1920) and minister of Justice (1928–1929).

Early life Erich Koch was born on 26 February 1875 in Bremerhaven as the son of Dr. Anton Koch (1838–76), a Protestant headmaster of a higher girls' school, and his wife Minna (1841–1930, née Lewenstein), the daughter of a Jewish merchant from Burhave.

Erich Koch studied law and economics at Lausanne, Bonn, Berlin and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) in Munich from 1893 to 1897 where he finished with a Dr.jur.

In November 1918, Koch was a founder-member of the German Democratic Party (DDP). In January 1919, he was elected to the Weimar National Assembly for the DDP and achieved a powerful position within the party's parliamentary group.

Although a member of the DDP's right wing on many issues, in the fall of 1924, Koch refused to enter a coalition with the nationalist DNVP. The first government of Hans Luther which followed collapsed over the approval of the Locarno Treaties in late 1925. On the instructions of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, Koch was prompted to negotiate the formation of a "Grand Coalition" of the SPD and DVP. These efforts would be rejected by the Social Democrats, who demanded an increase in unemployment benefits. Koch would resign the mandate to form a government, and the DDP was compelled to join a minority government under the leadership of Luther.

In 1927, he would change his surname to Koch-Weser (after the river Weser) to distinguish himself from other members of the Reichstag who shared his surname, and in reference to his former constituency.

In 1928, Koch-Weser was appointed Minister of Justice in the new government of Hermann Müller. He attempted a fundamental reform of criminal law, but as the Zentrum demanded the Justice department, Koch-Weser lost his position in April 1929.

In the summer of 1930, Koch-Weser merged the DDP with Artur Mahraun's Young German Order into the Deutsche Staatspartei, trying to gather what remained of the pro-republican and Protestant middle-class in Germany into a single political party. After the poor performance of his new party in the September 1930 election, Koch-Weser resigned from the Reichstag and from the leadership of the party.

Later life Koch-Weser then left politics and worked as a lawyer in Berlin. After the Nazis seized power, they banned him from practicing law in the fall of 1933. He emigrated to Brazil where he bought a large coffee plantation called Fazenda Janeta near Rolândia in the state of Paraná. Koch-Weser died at Fazenda Janeta on 19 (or 20) October 1944.

Erich Koch-Weser was the grandfather of former World Bank executive and German politician Caio Koch-Weser. He became the first ever honorary citizen of Delmenhorst in 1928.