EBERT

Fritz, first President of the new German Republic, born at Heidelberg in 1870, the son of a tailor. Having received an elementary education in his youth, he first worked in his father’s shop, and was then apprenticed to a saddler. Ho spent his spare time in reading and acquiring knowledge, entered journalism, and in 1892 became editor of the Bremer Biirgerzeitung. In 1908 he was elected to the Reichstag, and in 1916 became president of the Socialist group of this A embly. He appealed for peace in the Reichstag in Sept., 1918, and having thus rominent, he succeeded Prince Max of Baden as Chancellor of the Empire. The office was suppre ed a few days later, and Ebert became Provisional President of Germany. He crushed the efforts made by the Spartacus group to prevent the elections for the National A embly, and altogether showed tact and energy in those critical days. The National A embly met at Weimar, and elected Ebert as first President of the Reich on 11th Feb., 1919. He died in 1925.