Friedrich Ebert was a German politician who served as the first President of the Republic of Germany, commonly known as the Weimar Republic, from 1919 until his death in 1925. Ebert was a political moderate and a social democrat, focusing on the reconciliation of political disputes and maintaining social order and harmony at all costs, crushing a number of socialist, communist, fascist, and anarchist uprisings and coups during his tenure as President. Considered a traitor by the German right for accepting the terms of surrender for Germany set forth by the allies after World War One and a traitor by the left for using right-wing militias to aid in suppressing uprisings, Ebert was constantly defending his actions to the public. This took a toll on his health, and he died in early 1925 after a period of ill health. After his death, the Weimar Republic, already unstable due to political infighting and uprisings, began to disintegrate under Ebert's successor, Paul Von Hindenberg. The republic's death knell was the great depression, which saw a total economic collapse in Germany. After failing to win an outright majority for his government during the 1932 election, Von Hindenberg made a deal for a coalition government with the Nazi Party and appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. After Von Hindenberg died, Germany became a totalitarian dictatorship which ended up killing millions and starting another World War. Today, Ebert is remembered fondly by some Germans, but disliked by some sections of the left and right for the same reasons the left and right of the Weimar Republic disliked him. Ebert's son went on to have a role in the Communist government of East Germany.
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ko6_xN5ojjI/mqdefault.jpg)