Eugen Schiffer left the National-Liberal Party of the Kaiserreich in November 1918 to join the German Democratic Party. The jurist was a member of the Reichstag and a high-level civil servant in the judiciary; from October 1918, he served as leading state secretary in the Treasury Office. He stayed in this post after the November Revolution. After serving as the Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister in Scheidemann’s cabinet, he was Bauer’s Minister of Justice (1919) as well as Wirth’s (1921). He took the initiative to reform the judiciary, aiming to streamline and speed up legal proceedings. Schiffer was considered one of the key players involved in putting down the Kapp Putsch. In 1924, he left the DDP and picked back up his career as a lawyer. After 1945, he helped establish the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) in the Soviet occupation zone. Yet in the end, he fled to the Federal Republic in 1950.

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Friedrich Naumann was a social liberal and promoted the alliance with the Social Democrats in order to create a political force able to counterbalance the conservative agrarian groups. Initially, he worked within the National-Social Association that he had founded. Later on, he played an active role in the unification of the left-wing liberal forces in the Progressive People’s Party. During World War I, he spoke out for annexations and did not criticize the genocide committed against the Armenians. His book “Central Europe” found more readers than any other publication on Germany’s war goals, despite its enormous disconnect from reality. During the November Revolution, he helped finance the “Anti-Bolshevist League”, yet distanced himself from it when it moved to the far right. He was the founding chairman of the DDP and participated in constitutional deliberations in Weimar.

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Wilhelm Külz was active in local politics before World War I. He initially identified with the National Liberals, but joined the DDP in 1918. He was a member of the National Assembly and - from 1922 to 1932 - of the Reichstag. From January to December 1926, he served as Interior Minister in Luther’s cabinet. In 1931, he was elected mayor of Dresden, only to lose this post in 1933 when he refused to hoist the swastika flag from the town hall. Up to the end of the war, he worked as a lawyer and stayed in contact with resistance groups. In 1945, he helped found the LDP in the Soviet Occupation Zone, becoming its chairman.

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Walther Rathenau grew up in a Jewish family of entrepreneurs. His father founded AEG. He followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming one of Germany’s leading businessmen, with membership on about 50 supervisory boards. He shared his expertise with Germany’s government during World War I in areas such as raw materials procurement. His views moved more and more towards the pursuit of an expansionary war and in 1918, he opposed an armistice. He had a very hard time adapting to the post-war era. After having joined the DDP (German Democratic Party), he became Minister for Reconstruction in 1921. At the start of 1922, he became Foreign Minister because he was held in high regard internationally and known for his excellent negotiation skills. Although he did not manage to successfully solve the reparations issue, he did conclude the Treaty of Rapallo with Soviet Russia, which helped Germany out of its isolation. Despite this, he was attacked by ferocious enemies as a Jew and an advocate of Erfüllungspolitik. In the end, he was murdered in broad daylight in June 1922.

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Gertrud Bäumer attended the University of Berlin, where she met the famous women’s rights defender Helene Lange, who became a role model for her. Bäumer’s activism included the fight to improve women’s access to education. In 1918, she joined the DDP and became a member of the National Assembly. She served in the Reichstag from 1920 to 1932. In 1920, she was appointed Ministerial Councillor in the Ministry of the Interior and from 1926 to 1933, she served as delegate to the League of Nations in Geneva. After the Nazis seized power, she lost all her posts and became a writer. After 1945, she helped found the CSU in Bavaria.

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Bernhard Dernburg worked for Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Treuhandgesellschaft, and Darmstädter Bank für Gewerbe und Industrie. His reputation was based on his work in rationalizing business operations. He organized restructuring programs in various sectors, using his close contacts in the US. In 1906, he was granted the mandate to represent Prussia on the Bundesrat (Union Council). He became State Secretary in the Imperial Colonial Office one year later. He redirected Germany’s colonial policies, making greater use of colonies to promote economic growth. After World War I, he was one of the DDP’s founders. In Scheidemann’s cabinet, he served as Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor. He was a Member of the Reichstag from 1920 to 1930.

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The jurist Hermann Dietrich started out in the National-Liberal Party. But in 1918, he helped found the DDP, becoming its uncontested leader in the state of Baden. He was a Member of the National Assembly and - from 1920 to 1933 - of the Reichstag. Between 1928 and 1932, he served in several cabinets, first as Minister of Food and Agriculture and then as Finance Minister under Brüning. In that role, he was responsible for the policy of deflation; this led many within his party to criticize him. In 1930, after the DDP merged with the Young German Order, he was elected Chairman of the German State Party. After his initial opposition to the Enabling Act, he voted for it in 1933 in order to protect his party colleagues working as civil servants. He helped set up the FDP in Baden-Württemberg after 1945.

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Schacht was the son of a salesman and studied economics. He already made it to the top of Dresdner Bank during the Kaiserreich. He then transferred to the private National Bank for Germany, also serving as CEO there. He helped found the left-wing, liberal DDP in November 1918. In 1922, he became the director of Danat Bank, the result of a merger. During the hyperinflation of 1923, the Stresemann administration first appointed him Currency Commissioner and then President of the Reichsbank. In these roles, he succeeded in stopping the inflation. He took part in the Dawes Plan negotiations in 1924 as Germany’s delegate. From the mid-1920s on, Schacht’s political views shifted further and further to the right; in 1926, he left the DDP. In 1929, he again took part in reparations negotiations. After these talks, he took a public stance against the Young Plan’s conditions and against accepting it. When the Treaty was ratified by the Reichstag in the end, Schacht left his post as President of the Reichsbank in 1930. Towards the end of the Weimar Republic, he joined the right-wing radicals of the Harzburg Front, supported Hitler’s ambitions to take power, and facilitated contact among industrial players, the Nazi party, and Hindenburg. Under Hitler, Schacht was reappointed President of the Reichsbank in 1933. He was named Minister of Economic Affairs in 1934.

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