Wilhelm Hoegner
1887-1980
- Jurist
- Member of the Reichstag 1930-1933
- Bavarian Minister-President 1945-1946 und 1954-1957
Hoegner studied law at the University of Munich, obtaining a doctoral degree in 1911. After the war broke out, he volunteered to fight in 1914. However, he was judged unfit to fight, for health reasons. He worked as an assessor and lawyer for a short period starting in 1918. He was then appointed a public prosecutor in 1920. From 1925, he worked as circuit judge on the bench of the Munich district court. Hoegner was one of the few figures of the judiciary who supported the republic. At the same time, alongside his work, he was also an active member of the SPD and the Black-Red-Gold Banner of the Realm. As such, it was at his prompting that the Bavarian Landtag (state parliament) set up a committee to investigate the events of 1 May 1923 in Munich as well as the efforts to undermine the Reich’s and the state’s constitutions undertaken in Bavaria from 26 September to 9 November 1923. Although the committee was still reticent in its report, there was a special vote of the SPD that clearly stated that in this matter, the Bavarian judiciary had failed. After the Nazi Party seized power, Hoegner went into exile. Yet in 1945, he returned to Germany and became one of post-war Bavaria’s most significant historical figures as the Bavarian Minister-President.