Walther Rathenau

Shot on 24 June 1922 in Berlin by members of the far-right Organisation Consul while being driven to the foreign ministry.

Overview

Walther Rathenau, an industrialist who led the electrical company AEG, organized the supply of raw materials for Germany during World War I and became foreign minister of the Weimar Republic in 1922. He favored meeting reparations obligations while seeking revisions and negotiated the Treaty of Rapallo with Soviet Russia. As a Jewish politician associated with the republic, he was the target of violent antisemitic and nationalist agitation. Members of the secret group Organisation Consul ambushed his car in the Grunewald district. The killing provoked mass demonstrations in support of the republic and led to the Law for the Protection of the Republic, but political violence continued to undermine Weimar democracy.