Heinrich Brüning

Biography

Heinrich Brüning was born in Münster in 1885 into a devout Catholic family and lost his father as an infant. He studied philosophy, history and political science at Strasbourg, the London School of Economics and Bonn, where he took a doctorate in 1915. He volunteered for the infantry in the First World War, served until 1918 as a lieutenant and company commander, and was twice decorated with the Iron Cross.

After the war he worked in Catholic social welfare and in 1920 became chief executive of the Christian trade unions, editing their paper Der Deutsche. He was elected to the Reichstag for the Centre Party in 1924, built a reputation as a financial expert, sat in the Prussian Landtag from 1928 to 1930 and in 1929 became leader of the Centre's Reichstag group.

President Hindenburg appointed him chancellor in March 1930. Facing the Depression without a parliamentary majority, Brüning governed through emergency decrees, cutting wages, benefits and spending in pursuit of a balanced budget and an end to reparations; unemployment rose sharply and he was nicknamed the Hunger Chancellor. He also served as foreign minister from October 1931, banned the SA in April 1932 and campaigned for Hindenburg's re-election, but lost the president's backing and resigned at the end of May 1932.

In 1933 he voted for the Enabling Act under party discipline, led the Centre Party from May until he dissolved it in July, and fled Germany in June 1934. He taught at Harvard, holding the Littauer chair of government from 1939 to 1952, returned briefly to teach at the University of Cologne, and died in Norwich, Vermont, in 1970.