Otto Landsberg

Otto Landsberg
Council of the People's Deputies: Otto Landsberg (left) with Philipp Scheidemann, Gustav Noske, Friedrich Ebert, Rudolf Wissell (December 1918)
Born	(1869-12-04)December 4, 1869 Rybnik, German Empire
Died	December 9, 1957(1957-12-09) (aged 88) Baarn, Netherlands

Otto Landsberg (December 4, 1869 – December 9, 1957) was a German jurist and politician.

Life

Landsberg was born in 1869 in Rybnik in the Province of Silesia. After passing the Abitur in 1887 in Ostrowo, he moved to Berlin to study law. In 1895, having passed the First (1890) and Second State Examination (1895), he opened a lawyer's office in Magdeburg. In the beginning of 1924, he moved it to Berlin, pleading the case for Friedrich Ebert in one of his defamation suits surrounding the Dolchstosslegende in 1925.

After 1933, Landsberg emigrated first to Czechoslovakia and Belgium, later to the Netherlands. He died in 1957 in Baarn.

Political career

Having joined the SPD in 1890, Landsberg was elected to the Reichstag for Magdeburg in 1912. Since there were no elctions during World War I, he held the seat until 1918. From November 10, 1918 to February 13, 1919, he was a member of the Council of the People's Deputies, being responsible for the press, arts and literature. On January 19, 1919 he was elected to the Weimar National Assembly. From February 13 to June 20, 1919, he was a member of the government of Philipp Scheidemann as Minister of Justice. After the resignation of the Cabinet Scheidemann, Landsberg was ambassador of Germany to Belgium from 1920 to 1923. He was again a member of the Reichstag from 1924 to 1933.

References

• Biography/Deutsches Historisches Museum (German)
• Biography/Neue Deutsche Biographie (German)