Otto Gessler

Otto Gessler (born February 6, 1875, Ludwigsburg, Germany—died March 24, 1955, Lindenberg, West Germany) was a German minister of war during the Weimar Republic who was instrumental in rebuilding the country’s armed forces after World War I. A student of law, Gessler became mayor of Regensburg (1910–11) and Nürnberg (1913–19). After the German revolution of November 1918, he helped found the bourgeois-liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) and served as minister of reconstruction (1919–20). In March...