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Who were Matthias Erzberger and Walther Rathenau?

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Birth of the Weimar Republic — Weimar Republic Learn about Germany's fledgling Weimar Republic and the challenges it faced.

During the early years of the Weimar Republic, both Matthias Erzberger and Walther Rathenau were prominent democratic statesmen who became targets of political violence by the extreme right wing.12

Matthias Erzberger (1875–1921): A leader of the left wing of the Centre Party, he was a key figure in the transition to democracy. He headed the German delegation that signed the Armistice ending World War I in 1918 and later served as vice chancellor and finance minister. Because he supported the Treaty of Versailles and the republican system, he was subjected to a vicious slander campaign by nationalists and was assassinated in 1921.31
Walther Rathenau (1867–1922): A German-Jewish industrialist and philosopher, he served as minister of reconstruction and later as foreign minister. He was instrumental in managing Germany's postwar reparations and negotiated the Treaty of Rapallo with the Soviet Union. His efforts to integrate Germany into the international community and his Jewish heritage made him a target for right-wing extremists, who assassinated him in 1922.41

The murders of these two men were part of a wave of political terrorism that plagued the early republic, often met with disturbing leniency by the courts.12