page_title: Friedrich Ebert
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Friedrich Ebert / Death
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Berlin, Trauerzug für verstorbenen Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert, der erste Reichspräsident geb.: 4.2.1871 in Heidelberg, gest.: 28.2.1925 in Berlin; SPD Politiker; wurde 1913 als Nachfolger Bebels zum Vorsitzenden der SPD gewählt; am 9.11.1918 wurde er Vorsitzender des Rates der Volksbeauftragten und am 11.1.1919 Reichspräsident. UBz: Trauerzug vor dem Reichstagsgebäude. Dem Sarg des verstorbenen Reichspräsidenten folgen seine Söhne Friedrich und Karl und sein Schwiegersohn Dr. Jänicke [richtig Wilhelm Jaenecke](v.l.n.r.) Abgebildete Personen: Ebert, Friedrich: Reichspräsident, Reichskanzler, Vorsitzender der SPD, Deutschland Ebert, Friedrich: Oberbürgermeister von Berlin, DDR
context_page_description: Friedrich Ebert was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the first President of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925.
  Ebert was elected leader of the SPD on the death in 1913 of August Bebel. In 1914, shortly after he assumed leadership, the party became deeply divided over Ebert's support of war loans to finance the German war effort in World War I. A moderate social democrat, Ebert was in favour of the Burgfrieden, a political policy that sought to suppress squabbles over domestic issues among political parties during wartime in order to concentrate all forces in society on the successful conclusion of the war effort. He tried to isolate those in the party opposed to the war, but could not prevent a split.
  Ebert was a pivotal figure in the German Revolution of 1918–19. When Germany became a republic at the end of World War I, he became its first chancellor. His policies at that time were primarily aimed at restoring peace and order in Germany and containing the more extreme elements of the revolutionary left.
context_section_description: Ebert suffered from gallstones and frequent bouts of cholecystitis. Vicious attacks by Ebert's right-wing adversaries, including slander and ridicule, were often condoned or even supported by the judiciary when the president turned to the courts. The constant necessity to defend himself against those attacks also undermined his health. In December 1924, a court in Magdeburg fined a journalist who had called Ebert a "traitor to his country" for his role in the January 1918 strike, but it also said that, legally, Ebert had in fact committed treason. This court case prevented him from seeking medical help for a while, as he wanted to be available to give evidence. He became acutely ill in mid-February 1925 from what was believed to be influenza. His condition deteriorated over the following two weeks, and at that time he was thought to be suffering from another episode of gallbladder disease. He became acutely septic on the night of 23 February and underwent an emergency appendectomy (which was performed by August Bier) in the early hours of the following day for what turned out to be appendicitis. He died of septic shock four days later, aged 54. He was buried in Heidelberg. Several high-ranking politicians and a trade union president made speeches at his funeral, as did protestant minister Hermann Maas, pastor at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Heidelberg; by doing so, Maas caused a scandal in his church and conservative quarters, because Ebert had been an outspoken atheist (though baptised a Roman Catholic, he had officially left the church long ago).
caption: Ebert's funeral
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