Wilhelm Marx (15 January 1863 – 5 August 1946) was a German judge, lawyer, and politician who twice served as chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic, from 1923 to 1925 and again from 1926 to 1928. He also briefly held the position of Minister-President of Prussia in 1925. A leading figure in the Centre Party, he served as its chairman from 1922 to 1928. With a total tenure of three years and 73 days, he was the longest-serving chancellor of the Weimar Republic.

After being a member of the Reichstag of the German Empire for ten years, Marx was elected in 1919 to the Weimar National Assembly that drafted Germany's new constitution and then in 1920 to the Republic's Reichstag where he served until not long before the Nazi takeover. As chancellor, he helped steer Germany through the crisis year of 1923 with its hyperinflation and rebellious state governments. The following year, his government worked to end the immediate crisis over Germany's war reparations and then in 1927 successfully brought Germany into the League of Nations. His terms in office saw a number of progressive pieces of legislation pass, including family allowances for state employees and comprehensive unemployment insurance.

After resigning from the Reichstag in 1932, Marx worked with various civic organisations. He remained in Germany through the Nazi era and died in Bonn in 1946.

Early life

Marx was born in 1863 in Cologne to the Catholic school rector Johann Marx (1822–1882) and his wife, Gertrude (1826–1909). He had a sister, Barbara, who later headed the Cologne Ursulines.

Marx was awarded his secondary school certificate (Abitur) at the Marzellengymnasium in 1881. He then studied jurisprudence at the University of Bonn from 1881 to 1884. As a student he became a member of Catholic Student Association Arminia of Bonn.

Marx married Johanna Verkoyen (1871–1946) in 1891. They had three sons and a daughter.

In 1888, he passed the second state exam for the Prussian civil service and began working as an assessor in Cologne and Waldbröl and later at the land registry in Simmern. In 1894 he became a judge at Elberfeld, in 1904 state court judge () at Cologne, in 1907 superior state court judge () at Düsseldorf, in January 1921 state court president () in Limburg an der Lahn and on 27 September 1921 senate president of the superior state court (Kammergericht) Berlin on the same day that he was elected president of the Reichstag parliamentary group of the Centre Party. Independent Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno received Marx's help in mobilizing civil disobedience against the Occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium. Marx then helped replace Cuno's cabinet with the grand coalition headed by Gustav Stresemann of the German People's Party (DVP). When Stresemann's government fell in November 1923, Reich President Friedrich Ebert requested that Marx form a government. The government's achievements included stabilizing the currency following the introduction of the Rentenmark, fiscal consolidation, the resolution of the conflict between the Reich and Bavaria's right-wing government and de-escalation of tensions in the occupied Rhineland territories. and the issuing of the Federal Social Welfare Decree on February the 13th 1924. This was aimed at tackling the causes of destitution and helping all those in need. Poor law residence was replaced by usual residence, and the federal statutes (as noted by one study) "established the principle that persons who could not provide minimum subsistence for themselves and their dependents, and who did not receive help from others, were entitled to proper maintenance including food, clothing, housing, medical aid in case of sickness, and the aid required in order to recover working capacity". Apart from the basic relief rate for destitute persons in general, there were higher rates for certain groups, including social insurance pensioners, war invalids and survivors, and victims of inflation.

Following the May 1924 election, the second Marx cabinet was formed on 3 June. It was once again a minority government made up this time of the Centre Party, DVP and DDP; it lasted until December 1924. Its focus was on relations with the Allies and on regaining control of the occupied territories in the west. In August the government signed up to the Dawes Plan which settled the diplomatic crisis over Germany's war reparations. After the December 1924 Reichstag elections, Marx was unable to form a cabinet and resigned on 15 December. He remained in office as caretaker until 15 January 1925, when the independent Hans Luther took over as chancellor.

Some also attributed Marx's loss to the candidature of Ernst Thälmann of the Communist Party of Germany, who did not drop out in the second round. However, historian Peter Fritzsche rejected this view, calling the claim "far-fetched" and arguing that "given the explicit enmity of this party toward the Weimar "capitalist state", it would have been completely unrealistic to expect the KPD to support the candidate of the Weimar system". Fritsche instead found that the BVP's endorsement of Hindenburg was crucial to Marx's defeat.

Marx lost by 13.7 million to Hindenburg's 14.6 million votes. In April 1925, Otto Braun replaced Marx as Prussian Minister President. In June 1926 a referendum to expropriate the assets of the former ruling houses of Germany without compensation failed to reach the fifty percent needed to pass. Marx's cabinet survived the referendum's failure and shortly afterwards succeeded in bringing Germany into the League of Nations. He resigned as chancellor on 17 December 1926 when he lost an SPD-initiated vote of no confidence on the issue of the recently uncovered clandestine military relations between the Reichswehr and the Soviet Union.

In January 1927, Marx formed a new government with the same parties as before but with the addition of the right-wing German National People's Party (DNVP). The fourth and final Marx cabinet extended the 1922 Law for the Protection of the Republic, although in order to gain the DNVP's support the extension was limited to two years. It also passed a law on working hours (14 April 1927) as well as the Law on Employment Services and Unemployment Insurance () of 16 July 1927 which established a comprehensive unemployment insurance system.

In 1933, under Nazi Germany, Marx was charged in the trial of the People's Association for Catholic Germany, an organisation which he had chaired, but the charge against him was dropped in 1935. After the end of World War II, he continued to live in Bonn, where he died in 1946.