Gustav Bauer

Gustav Adolf Bauer (6 January 1870 – 16 September 1944) was a German Social Democratic Party leader and the chancellor of Germany from June 1919 to March 1920. Prior to that, he was minister of labour in the last cabinet of the German Empire and during most of the German Revolution that preceded the formal establishment of the Weimar Republic.

Bauer became minister president of the Weimar National Assembly in June 1919 after Philipp Scheidemann resigned in protest against the Treaty of Versailles. Following the adoption of the Weimar Constitution in August 1919, Bauer's title formally changed to "chancellor". During his term of office, a crucial tax restructuring was enacted, as were a series of important social reforms that affected unemployment relief, maternity benefits and health and old age insurance.

After his cabinet fell in March 1920 as a result of its response to the Kapp Putsch, Bauer served as vice-chancellor, minister of the treasury, and minister of transportation in other cabinets from May 1920 to November 1922. In 1925, he was forced to resign his seat in the Reichstag due to his involvement in the fraud and bribery of the Barmat scandal. He was allowed to resume his seat in 1926. He kept it until 1928, when he retired from public life.