Paul Löbe
Panel 1
The year 1875 – 150 years ago – saw the birth of Paul Löbe, one of the outstanding parliamentarians in the history of German democracy.
His name stands for parliamentary continuity across the deep fissures of the twentieth century. From 1920 to 1932 – for almost the whole lifetime of the Weimar Republic – the Social Democrat Paul Löbe was President (Speaker) of the Reichstag. And in 1949, as president by seniority, he opened the inaugural sitting of the first German Bundestag.
Born in 1875 as the eldest son of a joiner, Löbe served an apprenticeship as a typesetter. He later became editor-in-chief of the Silesian Social Democratic newspaper Volkswacht für Schlesien and for many years was a city councillor in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland).
After the revolution of 1918/19 and the collapse of the German Empire, Löbe rose to prominence in the Weimar National Assembly. In 1920, the first Reichstag of the Republic elected him to head it as its President. Apart from a brief interlude, he was re-elected to that office time and again as the representative of the largest parliamentary group.
Following the Reichstag election of July 1932, he was succeeded by National Socialist Hermann Göring, and so began the path to dictatorship. During the National Socialist reign of terror, Löbe was repeatedly imprisoned, ultimately in Gross-Rosen concentration camp.
After the end of the war, he participated in the re-establishment of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet zone of occupation. In 1948/49, as a member of the Parliamentary Council, he worked on the drafting of the Basic Law, and he belonged to the first German Bundestag.
Löbe, exiled from his Silesian homeland, cared deeply about the unity of the German people and was President of the Kuratorium Unteilbares Deutschland, a body dedicated to preserving the unity of Germany. At the same time, he campaigned, as he had done in the inter-war period, for a united Europe and for understanding between peoples.
Paul Löbe died in Bonn in 1967 at the age of 91. An honorary citizen of Berlin, he is buried in that city at Zehlendorf woodland cemetery.
This building, one of the largest properties of the German Bundestag, bears his name today.
1 Bundestag Library: Reichstags-Handbuch, first legislative term, 1920
2 The Löbe family, c. 1895. In the foreground are Pauline and Heinrich Löbe; behind them (left to right) are the children Emma, Karl, Paul and Hermann
3 Typesetter Paul Löbe as a wandering journeyman, c. 1895
4 Clara and Paul Löbe, c. 1908.
5 Paul Löbe presiding over a sitting of the Reichstag
6 Paul Löbe is committed to Dürrgoy concentration camp near Breslau on 5 August 1933. Still dressed in his suit, Löbe heads the small procession
7 As president by seniority, Paul Löbe opens the inaugural sitting of the German Bundestag on 7 September 1949
Panel 2
Paul Löbe – Social Democrat, Parliamentarian, President of the Reichstag
1875-1967
8 Paul Löbe addresses a mass anti-fascism rally of the SPD in the Berlin Lustgarten on 13 October 1930
9 As president by seniority, Paul Löbe opens the inaugural sitting of the German Bundestag on 7 September 1949
10 In the Parliamentary Council with Theodor Heuss
11 Paul Löbe presiding over a sitting of the Reichstag.
Panel 3
The Social Democrat
Paul Löbe was one of the leading figures in Silesian Social Democratic circles in the latter years of the German Empire. His commitment to abolition of the Prussian three-class electoral system cost him a year in prison.
In the November revolution of 1918, Löbe was a staunch advocate of parliamentary democracy; like other Social Democrats, however, he struggled to accept the new role of the SPD as a party of government. In Parliament and in the republican Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold organisation, he was firmly committed to the protection of the young Republic against the extremist attacks from right and left.
After the National Socialists’ takeover of power, Löbe and his parliamentary group displayed great courage, being the only group to vote against Hitler’s Enabling Act in March 1933. Löbe remained in Germany and tried to secure the organisational survival of his party through political moderation. This put him at odds with the SPD executive in exile. On the day after the SPD was banned in June 1933, Löbe was arrested.
After 1945, the Social Democratic luminary spoke out against the forced merger of the East German SPD with the Communist Party to form the Socialist Unity Party (SED). He became co-editor of the pro-SPD Berlin daily newspaper Telegraf and was appointed to the Parliamentary Council and the first German Bundestag as a representative of the Social Democrats in Berlin. In spite of conflicts over SPD policy on the future of Germany and Western European integration, Löbe remained loyal to the party throughout his life.
12 At an SPD event in Dresden (probably February 1946 on the occasion of a ceremony commemorating August Bebel).
13 Löbe, as President of the Reichstag, reviewing Reichsbanner troops at Potsdam Station in Berlin, c. 1925
14 Surrounded by members of the Young Socialist Workers movement during the SPD party congress in Leipzig, 1931
15 Postcard with the blacked-out front page of the Volkswacht of 5 December 1905. In his editorial, editor-in-chief Löbe had called for a campaign against the Prussian three-class electoral system.
16 With the women Members of Parliament of the SPD group in front of the Reichstag building in 1919. Next to Löbe to our left is Toni Pfülf, holding a notebook; first on our right in the back row is Louise Schroeder
17 Paul Löbe, Louise Schroeder and Kurt Schumacher at an SPD meeting in Berlin, 1950
Panel 4
President of Parliament in polarised times
As President of the Reichstag, Paul Löbe set standards. He was regarded by his contemporaries as a “born President”. Even among his political adversaries in the democratic camp, he was highly respected – even though, unlike his predecessors, he remained active in party politics while in office.
Paul Löbe sought to reinforce the importance and reputation of Parliament. He pressed for parliamentary reform and also harnessed the potential of the new media of his day; under his presidency, the first radio broadcasts from the Reichstag chamber were made. As the “travelling President of Parliament”, he established contacts with parliaments of other countries and was actively engaged in the work of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
With the surge in the representation of parties on the extremist fringes following the Reichstag election of September 1930, Lobe’s presidential authority was increasingly reaching its limits. In the Reichstag, which was largely disempowered by presidential cabinets governing by means of emergency decrees, instability and tumults became the norm. When the National Socialist NSDAP emerged as the largest party from the election of July 1932, the “Löbe era” came to an end.
In the first German Bundestag, the President emeritus of the Reichstag was in great demand as an adviser. His knowledge of rules of procedure and parliamentary practice was second to none. Paul Löbe made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the parliamentary debating culture in the young Federal Republic. Until the end he continued to campaign for more fairness and transparency in political disputation.
18 Paul Löbe in the presidential chair in the Reichstag.
19 The first meeting of the Council of Elders in the fifth term of the post-imperial Reichstag on 15 September 1930. Newly re-elected Reichstag President Paul Löbe is at the head of the table; beside him are Reinhold Galle, Secretary-General of the Reichstag, as well as Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Göring and Franz Stöhr of the NSDAP parliamentary group.
20 The President of the Reichstag delivers the eulogy before the coffin of Friedrich Ebert in front of the Reichstag building on 4 March 1925.
21 The Löbe family in the Präsidentenpalais, the official residence of the Reichstag President, Christmas 1925. Clara Löbe (standing, third from left), 15-year-old son Werner sits cross-legged in the foreground, and Lobe’s mother Pauline is seated on the right of the front row.
22 In the official car of the Reichstag President, August 1926. On the back seat are Clara and Werner Löbe and another family member; chauffeur Klattke is at the wheel.
Further reading:
Victoria Krummel, Paul Löbe. Ein Leben für die Demokratie. Osburg Verlag, Hamburg, 2025
Paul Löbe, Der Weg war lang: Lebenserinnerungen. arani Verlag, Berlin, 1994
Theodor Oliwa, Paul Löbe. Ein sozialdemokratischer Politiker und Redakteur. Die schlesischen Jahre (1875–1919). Degener Verlag, Neustadt an der Aisch, 2003 (Quellen und Darstellungen zur schlesischen Geschichte, Vol. 30)
Volker Stalmann: Paul Löbe 1875-1967. Sozialdemokrat, Journalist, Reichstagspräsident und Bundestagsabgeordneter. Metropol Verlag, Berlin, 2025
Credits
Direction: German Bundestag, Research Services, Research Section WD 1 – History, Politics and Culture, Platz der Republik 1, 11011 Berlin
Design: REDPEAR, Potsdam
Installation: mediapool Agency for Productions, Events and Exhibitions, Berlin
Division WD 1 thanks Victoria Krummel for lending her expertise regarding the textual and pictorial content of the exhibition.
Image credits
Bundesarchiv Bild (Federal Archives)
102 - 10545 / Georg Pahl [8],
145 - 00047257 / o- Ang [17].
Erna Wagner-Hehmke Collection, Haus der Geschichte Foundation
[7, 9, 10].
bpk-Fotoarchiv (Image Bank of Cultural Institutions, Prussian Cultural Property Foundation, Berlin)
Erich Salomon [5, 11, 18, 19], photographer unknown [6, 16].
Deutsches Historisches Museum
[14, 20].
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung,
Archiv der sozialen Demokratie
6/FOTA013771 [13], 6/FOTA007445 [3].
Private collection
[2, 4, 12, 15, 21, 22].
Reichstags-Handbuch: first legislative term, 1920,
[1].
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