Johannes Hoffmann was a Bavarian Minister-President

Minister-President

A minister-president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments, in which a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government prevails, who presides over the council of ministers...

 and member of the SPD

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

.

Life

Born in Ilbesheim

Ilbesheim bei Landau in der Pfalz

Ilbesheim bei Landau in der Pfalz is a municipality in Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....

, near Landau

Landau

Landau or Landau in der Pfalz is an autonomous city surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town , a long-standing cultural centre, and a market and shopping town, surrounded by vineyards and wine-growing villages of the...

, his parents were Peter Hoffmann and Maria Eva Keller. After he completed his training to be a teacher, Johannes Hoffmann served as a teacher in Kaiserslautern

Kaiserslautern

Kaiserslautern is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, and from Luxembourg.Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...

 from 1887 to 1908.

In 1908, he was elected member of the Landtag

Landtag

A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...

. From 1912 to 1919 he held the position of second mayor of Kaiserslautern. In 1912, he was elected to the German Reichstag.

After the revolution of November 1918, he served as Minister of Education under prime minister Kurt Eisner

Kurt Eisner

Kurt Eisner was a Bavarian politician and journalist. As a German socialist journalist and statesman, he organized the Socialist Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria in November 1918....

 and later succeed him on 17 March 1919 as the first freely elected Bavarian Minister President. Ousted from Munich by the Bavarian Soviet Republic

Bavarian Soviet Republic

The Bavarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Munich Soviet Republic was, as part of the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the short-lived attempt to establish a socialist state in form of a council republic in the Free State of Bavaria. It sought independence from the also recently proclaimed...

, parliament and government moved to Bamberg in April 1919, where Hoffmann took part in the working out of the Bavarian Constitution ("Bamberg Constitution"). His government returned to Munich again in May 1919.

On 16 March 1920, he was succeeded by Gustav von Kahr. This occurred after he was forced out of office by the Bavarian Civil Guards and freikorps forces.

During his reign as Minister of Education, he removed the Bavarian schooling system from the supervision of the church.

External links

• Picture of Johannes Hoffmann, taken in 1919 Historisches Lexikon Bayerns

Sources

• Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg - Bosls bayrische Biographie - Johannes Hoffmann (in German), author: Karl Bosl, publisher: Pustet, page 361