SPD right-winger, "Cohen-Reuss", who carried the parliamentary system at the 1918 councils congress
German journalist and social democratic politician. The son of a Jewish merchant, he joined the SPD in 1902 and sat in the Reichstag for Reuss from 1912 to 1918, hence the name "Cohen-Reuss". On the party right and a supporter of Ebert's leadership, during the November Revolution he sat on the Berlin Executive Council and chaired the Central Council elected in December, playing a major part in the councils congress's acceptance of a parliamentary system. He emigrated to Paris in 1934 and died there.
Also known as: Max Cohen-Reuß · Max Cohen-Reuss · Emanuel Max Cohen
Activities and affiliations
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1900–
Social movements and organizing
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1902–1963
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
Ideology and propaganda -
1912–1918
Germany state institutionsMember of the Reichstag
Legislature and state representation -
1918–1919
Workers' and Soldiers' Councils (Germany, 1918-1919)Chairman of the Central Council of the German Socialist RepublicMain
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1902Joined the SPD.
- 1912.12.19Elected to the Reichstag for Reuss.
- 1918.12Deputy chairman, then chairman, of the Central Council.
- 1934Emigrated to Paris.
- 1947–1951Official SPD representative in France.
The councils congress and the parliamentary system
Cohen trained in commerce and worked as a clerk and exporter before joining a trade union in 1900 and the SPD in 1902; from 1904 he was a journalist, writing for the Sozialistische Monatshefte and the Vossische Zeitung among others. In a by-election in Reuss in December 1912 he won on the first ballot with 7,911 votes; one of the defeated candidates was the future chancellor Gustav Stresemann.
During the First World War he worked in the raw materials department of the Prussian War Ministry, and on the party right he called for German hegemony in continental Europe as a war aim, a counterweight to the economic power of the United States and Britain. With his good contacts in the military he supported the leadership of Ebert and Scheidemann.
During the November Revolution, as a member of the Majority SPD, he enjoyed the confidence of the Berlin soldiers' councils, sat on the Berlin Executive Council, and was deputy chairman and then chairman of the Central Council elected in December 1918. At the national congress of workers' and soldiers' councils in December 1918 he played a major part in the decision to accept a parliamentary system. In the Weimar years he sat on the Provisional Reich Economic Council and advised the government on economic questions.