Johann Viktor Bredt (2 March 1879 – 1 December 1940) was a German jurist and politician. He served as Minister of Justice of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

in 1930/1.

Biography

Bredt was born in

Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...

, on 2 March 1879, the only son of Viktor Richard Bredt (1849–1881), an industrialist, and his wife, Henriette (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Koll). He worked at the ''Barmer Bankverein'' in 1897/8 before studying jurisprudence and economics at Tübingen, Göttingen and Bonn. In 1901, he was awarded a doctorate (Dr. jur.) and in 1904 a Dr. phil.. In 1909, he became a professor at Marburg. Bredt worked in the civil service in 1903-09 and in 1910 was appointed to a professorship for jurisprudence at Marburg university. Johann married twice: in 1902 Ada Bredt (divorced in 1912) at Barmen and in 1931 Olga Bredt (at Marburg).

Political career

From 1911 to 1918, and from 1921 to 1924, Bredt was a member of the lower chamber of the

Landtag of Prussia The Landtag of Prussia () was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameralism, bicameral legislature consisting of the upper Prussian House of Lords, House of Lords (''Herrenhaus'') and the lower Prussian ...

, first for the

Free Conservative Party The Free Conservative Party (, FKP) was a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative political party in Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia and the German Empire which ran as the German Reich Party (, DRP) in the federal elections to the Reichstag (Ger ...

in the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

, then in the

Free State of Prussia The Free State of Prussia (, ) was one of the States of the Weimar Republic, constituent states of Weimar Republic, Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it cont ...

. From 1924 to 1932, he was the parliamentary leader of the Reich Party of the German Middle Class (which he had co-founded) in the Reichstag. He also held various honorary and political positions on a local (Marburg) and regional (Hesse-Nassau) level. In 1926, Bredt was an expert witness for the parliamentary committee on the causes of the German collapse in 1918. In 1930 and 1931, he served as Minister of Justice in the first cabinet of

Heinrich Brüning Heinrich Aloysius Maria Elisabeth Brüning (; 26 November 1885 – 30 March 1970) was a German Centre Party politician and academic, who served as the chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1930 to 1932. A political scientis ...

. Bredt also played a key role in the German

reformed church Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...

. In 1925, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology ''Dr. theol. h. c.'' by the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

. Bredt died 1 December 1940, aged 61, in

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

Works

* ''Die Trennung von Kirche und Staat'', 1919 * ''Die Rechte des Summus Episcopus'', 1919 * ''Neues evangelisches Kirchenrecht für Preußen'', 3 volumes, 1921–27 * ''Der Geist der deutschen Reichsverfassung'', 1924 * ''Der deutsche Reichstag im Weltkrieg'', 1926 * ''Die belgische Neutralität und der Schlieffensche Feldzugsplan'', 1929 * ''Geschichte der Familie Bredt'', 1937 * ''Haus Bredt-Rübel'', 1937 * ''Die Verfassung der reformierten Kirche in Cleve-Jülich-Berg-Mark'', 1938.

References

External links

* 1879 births 1940 deaths Politicians from Wuppertal People from the Rhine Province German Calvinist and Reformed Christians Free Conservative Party politicians Reich Party of the German Middle Class politicians Government ministers of Germany Members of the Reichstag 1924 Members of the Reichstag 1924–1928 Members of the Reichstag 1928–1930 Members of the Reichstag 1930–1932 Members of the Reichstag 1932–1933 {{Germany-politician-stub