Anton Weintraub
Anton Weintraub | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister-President of Hanover | |
| In office 20 November 1924 – 20 November 1939 | |
| Monarch | Frederick |
| Deputy | Phillipp Stahnke |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Phillipp Stahnke |
| Leader of the Hanoverian Union Party | |
| In office 5 December 1924 – 20 November 1939 | |
| Deputy | Phillipp Stahnke |
| Succeeded by | Phillipp Stahnke |
| Member of the Hanoverian Parliament for Braunschweig V | |
| In office 20 November 1924 – 20 November 1939 | |
| Succeeded by | Valle Holzer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Anton Schmidt Weintraub March 10, 1876 Goslar, Kingdom of Hanover |
| Died | May 22, 1981 (aged 105) King Frederick City, Hanover |
| Political party | Hanoverian Union Party |
| Spouse | Felizitas Staudinger |
| Children | 3 |
Anton Schmidt Weintraub (10 March 1876 - 22 May 1981) was a Hanoverian politician and banker who served as the first minister-president of Hanover and was the founding leader of the Hanoverian Union Party from 1924 to 1939. A hugely popular figure in modern-day Hanover, Weintraub is widely regarded by many Hanoverians for his successful efforts in establishing an elected government for Hanover, as well as for his founding of the Hanoverian Union Party, which would come to dominate Hanoverian politics in the decades following his retirement. Among supporters, he is popularly nicknamed "Kaiser Anton" while Winston Churchill dubbed him "Britain's very own Bismarck".
The only son of a German banking family in Hanover, Weintraub, a promising and fairly successful banker in his family's tradition, first rose to prominence as one of the founding members of the Democratic Movement for Hanover, a group of Hanoverian activists and thinkers concerned with modernisation and reform of the administration of Hanover which, by the early 20th century, had begun to be seen by large sectors of society as outdated and archaic given that the kingdom's administrative leader, known as a viceroy, was an unelected position. In 1907, following the death of the group's founder Albert Steinhauer, Weintraub was subsequently elected as the group's new leader, allowing him to further advance the group's cause which became more and more noticeable and popular following the end of World War I during which post-war tensions had thrown the future of Hanover into doubt. Eventually, on November 1924, following Hanover's formal incorporation into the United Kingdom as an autonomous constituent country as a result of the passage of the Kingdom of Hanover Act 1924, in the country's first state elections, Weintraub was elected as the country's first minister-president, a role which he held from 1924 until 1939 before voluntarily stepping down in accordance to a tradition he had established himself whereby each officeholder would voluntarily resign after holding the office for fifteen years. Immediately after his resignation, he was succeeded by his deputy Phillipp Stahnke who oversaw the subsequent Second World War and the early years of the Cold War.
As minister-president, Weintraub initially presided over the post-war economic boom following the First World War before later overseeing a major financial crisis caused by the Great Depression in 1929. Around that same time, the growing ideology of Nazism in the neighbouring Weimar Republic became an issue of concern for Weintraub, a moderate conservative, who subsequently took great effort in rooting out as well as preventing the Nazi ideology from ever taking hold in Hanover while at the same time greatly promoting efforts to alleviate the general population's hardships caused by the Great Depression. Around November 1939, Weintraub voluntarily resigned from his position but continued to retain significant influence especially during the Second World War and the subsequent Cold War conflict with Weintraub being a prominent anti-communist voice who routinely condemned the Soviet Union.
On 22 May 1981, at the age of 105, Weintraub died from natural causes, making him the longest-lived minister-president of Hanover and the only one to have lived beyond the age of 100.