Preuss, Hugo

Preiss was born into the family of a Jewish businessman. Since 1879 he studied law at the University of Berlin and Heidelberg . In 1883 he passed the first state exam and in the same year he defended his thesis at the Faculty of Law of the University of Gottingen in Roman law . In 1889 he received the position of assistant professor at the University of Berlin. In 1906 he received a professorship at the new Higher Trade School in Berlin, and in 1918 became its rector.

Like his teacher, Otto von Girke , Preuss was a supporter of organic and cooperative theories of the origin of the state. His ideal in matters of self-government was the Prussian reformer Heinrich Friedrich Karl von Stein . In 1895, Preiss was elected from the liberals to the Berlin city assembly, from 1910 to 1918 he was an honorary adviser to the Berlin magistrate. In 1918, Preuss co-founded the German Democratic Party . In 1919 - 1925 he was elected to the Prussian Land Assembly and the Prussian Landtag. As part of the Progressive People’s Party, he belonged to its left wing. After the November Revolution, on November 15, 1918, Preiss was appointed Secretary of State of the Imperial Home Office with the task of developing a draft imperial constitution. The Council of People's Commissioners also considered Max Weber's candidacy for this position, but refused this appointment, apparently due to Weber's rejection of the revolution. Preuss, in turn, was influenced by Robert Redslob ’s theory of parliamentarism . The draft constitution, proposed by Preiss on February 3, 1919 , was rejected after harsh criticism from conservatives for its proximity to the Constitution of Paulskirche , and not the Prussian constitution of 1848-1850 .

In the government of Philippe Scheidemann, Preiss served as Reich Minister of the Interior from February to June 1919.

Later, National Socialists used Preuss's Jewish origin to discredit the Weimar Republic and its constitution as “anti-German . ”

Since 2005, the name of Hugo Preuss has been bearing a new bridge in the newly constructed government quarter of the German capital.

• Gemeinde, Staat, Reich , 1889
• Stadt und Staat , 1909
• Zur preussischen Verwaltungsreform , 1910
• Deutschlands republikanische Reichsverfassung , 1921
• Um die Weimarer Reichsverfassung , 1924
• Staat, Recht und Freiheit. Aus vierzig Jahren deutscher Politik und Geschichte , Tübingen 1926 (Gesammelte Aufsätze von Hugo Preuß, hrsg. Von Theodor Heuss)

• Günther Gillessen. Hugo Preuß. Studien zur Ideen- und Verfassungsgeschichte der Weimarer Republik. - Berlin: Duncker und Humblot, 2000 .-- 181 p. - ISBN 3-428-10019-0 . (German)
• Michael Dreyer. Hugo Preuß (1860-1925). Biographie eines Demokraten. - Jena: University of Jena , 2002. (German)
• Arndt Faatz. Hugo Preuß: die Entwicklung eines Strukturprinzips für den modernen Staat. - Trier: University of Trier, 1999. - 255 p. (German)
• Christoph Müller. Gemeinde, Stadt und Staat: Aspekte der Verfassungstheorie von Hugo Preuss. - Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2005 .-- 231 p. - ISBN 3-8329-1646-6 . (German)
• Jan Immel. Hugo Preuß und die Weimarer Reichsverfassung. - Berlin: Logos, 2002 .-- 117 p. - ISBN 3-89722-843-2 . (German)
• Sandro Mezzadra. La costituzione del sociale: il pensiero politico e giuridico di Hugo Preuss. - Bologna: Mulino, 1999 .-- 380 p. - ISBN 88-15-06703-5 . (ital.)

• Hedwig Hintze : Hugo Preuß. Eine historisch-politische Charakteristik, in: Die Justiz Bd. 2 (1927), S. 223-237.

• Elmar Matthias Hucko : Zur Erinnerung an Hugo Preuß, in: NJW 1985, S. 2309-2311.

• A brief biography on the website of the German Historical Museum (German) . Date of treatment March 23, 2009. Archived March 28, 2012.
• Brief curriculum vitae on the website of the federal archive (German) . Date of treatment March 23, 2009. Archived March 28, 2012.
• Website of the Hugo Preuss Society (German) (link not available) . Date of treatment March 23, 2009. Archived March 28, 2012.
• Leonid Mininberg: “Biographies of famous Jews whose names are given to the streets of the city” (neopr.) . Date of treatment March 23, 2009. Archived August 21, 2011.