Why Friedrich Ebert is still relevant today

The distinctive mustache, the short, arched eyebrows and the stern look: This is the Friedrich Ebert most German schoolchildren know. The social democrat was the first president of Germany's fledgling democratic republic in 1919, and this bust in the Weimar City Museum captures his statesman-like bearing at a critical juncture of German history.

Ebert left a memorable impression in Schwarzburg in Thuringia: In 1919, as president of the German Republic, he signed the Weimar Constitution here at the Weisser Hirsch hotel. A life-size photo shows him gazing at the East Thuringian landscape. Ebert loved to hike, but the busy politician rarely had the time to do so.

Friedrich Ebert's private life was hardly ever public. This famous and rare photo shows him (right) bathing in the Baltic Sea resort of Travemünde in 1919. Weeks later, on the day of his swearing-in as president of the German Reich, it appeared in a Berlin tabloid. The picture of the politician in swimming trunks became popular fodder for caricatures.

Many German schools, foundations, streets or bridges, like the one here in Duisburg, bear Ebert's name. The principles of social democracy that Ebert stood for in the wake of a disastrous First World War and dynastic Prussian rule guided the successful German Revolution of 1918–19 and have since become cornerstones of Germany's self-image.

Despite allying with nationalist forces to quash the socialist and communist uprising of 1919, Friedrich Ebert would become the figurehead of German democracy during his relatively short term as president. When he died of appendicitis on February 28, 1925 at the age of 54, an estimated 1 million citizens attended his funeral procession in Berlin. Ebert was buried in his hometown of Heidelberg.

After Ebert's death, monuments to him were initially erected all over Germany, but their fate reflected two turbulent decades to come: After taking power in 1933, the National Socialist dictatorship desecrated and demolished memorials dedicated to Ebert. After the unconditional surrender of the Germans in 1945, many of the monuments were erected again, including this one in Offenbach in 1947.

While one usually only reads about Ebert, it is also possible to hear him: The sound archives of the Humboldt University stores recordings of famous personalities of the Empire and the Weimar Republic. This shellac record contains a speech that Ebert gave as president of the Weimar Republic in 1919.