Editing Walter Simons

{{use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}
{{Short description|German lawyer and politician (1861-1937)}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Walter Simons
| image               = Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12279, Walter Simons.jpg
| image_size          = 
| image_upright       = 
| smallimage          = <!--If this is specified, "image" should not be.-->
| alt                 = 
| caption             = Simons in 1931
| office              = Acting [[President of Germany (1919–1945)|President of Germany]]
| term_start          = 12 March 1925
| term_end            = 12 May 1925
| chancellor          = [[Hans Luther]]
| predecessor         = [[Hans Luther]] (''acting'')
| successor           = [[Paul von Hindenburg]]
| office1             = [[Reichsgericht#List of presidents|President of the Reichsgericht]]
| term_start1         = 16 October 1922
| term_end1           = 1 April 1929
| appointed1          = Friedrich Ebert
| predecessor1        = [[:de:Heinrich Delbrück|Heinrich Delbrück]]
| successor1          = [[Erwin Bumke]]
| office2             = [[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany)|Minister for Foreign Affairs]]
| term_start2         = 25 June 1920
| term_end2           = 10 May 1921
| chancellor2         = [[Constantin Fehrenbach]]
| predecessor2        = [[Adolf Köster]]
| successor2          = [[Friedrich Rosen]]
| birth_name          = 
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1861|9|24|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Elberfeld]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[German Confederation]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1937|7|14|1861|9|24|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Potsdam]], [[Brandenburg]], [[Nazi Germany]]
| death_cause         = 
| resting_place       = Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof
| resting_place_coordinates = 
| citizenship         = 
| nationality         = 
| party               = [[Independent politician|Independent]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Erna Rühle|1890}}
| relations           = 
| children            = 7
| parents             = <!-- overrides mother and father parameters -->
| relatives           = [[Gerhard Simons]] (grandson)
| residence           = 
| education           = [[University of Strasbourg]]<br/>[[Leipzig University]]<br/>[[University of Bonn]]
| alma_mater          = 
| occupation          = 
| profession          = [[Lawyer]]
| awards              = <!-- For civilian awards - appears as "Awards" if |mawards= is not set -->
| signature           = Walter Simons Signature.png
| signature_alt       = 
| footnotes           = 
}}

'''Walter Simons''' (24 September 1861 – 14 July 1937) was a German lawyer and politician. He was Foreign Minister of the [[Weimar Republic]] in 1920-21 and served as president of the ''[[Reichsgericht]]'' from 1922 to 1929.

==Early life==
Walter Simons was born on 24 September 1861 at Elberfeld (today [[Wuppertal]]) in the Prussian [[Rhine Province]]. His family were [[Huguenot]]s who had come to the Rhineland after 1685. Walter's father was Ludwig Simons (1831–1905), a silk manufacturer. His mother was Helene Simons née Kyllmann (1842–1916).<ref name=Bio>{{cite web|url=http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/ppn118614541.html|title=Biografie Walter Simons (German)|publisher=Bayerische Nationalbibliothek|access-date=26 January 2015}}</ref>

Walter Simons attended a ''[[Gymnasium (Germany)|Gymnasium]]'' at Elberfeld and attained the ''[[Abitur]]'' in 1879. He went on to study law, economics and history at [[Strasbourg]], [[Leipzig]] and [[Bonn]]. [[Rudolph Sohm]] had an important influence on him. In 1882, he passed the ''Referendarexamen'' and then served in the military. In 1888, he passed the Prussian ''Assessorexamen'' and then served as an assistant judge at Bonn and Solingen. He married Erna Rühle (1870–1954) at Solingen in 1890. They had three sons and four daughters.<ref name=Bio/>

==Civil service career==
In 1893, Simons became ''Amtsgerichtsrat'' (judge) at Velbert. From 1897 to 1905, he was ''Landgerichtsrat'' at the ''Gemeinschaftliche Landgericht'' of [[Thuringia]] at [[Meiningen]]. In 1905, he went to Kiel where he worked at the ''[[Oberlandesgericht]]'', but left that same year to work as a clerk at the ''[[Reichsjustizamt]]'' at Berlin.<ref name=Bio/>

In 1907, Simons was promoted to ''Geheimer Regierungsrat'' and ''Vortragender Rat'', responsible for international law. He represented the Reich at several international conferences and in 1911 moved to the ''[[Federal Foreign Office|Auswärtige Amt]]'' (Foreign Office) where he became ''Geheimer Legationsrat'' and ''Justitiar''. In 1917, he was promoted to ''Wirklicher Geheimer Rat'' and in 1918 participated in the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk|negotiations at Brest-Litovsk]]. On 15 October 1918, shortly before the [[German Revolution of 1918-19]], chancellor [[Max von Baden]] made him advisor to the ''[[Reichskanzler]]'' on issues of international law. He was close to the chancellor and was an important influence on the reform of the [[Constitution of the German Empire|German constitution of 1871]] known as the ''[[German constitutional reforms of October 1918|Oktoberreformen]]'' which strengthened the position of the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]]. He also worked on plans to have [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]] resign in favour of a relative and participated in negotiations at the ''Reichsamt des Innern'' (Interior Ministry) about a new constitution.<ref name=Bio/>

In November 1918, Simons became ''Ministerialdirektor'' and head of the law department at the Foreign Office. In 1919, as a close staff member of Foreign Minister [[Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau]] he was ''Unterstaatssekretär '' and ''Generalkommissar'' of the German delegation at [[Treaty of Versailles|Versailles]].<ref name=Bio/>

Since he opposed German signature of the Treaty, Simons resigned his post (''einstweiliger Ruhestand'') and became managing director of the ''Reichsverband der deutschen Industrie'' (the industrialists' association). In 1920, he resigned from the [[Pan-German League]] where he had served on the executive board in 1903–1907.<ref name=Bio/>

==Political career==
Simons, who never joined a political party, served from June 1920 to May 1921 in the [[Fehrenbach cabinet]] as Foreign Minister and was the Reich representative at the [[Spa Conference of 1920|Spa Conference]] and the [[:de:Londoner Konferenz (1921)|London Conference of 1921]].<ref name=Bio/>

From January to May 1922, Simons was delegate at the German-Polish negotiations on [[Upper Silesia plebiscite|Upper Silesia]]. In 1922, he founded the so-called ''[[SeSiSo Club|SeSiSo-Kreis]]'' named after co-founders [[Hans von Seeckt]], Simons and [[Wilhelm Solf]], a [[Salon (gathering)|salon]] meeting at the ''Hotel Kaiserhof'' in Berlin.<ref name=Bio/>

In the 1920s, Simons also chaired the family trust of the Moltke family, which included ownership of the [[Krzyżowa, Świdnica County|Kreisau]] estate that was later to give its name to the [[Kreisau Circle]] of dissidents against Nazi rule.<ref name=Bio/>

==President of the ''Reichsgericht''==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-01157, Walter Simons.jpg|left|thumb|Simons at the [[Palace of the Reich President]] in 1925]]
On 1 October 1922, Simons was appointed president of the ''[[Reichsgericht]]'' at Leipzig on the suggestion of ''Reichspräsident'' [[Friedrich Ebert]]. After Ebert's death in 1925, Simons temporarily served as [[President of Germany (1919–1945)|acting head of state]] before the swearing in of [[Paul von Hindenburg]].<ref name=Bio/>

Simons himself was suggested as a potential candidate for Reichspräsident after the [[1925 German presidential election|first round of voting]] had failed to yield an outright winner. However, he refused to be nominated.

From 1922 to 1926, Simons was president of the ''I. Zivilsenat'' and from 1926 to 1929 president of the ''III. Strafsenat''. He was also president of the [[State Court for the German Reich]]. He was attacked by the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]] for his criticism of judges being members of the SPD or the ''Republikanischen Richterbund'', an association of judges which was close to the party. Simons opposed a separate ''Reichsverwaltungsgericht'' (administrative court) and was highly critical of the ''Kartellgericht'' established in 1923 at the ''Reichswirtschaftsgericht'', accusing it of inappropriate hostility towards [[cartel]]s.<ref name=Bio/>

After a conflict with president Hindenburg and the government of [[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]] concerning the appointment of members of the board of directors at the [[Reichsbahn]] in 1928, Simons resigned in 1929.<ref name=Bio/>

==Further career==
Since 1926, Simons had been honorary professor for international law at the University of Leipzig and president of the ''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerrecht''. He was also active and influential in the Lutheran church, as the first non-theologian to be president of the ''Evangelisch-sozialer Kongresses'' (Evangelical Social Congress, 1925–1936) and member of the ''Deutsche Evangelischer Kirchenausschuss'' (German Evangelical Church Commission, after 1930). In 1920, he had co-founded the ''Deutsche Hochschule für Politik'' at Berlin (and was a long-standing board member). In 1929/30, Simons was appointed as a teacher of national and international law at the ''Handelshochschule Berlin''.<ref name=Bio/>

After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Simons was active only in the church and in the ''Neue Bachgesellschaft'' honouring [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] (where he was president since 1930). Some public statements, such as on occasion of the Bach anniversary in 1935 and late publications on international law indicate some support for the policies of the NSDAP and for German as well as Italian foreign policy (in the [[Abyssinia Crisis]]) and for the [[Falange Española y de las JONS|Falange]] in Spain.<ref name=Bio/>

Simons died at  Neubabelsberg/[[Potsdam]] on 14 July 1937. He was the father of [[:de:Hans Simons|Hans Simons]], father-in-law of [[Ernst Rudolf Huber]] and grandfather of [[Wolfgang Huber]]. Simons is buried at the ''[[:de:Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Stahnsdorf|Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof]]''.<ref name=Bio/><ref name=Bio2>{{cite web|url=http://www.uni-leipzig.de/unigeschichte/professorenkatalog/leipzig/Simons_338.pdf|title=Biografie Walter Simons (German)|publisher=Universität von Leipzig|access-date=26 January 2015}}</ref>

==Awards==
* 1931 ''[[Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches]]'' (Eagle Shield of the German Reich)

==Selected works==
* ''Christentum und Verbrechen'' (''Christianity and Crime''), 1925
* ''Religion und Recht'' (''Religion and Law'') (Lectures held at Uppsala University), Berlin-Tempelhof 1936
* ''Kirchenvolk und Staatsvolk'', Leipziger rechtswissenschaftliche Studien Bd. 100, Leipzig 1937

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{PM20|FID=pe/016605}}
* Genealogy [https://database.factgrid.de/wiki/Item:Q17814 FactGrid Item:Q17814]

{{S-start}}
{{S-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Adolf Köster]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]] |years=1920–1921}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Friedrich Rosen]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Hans Luther]]<br>{{small|Acting}}}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[President of Germany (1919–1945)|Acting head of state of Germany]]|years=1925}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Paul von Hindenburg]]}}
{{S-legal}}
{{s-bef|before=[[:de:Heinrich Delbrück|Heinrich Delbrück]]}}
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{{s-aft|after=[[Erwin Bumke]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{Commons category|Walter Simons}}
{{GermanFMs}}
{{Cabinet Fehrenbach}}
{{ReichsgerichtPresidents}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Simons, Walter}}
[[Category:1861 births]]
[[Category:1937 deaths]]
[[Category:German Lutherans]]
[[Category:Independent politicians in Germany]]
[[Category:Politicians from Wuppertal]]
[[Category:People from the Rhine Province]]
[[Category:Ministers for foreign affairs of Germany]]
[[Category:20th-century German judges]]
[[Category:Acting heads of state of Germany]]
[[Category:19th-century German judges]]