Scholz, Ernst August Gustav

Lawyer, Politician

Born: 03.05.1874 in Wiesbaden

Died: 26.06.1932 in Berlin

The son of a councillor of justice, he studied law in Freiburg, Marburg and Heidelberg, received his doctorate in law in 1895 and joined the civil service as a government assistant in 1899. In July 1902, he became the third paid alderman in Wiesbaden and was appointed to the newly created post of city treasurer at the beginning of 1903. In 1909 he left the service of the city of Wiesbaden following his election as an alderman in Düsseldorf, became Lord Mayor of Kassel in 1912 and Lord Mayor of Charlottenburg in 1913/14. From 1912-18, Scholz was a member of the Prussian House of Lords.

In 1919 he joined the German People's Party, was elected to the Reichstag in 1921 and was chairman of the DVP parliamentary group there in 1929/30. 1920-21 Scholz served as Reich Minister of Economics in the government led by Reich Chancellor Constantin Fehrenbach (Center Party). From 1922-29, he was chairman of the Professional Association of Higher Municipal Civil Servants in Germany. Scholz earned particular merit through his many years of work for the savings bank associations, through which he contributed to the modernization of the German savings bank system.

Scholz wrote numerous works on the Reich mortgage law and the municipal taxation system in Prussia as well as a law book for cooperatives. The TH Berlin awarded him an honorary doctorate in engineering (Dr.-Ing. e.h.).