Career
He held high government posts during World War I, heading the grain office from 1914 to 1916 and serving as chief assistant to the food department from 1916 to 1917. He then became a member of the board of directors of the Hamburg-American Steamship Line, and the following year he was appointed president of the company, serving in this capacity for four years. Having become active in politics as a member of the Center Party, he became chancellor of republican Germany in November 1922. In August 1923, however, Cuno was forced to resign as chancellor because he was able neither to secure from the western powers a definition of the extent of Germany's war reparations obligations nor to stabilize German currency. He again became a director of the steamship line and president in 1926.