Wilhelm Cuno

Background

Wilhelm Carl Josef Cuno was born on 2 July 1876 in Suhl, in what was then Prussian Saxony and is now in Thuringia. He was the son of August George Wilhelm Cuno and his wife Catherina Elisabeth Theresia, née Daske.

Education

Cuno studied law in Berlin and Heidelberg.

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. Cuno died at Hamburg, January 3, 1933.

Achievements

• He was a businessman and politician who was the Chancellor of Germany from 1922 to 1923, for a total of 264 days. His tenure included the episode known as the Occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops and the period in which inflation in Germany accelerated notably, heading towards hyperinflation. Cuno was also general director of the Hapag shipping company.

Membership

He was a member of K. D. St. V. Arminia Heidelberg, a Catholic student fraternity that is a member of the Cartellverband.

Connections

In 1906 Cuno married Martha Berta Wirtz, daughter of Hamburg merchant Hugo Wirtz. They had three sons and two daughters.

Father:

August George Wilhelm Cuno

Mother:

Catherina Elisabeth Theresia, née Daske

Spouse:

Martha Berta Wirtz