Otto Wels (15 September 1873 – 16 September 1939) was a German politician who served as a member of parliament from 1912 to 1933 and as the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1919 until his death in 1939. His 1933 speech in the Reichstag in opposition to Hitler and against the Enabling Act marked the end of the Weimar Republic prior to the Act passing into law. Life and career Born in Berlin on 15 September 1873, Wels was the son of an innkeeper (Johann Wels and his wife Johanne). The restaurant served as a meeting place for early SPD supporters exposing Wels to the workers movement at a young age. In 1891, he began an apprenticeship as a paper hanger and joined the SPD. Around 1893, he married Bertha Antonie Reske, a seamstress and they had two sons, Walter and Hugo. In the early 1890s, he represented other workers in the Berlin Craftsmens Chamber and was elected the first Chairman of the local SPD branch. From 1895 to 1897 he served his military service period in the German Army but suffered from harassment by officers due to his politics (he was not granted leave for his entire service period). On his finishing military service, he enrolled at the Workers Educational Society in Berlin for further education before attempting to return to politics. He was unsuccessful in being relected as SPD local chairman (District Five) but continued to campaign until he was elected as a representative in the new SPD party organisation in 1901. From 1906 he worked as a trade union official, party secretary in the Province of Brandenburg and the Vorwärts press committee. In 1912 he was elected to the Reichstag and with the support of August Bebel joined the SPD executive committee the next year. His role on the executive committee allowed him to take a central role in the development of the SPD. In the German Revolution of 9 November 1918, Wels was a member of the Berlin workers' council (Arbeiter-und Soldatenrat) of the SPD and USPD. He was appointed military commander of the city and consequently had to deal with the occupation of the Stadtschloss by revolutionary forces including violent fights with Freikorps units. Upon the election of Friedrich Ebert as Reich President on 11 February 1919 he acted as presiding officer of the SPD and was formally elected chairman,