Gustav Bauer

Gustav Adolf Bauer (January 6th 1870 - September 16th 1944) was the leader of the Social Democrats party and the Chancellor of Germany from 1919 to 1920. In 1924, he was implicated in the Barmat Scandal, a corruption scandal during which it was revealed that, as Chancellor, Bauer had illegally invested public funds in the Barmat investment company, a company run by The Barmat Brothers, a pair of Jewish business owners, in return for around 20,000 Reichsmarks in donations to the Social Democrats. However, the Barmats engaged in financial speculation, resulting in the collapse of the company and the German economy. Despite being exposed as corrupt, Bauer was never charged, and was even able to regain his seat in 1928. After the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, Bauer was charged with an unrelated case of misappropriating public funds, but the charges were dropped. He later died in 1944.