Wilhelm Cuno

Born Feb. 7, 1876, in Suhl; died Mar. 1, 1933, in Aumühle, near Hamburg. German capitalist and politician.

As a prominent official in the exchequer he established close contact with capitalist magnates and in 1918 headed the gigantic Hamburg-American Steamship Line (Hapag). He was a staunch opponent of meeting Germany’s obligations under the Versailles Treaty of 1919. In November 1922 he formed a government that adopted a policy of refusing to make reparation payments and to carry out reparation deliveries. Using the actions of the Cuno government as a pretext, France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr region in January 1923, leading to serious economic consequences for the workers. A stormy upsurge of the mass revolutionary movement caused the collapse of Cuno’s government in August 1923. In 1926 he again became general chairman of the Hamburg-American Steamship Line. In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s he participated in activities of reactionary forces directed toward liquidating the bourgeois-democratic structure and transferring power to the fascists.