Georg Michaelis

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Georg Michaelis" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Georg Michaelis
Michaelis in 1932
Chancellor of the German Empire
In office 14 July 1917 – 1 November 1917
Monarch	Wilhelm II
Deputy	Karl Helfferich
Preceded by	Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg
Succeeded by	Georg von Hertling
Minister President of Prussia
In office 14 July 1917 – 1 November 1917
Preceded by	Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg
Succeeded by	Georg von Hertling
Personal details
Born	(1857-09-08)8 September 1857 Haynau, Province of Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	24 July 1936(1936-07-24) (aged 78) Bad Saarow, Province of Brandenburg, Nazi Germany
Political party	None as Chancellor, later the German National People's Party
Spouse	Margarete Schmidt
Children	Elisabeth Charlotte Emma Georg Sylvester Wilhelm Eva Martha
Signature

Georg Michaelis (8 September 1857 – 24 July 1936) was the chancellor of the German Empire for a few months in 1917. He was the first (and, in the German Empire, the only) chancellor not of noble birth. With an economic background in business, Michaelis' main achievement was to encourage the ruling classes to open peace talks with Russia. Contemplating that the end of the war was near, he encouraged infrastructure development to facilitate recovery at war's end through the media of Mitteleuropa. A somewhat humourless character, known for process engineering, Michaelis was faced with insurmountable problems of logistics and supply in his brief period as chancellor.