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Otto Wels (September 15, 1873 – September 16, 1939) was the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1919 and a member of parliament from 1920 to 1930.
On March 23, 1933 the Berlin-born Wels was the only member of the Reichstag to speak against Adolf Hitler's Enabling Act (the "Law for Removing the Distress of People and Reich"). The vote took place during the last session of a multi-party Reichstag, on March 23, 1933. Because the Reichstag building itself had suffered heavy burning damage in February, the March session was held in Berlin's Kroll Opera House. Wels braved a gauntlet of jeering brownshirts and Nazi delegates as he mounted the podium to make his speech opposing the Enabling Act, which formally took the power of legislation away from the Reichstag and handed it over to the Reich cabinet for a period of four years.
He declared: "At this historic hour, we German Social Democrats pledge ourselves to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and Socialism. No Enabling Law can give you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible ... From this new persecution too German Social Democracy can draw new strength. We send greetings to the persecuted and oppressed. We greet our friends in the Reich. Their steadfastness and loyalty deserve admiration. The courage with which they maintain their convictions and their unbroken confidence guarantee a brighter future." [Noakes and Pridham, 1974].
Looking directly at Hitler, Wels proclaimed, "You can take our lives and our freedom, but you cannot take our honour". His words: "Wir sind wehrlos aber nicht ehrlos." - "We are defenseless but not honorless." - have become famous.
All 94 SPD members of parliament voted against the act; the rest of the Reichstag voted in favour. The passage of the Enabling Act marked the end of parliamentary democracy in Germany and formed the legal authority for Hitler's dictatorship. Within weeks of the passage of the Enabling Act, the Hitler government banned the SPD while the other German political parties chose to dissolve themselves to avoid prosecution, making the Nazi party the only legal political party in Germany.
Some weeks before the banning of the SPD by the Nazis, Wels went into exile. He built up the expatriate SPD, first in the Saarland, which at the time was under League of Nations control, then in Prague, and finally in Paris, where he died in 1939.
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