Georg Michaelis

Georg Michaelis (pronunciation, gee-ORG MEH-kay-liss; 8 September 1857 – 24 July 1936) was the imperial chancellor of the German Empire for a few months in 1917. He was the first (and, in the German Empire, the only) commoner to hold the post. 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. Provided by Wikipedia