SPAHN, PETER. - German politician, b. May 22, 1846, at Winkel in the Rheingau, d. Aug. 31, 1925, at Bad Wildungen.
He entered the judiciary in 1874 as a judge at Marienburg, and through various promotions reached the office of president of the Supreme Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main in 1910. In 1882 he began his parliamentary career as a member of the Centre Party, becoming one of its most prominent figures. A member of the Prussian Chamber of Deputies from 1882 to 1900, of the Reichstag from 1884 to 1917, and of the Upper House in 1917-18, he did not abandon political life after the abdication of William II. During the Weimar Republic he was a member of the National Assembly that drafted the new constitution, and later of the various parliaments that succeeded one another until his death. In addition to holding particularly important political offices (he was president of the Centre Party’s parliamentary group from 1912 to 1917), he took an active part in legislative work; from 1891 he was a member of the preparatory commission for the new civil code, of which he also became president; from Aug. 8, 1917, to Nov. 1918 he served as Minister of Justice; and in 1919, together with other delegates, he was entrusted by the Centre Party with negotiating a *modus vivendi* with the Social Democrats regarding the allocation of the highest state offices.
Among his writings are: *Das Eherecht im Entwurf des bürgerlichen Gesetzbuches* (1890); *Die Verachtung des Vermögens der Kirche* (1891); *Verwandtschaft und Vormundschaft nach dem bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch* (1900).