Hugo Maximilian Philippus Ludwig Franziskus Graf von und zu Lerchenfeld auf Köfering und Schönberg (21 August 1871 – 13 April 1944), known as Graf von Lerchenfeld-Köfering and as Lerchenfeld for short, was a Bavarian conservative politician and the prime minister of Bavaria from 1921 to 1922. He belonged to the Bavarian People's Party, a conservative, strongly federalist party in Bavaria, formed after the World War I.
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Early life
Hugo Graf von und zu Lerchenfeld was born on 21 August 1871 in Köfering as the son of Ludwig Graf von und zu Lerchenfeld and Clara Grafin von Bray-Steinburg.
Career
He originally studied law, graduating in 1893. He was employed as a Bavarian government official from 1897 to 1914, later changing to the Imperial government, working as a civil administrator from 1915 to 1918 in the formerly Russian part of Poland, after this in the German foreign department. After the First World War, he became the federal representative of the German government in the state of Hessen.
Hugo Lerchenfeld was appointed as Bavarian prime minister on 21 September 1921, succeeding Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had resigned earlier. He was chosen by a coalition of conservative parties. He was not a high ranking party official at this stage but rather a respected civil administrator, with a good relationship to the SPD too. He managed during his time in office to largely defuse the crisis caused through Bavarian attempts to break free of the German Republic and the federal government's attempts to gain more control over state politics. He also additionally held the post of minister of justice.