Friedrich Ebert was born in Heidelberg on 4 February 1871 as a son of a tailor. He joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1889, while being an apprentice in a saddlery.

Within the party, Ebert gained a reputation as a conciliatory and pragmatist leader, shunning grand theoretical schemes, and advocating close relationships with trade unions. In 1912 he took a seat in the German Reichstag.

A year later he became chairman of the Social Democrats. As chairman and parliamentary leader of the SPD in the Reichstag, Friedrich Ebert emerged as the leading figure of German Social Democracy during the First World War.

After the war, Ebert's efforts proved to be decisive in establishing the new republic. While attending the soldiers' and laborers' revolutionary council congress in Berlin in December 1918, Ebert managed to push through the idea of general multi-party parliamentary elections.

On 11 February, 1919, the national assembly in Weimar elected Ebert for president of the German Republic. During the crisis-ridden formative years of the Weimar Republic, Ebert's conciliatory and  non-partisan presidency anchored the young republic which was under threat from both left-wing and right-wing extremism.

Shortly before finishing his term in office in 1925, Friedrich Ebert died from the repercussions of medical surgery. In the same year the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) was founded. Ebert had proposed the establishment of a foundation to serve the following aims:-

The Foundation, which was banned by the Nazis in 1933 and re-established in 1947, continues today to pursue Ebert’s aims in all its extensive activities.