Michael Horlacher (1888-1957) was one of the leading agricultural politicians in the Weimar Republic, serving as the director of the Bavarian State Farmers' Chamber from 1920 to 1933 and as an agricultural expert for the Bavarian People's Party in the German Reichstag since 1924. He exemplifies the type of agricultural official who was socially middle-class, academically educated, and oriented towards the ideal of the German civil servant. For him, agricultural policy was a subject of intellectual engagement rather than existential concern. His elite social consciousness, developed against this biographical background, elevated his self-perception above that of the majority of farmers and influenced his bureaucratically authoritarian agricultural policy proposals, which aimed to strengthen the executive branch over the legislative. This created a breeding ground for radicalizing conflicts within agricultural organizations and led to parliamentary dysfunction. Overall, the way Horlacher fulfilled his dual role of full-time bureaucratic and representative party-political advocacy contributed to the political instability of the Weimar Republic. Therefore, this biography contributes to a better understanding of a protectionist agricultural policy, its economic consequences, and its disintegrating effects on the party system, which both political and social historical research have deemed significantly responsible for the failure of the Weimar Republic.