Wilhelm Ellenbogen was born in Breclav, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic). At the age of seven, his parents moved to Vienna. Ellenbogen studied medicine and became a physician at the age of twenty three (1886). After graduation he entered politics joining the newly established Social-Democratic party, where he was member of the Executive Board, from 1891. He was elected to the Reichsrat (1901), and later (1918) to the Austrian Parliament, until the government of Dolfuss desolved it in 1934. During his 33 years of parliamentary activity, Ellenbogen contributed to a number of important political decissions: he helped passing the Universal Franchise Bill (1907); at the end of WWI he was instrumental in the negotiations with the Hungarian government securing the safety of the population of Vienna from plague. He became Undersecretary for Commerce in 1919, and later in 1921 succeeded Otto Bauer as secretary for socialization in the capacity of Cabinet member. During the 1920s he was chief of the electrification of the state railroads. After the Anschluss in 1938, Ellenbogen fled to France, and then he immigrated to the USA in 1940.