Quick Facts
Biography
Reinhold Maier (16 October 1889 – 19 August 1971) was a German politician and the leader of the FDP from 1957–1960. From 1946 to 1952 he was Minister President of Württemberg-Baden and then the 1st Minister President of the new state of Baden-Württemberg until 1953.
He served as the 4th President of the Bundesrat in 1952/53, the only FDP politician in German history to do so to date, as well as one of only two Presidents to not come from either the CDU/CSU or the SPD (the other one is Winfried Kretschmann, who is member of Alliance '90/The Greens and was the 67th President of the Bundesrat in 2012/13).
Maier was born in Schorndorf.
Early life
Maier, who was of Protestant denomination, was born as a son of the municipal architect Gottlieb Maier in Schorndorf.
After attending grammar school in Schorndorf Reinhold Maier joined the Dillmann-Gymnasium in Stuttgart and made 1907 his Abitur. He then studied law at the Grenoble Alpes University and at the University of Tübingen. There he was a member of the South German liberalism related Tübingen frat "Academic Society Stuttgardia Tübingen". Here he met later political cronies as Eberhard Wildermuth, Karl Georg Pfleiderer, Konrad Wittwer and Wolfgang Haussmann. He absolved the referendary in Ravensburg, then he received his doctorate in law in Heidelberg. At the First World War he took part as a soldier at the foot artillery regiment 13. In 1920 he settled in Stuttgart practicing as a lawyer. In 1924 he was inducted into the Masonic Lodge "Zu den 3 cedars" in Stuttgart. During the Nazi era he worked as a lawyer; his wife Gerta Goldschmidt flew with the two children to England. Reinhold Maier divorced from her under the pressure of the Nazis and married her again 1946.
Party
Already engaged since 1912 in the Progressive People's Party (Germany) FVP during the imperial period. Maier joined in 1918 at the newly formed left-wing liberal German Democratic PartyDDP. In 1924 he became chairman of the Stuttgart District Association of DDP. 1945 Maier participated in the founding of the Democratic People's Party (Germany)(DVP), which must not be confused with the known under the same abbreviation German People's Party of the Weimar Republic. The DVP joined the FDP in 1948. After the formation of the coalition of FDP / DVP, SPD and All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights BHE under his leadership in Baden-Württemberg 1952 Hesse FDP Association requested the expulsion from the party of Maier and the state chairman Wolfgang Haussmann (1903-1989) and the separation of the FDP from the DVP, but could not push through this way.
From 1957 to 1960 he was Chairman of the FDP, then until his death honorary chairman.
Deputy
Maier was 1932-1933 a member of parliament for the German state party. At the same time he was from 1932 to 1933 a member of the Württemberg Landtag. On March 23, 1933, he voted for the Enabling Act together with the other four liberal Reichstag deputies Hermann Dietrich, Theodor Heuss, Heinrich Landahl and Ernst Lemmer. He argued yes to the Enabling Act of 1933. The final sentence of his speech was: For the sake of people and country and in anticipation of a legitimate development, we will return our serious concerns and approve the Enabling Act. According to the informations of Theodor Heuss in his memoirs, the five liberal Reichstag deputies have initially been divided with respect to the so-called Enabling Act. Heuss had formulated two explanations, one for rejection, one for abstention. At his side, however, was only Hermann Dietrich. Heinrich Landahl, Ernst Lemmer and Reinhold Maier voted in the Reichstag group for approval. Heuss and Dietrich were overruled, so then all Liberal MPs voted for the Enabling Act. In the Weimar Republic Maier was a member of the German Democratic Party (DDP). In 1945 he was a founder of the Democratic People's Party (DVP), which is now the Baden-Württemberg-Organisation of the FDP.
Sigurd Janssen and Reinhold Maier Freiburg university 1952
He died in Stuttgart.