Reinhold Maier

Reinhold-Maier-Geburtshaus (childhood home)

Maier, a Protestant, was born the son of a municipal architect, Gottlieb Maier, in Schorndorf.

After attending grammar school in Schorndorf, Reinhold Maier attended the Dillmann-Gymnasium in Stuttgart and, in 1907, received his Abitur. He then studied law at the University of Grenoble and at the University of Tübingen. There he was a member of the South German (and liberally inclined) Tübingen fraternity "Academic Society Stuttgardia Tübingen". Here he met fellow aspiring politicians such as Eberhard Wildermuth, Karl Georg Pfleiderer, Konrad Wittwer and Wolfgang Haussmann. He received his doctorate in law in Heidelberg. During the First World War he took part as a soldier at the foot artillery regiment 13. In 1920 he settled in Stuttgart and practiced 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 to the United Kingdom with their two children. Reinhold Maier was forced to divorce her under Nazi pressure but remarried her after the war in 1946.

Already a member of the Progressive People's Party (Germany) (FVP) since 1912, Maier joined the newly formed left-wing liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) in 1918. In 1924 he became chairman of the Stuttgart District Association of DDP.

In 1945 Maier participated in the founding of the Democratic People's Party (Germany)(DVP), not to be confused with the German People's Party of the Weimar Republic. The DVP was absorbed by the FDP in 1948.

Maier became Minister President of “Württemberg-Baden”, a constituent state of the subsequent ‘’Land’’ of Baden-Württemberg in 1945, following the collapse of the Nazi regime, which in its twilight had claimed the life of his former boss, the last elected Minister President Eugen Bolz, one of the 20 July Plot conspirators. As such, he preceded the West German state by setting up a constitutional democratic system in competition with the burgeoning SPD and communist parties, and the French and American occupation authorities. Despite his DVP party consistently polling fewer votes than Christian Democratic and socialist opponents, Maier steadfastly maintained coalitions with the liberals as the leading party.

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, simultaneous to the creation of the new state of Baden-Württemberg in 1952, the Hesse FDP Association requested the expulsion of Maier and the state chairman Wolfgang Haussmann (1903-1989) from the party along with the separation of the DVP from the FDP, but the coup was not successful. [2] From 1957 to 1960 he was Chairman of the FDP, and then until his death honorary chairman.

Sigurd Janssen and Reinhold Maier, Freiburg University 1952

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 23 March 1933, he voted for the Enabling Act together with the other four liberal Reichstag deputies Hermann Dietrich, Theodor Heuss, Heinrich Landahl, and Ernst Lemmer. The final sentence of his speech was: For the sake of people and country and in anticipation of a legitimate development, we will rescind our serious concerns and approve the Enabling Act.[3] According to the informations of Theodor Heuss in his memoirs, the five liberal Reichstag deputies have initially been divided with respect to the 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.[4] 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.

He died in Stuttgart.

• Newspaper clippings about Reinhold Maier in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW