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Reinhold Maier
Maier in 1952
Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg
In office 25 April 1952 – 30 September 1953
Deputy	Hermann Veit
Preceded by	himself(asMinister-President of Württemberg-Baden) Gebhard Müller(asMinister-President of Württemberg-Hohenzollern) Leo Wohleb(asMinister-President of Baden)
Succeeded by	Gebhard Müller
Minister-President of Württemberg-Baden
In office 19 September 1945 – 25 April 1952
Deputy	Fritz Ulrich Josef Beyerle Hermann Veit
Preceded by	Walter Köhler(asMinister-President of the Republic of Baden) Christian Mergenthaler(asMinister-President of the Free People's State of Württemberg)
Succeeded by	himself(asMinister-President of Baden-Württemberg)
Parliamentary constituencies Member of theBundestag forBaden-Württemberg In office 15 October 1957 – 30 September 1959 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by Klaus Freiherr von Mühlen Constituency Free Democratic Party List In office 6 October 1953 – 14 May 1956 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by Fritz Weber Constituency Free Democratic Party List Member of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg for Waiblingen II In office 17 March 1961 – 10 June 1964 Preceded by himself Succeeded by Heinz Bühringer In office 25 March 1952 – 6 February 1961 Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by himself Member of the Landtag ofWürttemberg-Baden In office 10 December 1946 – 30 May 1952 Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by Constituency abolished Member of theReichstag forFree People's State of Württemberg In office 6 December 1932 – 12 December 1933 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	(1889-10-16)16 October 1889 Schorndorf,Kingdom of Württemberg,German Empire(nowBaden-Württemberg,Germany)
Died	19 August 1971(1971-08-19) (aged 81) Stuttgart,Baden-Württemberg,West Germany(nowGermany)
Resting place	Alter Friedhof, Schorndorf
Political party	Free Democratic Party(1948–1971)
Other political affiliations	Democratic People's Party(1945–1948) German State Party(1930–1933) German Democratic Party(1918–1930) Progressive People's Party(1912–1918)
Spouse	Gerta Goldschmidt
Alma mater	Grenoble Alpes University University of Tübingen University of Heidelberg (Dr. jur.)
Occupation	Politician Lawyer
Awards	Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany[1]
Military service
Allegiance	Kgm. of Württemberg
Unit	Fußartillerie-Regiment 13
Battles/wars	First World War

Reinhold Maier (16 October 1889 – 19 August 1971) was a German politician and the leader of theFDP from 1957–1960. From 1946 to 1952 he wasMinister President ofWürttemberg-Baden and then the 1stMinister President of the new state ofBaden-Württemberg until 1953.

He served as the 4th President of theBundesrat in 1952/53, the only FDP politician in German history to do so to date.

Maier was born inSchorndorf.

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 theUniversity of Grenoble and at theUniversity 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 asEberhard 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 theUnited 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 theProgressive People's Party (Germany) (FVP) since 1912, Maier joined the newly formed left-wing liberalGerman 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 theDemocratic People's Party (Germany) (DVP), not to be confused with theGerman 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 PresidentEugen Bolz, one of the20 July Plot conspirators. As such, he preceded theWest 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 andAll-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 chairmanWolfgang 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.

Maier was 1932–1933 a member of parliament for theGerman State Party. At the same time he was from 1932 to 1933 a member of theWürttemberg Landtag [de]. On 23 March 1933, he voted for theEnabling Act together with the other four liberal Reichstag deputiesHermann Dietrich,Theodor Heuss,Heinrich Landahl [de], andErnst 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 theWeimar Republic Maier was a member of theGerman Democratic Party (DDP). In 1945 he was a founder of theDemocratic People's Party (DVP), which is now the Baden-Württemberg-Organisation of the FDP.

He died inStuttgart.

• Newspaper clippings about Reinhold Maier in the20th Century Press Archives of theZBW

• 1889 births
• 1971 deaths
• People from Schorndorf
• German Protestants
• Presidents of the German Bundesrat
• German Democratic Party politicians
• Free Democratic Party (Germany) politicians
• Leaders of political parties in Germany
• Members of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg
• People from the Kingdom of Württemberg
• Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic
• Minister-presidents of Baden-Württemberg

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles containing German-language text
• Articles with short description
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