What was the position of Reinhold Maier before Jan 1952?
Reinhold Maier 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 , 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 . Career . Already a member of the Progressive Peoples 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 Peoples Party ( Germany ) ( DVP ) , not to be confused with the German Peoples 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 less 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 constituting 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 . 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 . On 23 March 1933 , he voted for the Enabling Act together with the other four liberal Reichstag deputies Hermann Dietrich , Theodor Heuss , , 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 . 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 . In the Weimar Republic Maier was a member of the German Democratic Party ( DDP ) . In 1945 he was a founder of the Democratic Peoples Party ( DVP ) , which is now the Baden-Württemberg-Organisation of the FDP . He died in Stuttgart .