Erhard Hübener Dr . Erhard Hübener ( August 4 , 1881 – June 3 , 1958 ) was a German politician and member of the German Democratic Party ( DDP ) until 1933 , after World War II he engaged in rebuilding structures of self - rule in the Soviet occupation zone and was co - founder and member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany ( LDPD ) . Early years . Hübener was born in Tacken ( now part of Groß Pankow ( Prignitz ) ) , Province of Brandenburg . His father was a Protestant pastor . After attending the school at Pforta , Hübener studied history and political science at Christian Albert ' s University , Kiel and Frederick William ' s University , Berlin . He graduated with a doctorate . Hübener and Otti Bornemann married in 1909 . He served as an officer in World War I . First term of political career . After the war he joined the liberal DDP . In 1919 Otto Fischbeck ( DDP ) , Prussian minister of trade , gained him as a collaborator in the Prussian ministry of trade . In 1922 Hübener was elected vice land - captain of the Prussian Province of Saxony with Rudolf Oeser ( * 1858 – 1926 * ) serving as Saxon land - captain . In 1924 the Saxon Provinziallandtag ( provincial parliament ) elected him Landeshauptmann ( land - captain ) , the elected highest ranking representative of provincial self - rule . He distinguished himself as an expert in economics and administration , searching consensus among the representatives of the different parties . Already in the 1920 - s he developed ideas for a reorganisation of the heterogenous German states . So he proposed the creation of an independent state called Saxony - Anhalt , combining Prussian Saxony and the independent Free State of Anhalt . In 1930 the members of the provincial parliament reelected him land - captain for another six years with the votes of the SPD , DDP and DNVP . The Nazi regime compulsorily pensioned him after their takeover in 1933 . Hübener then dedicated his time and effort to scientific and artistic questions , publishing smaller works in these fields under the pseudonym J . S . Erhard . Second term of political career . After the US Army had liberated the Province of Saxony in April 1945 the " U . S . Group Control Council , Germany " ( precursor of the OMGUS ) reappointed him land - captain of the Province of Saxony . By early July the US Army retired in order to allow the Red Army taking Prussian Saxony as part of its Soviet occupation zone , as agreed by the London Protocol in 1944 . On July 9 the Soviet SVAG ordered to merge what prior to 1933 had been the land of Anhalt , two Bezirke of Prussian province of Saxony , Halle - Merseburg and Magdeburg , and some Brunswickian eastern exclave s and salients into the Land of Saxony . The third Bezirk of Prussian Saxony , the Erfurt governorate , had become a part of Thuringia . Then the SVAG appointed Hübener as the president of the Province of Saxony , a newly created function based in Halle upon Saale . In summer 1945 Hübener became one of the co - founders of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany ( LDPD ) in Halle upon Saale . He also received a chair at Martin Luther University of Halle - Wittenberg . Although he had signed , as Soviet - appointed official , the Soviet - inspired expropriation ordinance on 3 September 1945 , pretendingly aiming at Nazi war criminals and other circles ( large real estate holders , often of noble descent ) uniformly identified as apt for expropriation , he criticized the abuse of the expropriation ordinance as a free ticket to completely destroy property structures and certainty of law . On the occasion of the first and one and only election in the Soviet zone , allowing parties to compete for seats in provincial and state parliaments , on 20 October 1946 , the " Province of Saxony " was renamed the " Province of Saxony - Anhalt " , reflecting the prior merger . On 3 December 1946 the members of the provincial parliament elected Hübener the first minister - president of Saxony - Anhalt with the votes of CDU and LDPD . This made him only governor in the Soviet zone , who was not a member of the communist Socialist Unity Party of Germany ( SED ) . As such , he was an inconvenience for the Soviet occupation authorities . By threatening the SVAG to resign from office , Hübener enforced the participation of the Soviet zonal governors in the Conference of Governors in Munich on 5 June 1947 , which last time convened the elected governors of all states from all four zones of occupation in Germany . Hoping to avoid the eventual establishment of separate German republics – which was underways with the Bizone – he was , however , disappointed by his western colleagues ( among them his long - time fellow party member Reinhold Maier , then minister - president of Württemberg - Baden ) . Most of them were already assured that the constitution of a democratic and autonomous German republic can impossibly include the Soviet zone with their puppet states , whereas the zonal central administrations ( Zentralverwaltungen ) established in July 1945 , staffed with communists and directed by the SVAG , were actually taking the decisions . While easterners hoped with a quadripartite Allied agreement there would be the chance that the Soviet Union will release its prey , many westerners had already come to another conclusion . However , for westerners the perpetuated stay of their respective occupying power had by no means the same meaning in every day life than the Soviet occupation in their zone . Hübener then saw himself fighting a losing battle . In May 1949 , speaking on the third term of Deutscher Volkskongress , a quasi parliament deciding the first constitution of the to - be - founded separate East German republic , Hübener appealed as main speaker of LDPD to the delegates : " Our future government shall , will and must learn , to stand with a free people on free ground . " While West Germany had been founded on May 23 , 1949 the foundation of East Germany was planned for October 7 . On October 1 Hübener resigned from office . He was succeeded by Werner Bruschke ( SED ) . Late years . While many of his political friends fled oppression and persecution in the Soviet zone and later East Germany and East Berlin , Hübener stayed . He retired totally from politics and committed himself again to studies in art and history . He wrote his autobiography , later published in West Germany . He died during a stay at the health spa of Bad Salzuflen in West Germany on 3 June 1958 . His remains were translated to East German Wernigerode , where he had spent his retirement . Legacy . The Free Democratic Party , section Sachsen - Anhalt , established in his honour the Erhard - Hübener - Stiftung , a foundation in Halle upon Saale . In Magdeburg a square was named after him .