Georg Gradnauer

{{Short description|German politician (1866–1946)}} [[File:Georg Gradnauer.jpg|thumb|Georg Gradnauer {{circa}} 1931]] '''Georg Gradnauer''' (16 November 1866 – 18 November 1946)<ref name=akten>{{cite web |title=Gradnauer, Georg |work=Akten der Reichskanzlei, Weimarer Republik (online edition) |publisher=[[German Federal Archives]] |access-date=23 May 2010 |url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0001/adr/adrag/kap1_7/para2_127.html}}</ref> was a German newspaper editor and politician for the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD), and the first elected [[List of Ministers-President of Saxony|Minister-President of Saxony]] following the end of the [[Kingdom of Saxony|monarchy]].

==Education and early career== Born in [[Magdeburg]], Gradnauer earned a [[PhD]] in 1889, and became editor of the {{lang|de|Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung}} (later ''{{Interlanguage link multi|Dresdner Volkszeitung|de}}''), the SPD paper in [[Kingdom of Saxony|Saxony]], in 1891.<ref name=akten /> A relative moderate within the Saxon SPD, he was replaced as editor by radicals [[Alexander Parvus]] and [[Julian Marchlewski]] in 1896.{{sfn|Pulzer|2003|p=158}} Gradnauer subsequently moved to the SPD's [[Berlin]] paper, {{lang|de|[[Vorwärts]]}}, where he worked from 1897 with fellow [[reformism|reformists]] [[Friedrich Stampfer]] and [[Kurt Eisner]], until 1905, when they were ousted in favor of editors from the SPD's left wing.{{sfn|Pulzer|2003|p=158}} Gradnauer then returned to head the {{lang|de|Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung}} once more, meanwhile renamed {{lang|de|Dresdner Volkszeitung}},{{sfn|Pulzer|2003|p=158}} and remained in that role until the outbreak of the [[German Revolution]] in 1918.<ref name=akten/> In parallel with this newspaper work, he served as an SPD delegate to the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]], in two stints: 1898 to 1907, and 1912 to 1918.<ref name=akten/>

==Later political career== After taking an active role in the [[Saxony in the German Revolution (1918–1919)|German Revolution in Saxony]], Gradnauer initially served as Minister of Justice in the new republican government of [[Free State of Saxony (Weimar Republic)|Saxony]] in 1918, and soon succeeded [[Richard Lipinski]] as Minister of the Interior and chair of the provisional government.{{sfn|Pulzer|2003|p=209}} The SPD won a plurality of the votes in the first Saxon elections under the [[Weimar Republic]], on February 2, 1919, and Gradnauer ended up forming a minority government, becoming Saxony's first constitutional Minister-President on March 14. His minority government was formed after an attempt to form a coalition with the [[Independent SPD]] (USPD) foundered over the USPD's demand for recognition of workers' councils, and Gradnauer's preferred alternative, a coalition with the [[German Democratic Party]] (DDP), was rejected by the majority of SPD delegates.{{sfn|Lapp|1997|pp=28–29}}

Gradnauer served as Minister-President for a little over a year. In May 1919, he used the military and {{lang|de|[[Freikorps]]}} to put down left-wing radicals in [[Leipzig]], in a small-scale reprise of the actions taken by the SPD national government under [[Friedrich Ebert]] in putting down the [[Spartacist uprising]] some months prior. This furthered the rift with the USPD, but enabled an SPD–DDP coalition in October 1919, with Gradnauer continuing as Minister-President at the head of the now-majority government.{{sfn|Lapp|1997|p=36}} Left-wing resentment within the SPD began to build in early 1920, however, and Gradnauer was forced to resign in April 1920, with opposition to his use of the military against the radical left being joined by discontent over his unwillingness to replace conservative elements of the bureaucracy with Social Democrats.{{sfn|Lapp|1997|pp=46, 58}} He was succeeded as Minister-President by [[Wilhelm Buck]].{{sfn|Lapp|1997|p=46}}

After resigning as Minister-President, Gradnauer was reelected to the Reichstag, serving from 1920 to 1924, and briefly (1921) holding a cabinet post as [[Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany)|Minister of the Interior]] under [[Joseph Wirth]]. He also served as delegate of the Saxon state government to Berlin from 1921 to 1932.<ref name=akten />

He was initially arrested by the [[Nazis]] in 1933, but released.<ref name=akten /> Being of Jewish origin,{{sfn|Pulzer|2003|p=209}} he was eventually sent to [[Theresienstadt concentration camp]] in 1944, but survived and was liberated in 1945.<ref name=akten /> Gradnaur joined the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]] in 1946 and died a few months later in Berlin.<ref name=akten />

==References== {{reflist}}

==Sources== * {{cite book |last=Lapp |first=Benjamin |title=Revolution from the Right: Politics, Class, and the Rise of Nazism in Saxony, 1919–1933 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|BRILL]] |year=1997 |isbn=0-391-04027-8}} * {{cite book |last=Pulzer |first=Peter |title=Jews and the German State: The Political History of a Minority, 1848–1933 |publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=0-8143-3130-0}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gradnauer, Georg}} [[Category:1866 births]] [[Category:1946 deaths]] [[Category:Politicians from Magdeburg]] [[Category:Politicians from the Province of Saxony]] [[Category:19th-century German Jews]] [[Category:Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians]] [[Category:Socialist Unity Party of Germany members]] [[Category:Interior ministers of Germany]] [[Category:Minister-presidents of Saxony]] [[Category:Members of the 10th Reichstag of the German Empire]] [[Category:Members of the 11th Reichstag of the German Empire]] [[Category:Members of the 13th Reichstag of the German Empire]] [[Category:Members of the Weimar National Assembly]] [[Category:Members of the Reichstag 1920–1924]] [[Category:German newspaper editors]] [[Category:German male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors]]