Max Brewer

Max Brauer as Lord Mayor of Altona (1927)

Max Julius Friedrich Brauer (born September 3, 1887 in Altona-Ottensen , † February 2, 1973 in Hamburg ) was a German politician. After initial experiences in the social democratic labor movement , he was in the wake of the November Revolution in 1918 member of the Municipal Council of Altona . In 1924 he was promoted to mayor there and in this position was one of the few social democratic incumbents in the Weimar Republic . After the takeover of the Nazis Brauer fled Germany and spent the following years in exile . In 1946 he returned to Germany and became the first freely elected First Mayor of Hamburg after the Second World War . He held this office - with an interruption from late 1953 to late 1957 - until 1960.

In the empire

Childhood and youth

Children of glass workers, in the background company apartments of the CE Gätcke glass factory

Max Brauer was born in Ottensen in 1887 as the son of Wilhelm and Margarethe Brauer, née Kunitz. He grew up as the eighth of 13 children in poor circumstances. The family lived in a factory apartment of the CE Gätcke glass factory , where Wilhelm Brauer was employed as a glass blower .

Ottensen was a place in rapid change. Industrialization and urbanization shaped the way people lived together. Furthermore, Altona, to which Ottensen belonged since the incorporation in 1889, was, like Hamburg, a center of the social democratic labor movement. August Bebel ennobled the Hanseatic city in 1875 with the remark that it should be regarded as the “capital of socialism”; the following year the local party gazette in the Prussian neighboring town added that Altona was the “bulwark of the socialists in the north”. Max Brauer always acknowledged his origins. He publicly emphasized in 1924:

“I was born in Altona: Altona is my hometown. As a working class child, I grew up here; I went through elementary school to become a worker myself. I got to know firsthand the adverse social conditions of the lower classes. Unemployment, poor housing, everything that depresses the broad sections of our population is known to me. Like many young workers, I was starving and thirsting for education and knowledge. "

While Brauer's father took the relationships between workers and employers for granted in principle, his mother was open to social democratic ideas. She taught her son the labor movement maxim that man should work eight hours, rest eight hours and educate himself eight hours. Max Brauer's youngest sister later reported that he was extremely inquisitive and read in almost every free minute.

Engagement in the social democratic labor movement

His father worked in the CE Gätcke glass factory, and Max Brauer learned the glassblowing trade here.

Following the wishes of his father, Brauer finished elementary school at the age of 14 and also learned the glassblowing trade at CE Gätcke . He completed his apprenticeship in Westerhüsen near Magdeburg , where his family had moved. However, Brauer did not work long as a glassblower, because after calling for a strike , he was on national black lists of glass manufacturers. He had already been actively involved in the labor movement beforehand. Since July 24, 1904, he was a member of the Central Association of Glass Workers . A year later, not yet 18 years old, he founded the local branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in Damgarten - where his family now lived . After a short time it had around 30 members.

Excluded from exercising his apprenticeship, Brauer worked in the following years as a construction and factory worker. At the same time he continued to work as a functionary of the glass workers union and the party. Back in Ottensen, he found a job in the local consumer, building and savings association in 1909 . There he was promoted to operations manager. In 1911 he was elected to the executive committee of the SPD local group Ottensen. In all of its three pillars - party, trade unions , cooperatives - Brauer thus learned “the labor movement 'from scratch'”. In addition to his practical work, he wanted to learn more about important Marxist writings ; he read Marx , Engels , Kautsky and Bernstein . He also appropriated the works of classical German literature about Goethe and Schiller . Of the contemporary authors, his special respect went to Gerhart Hauptmann . Brauer expressed his appreciation of education at the SPD district party conference in Kiel in 1912 . Before the delegates he explained that educational work with young people was more important than political campaigns.

1916: Military inspectors check meat production in the slaughterhouse of the Production Cooperative in Hamburg-Hamm .

In August 1914, at the beginning of the First World War , Brauer was drafted. After he had suffered a bullet in the hand, he retired from military service in autumn 1915 and from then on worked in the management of the slaughterhouse department of the consumer, construction and savings association "Production" . Production became an important supplier to the army during the war years. In 1916, brewer married Erna Pehmöller, daughter of a full-time tobacco worker functionary. With her, Brauer had a daughter and two sons, one of whom died as a toddler. In 1916 he succeeded in entering the city council of Altona as an SPD candidate. In the first phase of his local political work, Brauer was mainly involved in the issue of supplying the population, which became an increasingly pressing problem during the war years.

The years of the Weimar Republic

Member of the Magistrate and Second Mayor

As in Hamburg, the November Revolution in Altona was shaped by the moderate demeanor of the Majority Social Democrats (MSPD). The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) only had influence here at the beginning; the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which was just forming , hardly appeared. On November 11, 1918, Brauer and three other Social Democrats entered the city's eleven, later twelve-member magistrate. The administration continued to work in Altona, and Lord Mayor Bernhard Schnackenburg remained in office. The elections for the city council on March 2, 1919 brought the MSPD an absolute majority of the votes (54 percent). However, she did not assume sole government responsibility, but entered into an alliance with the compromise-oriented forces of the bourgeoisie, who made up a good fifth of the electorate and were organized in the German Democratic Party (DDP).

When the election of the Second Mayor of Altona was due in the late summer of 1919, Brauer won the vote. In this office he was responsible for the food supply. He also had to coordinate the municipal utilities (gas, water, electricity). The demobilization fell within his mandate circle. Since 1920 he also took care of the duties of the city ​​treasurer and thus became the decisive man in household matters.

Brauer represented Altona in several ways. On the one hand, Schnackenburg was often absent, so Brauer was the first point of contact on site. On the other hand, he was Altona's representative in the Schleswig-Holstein Provincial Committee and in the Prussian State Council headed by Konrad Adenauer .

Brewer was a staunch Republican. He reacted to the Kapp Putsch in March 1920 without hesitation. Schnackenburg was not present in Altona, and Brauer, as his deputy, immediately called for a general strike against the putschists. The local trade unions, actually responsible for strike issues, did not respond with such an appeal until three hours later. The Second Mayor had the Altona town hall , which was occupied by the putschists, surrounded by associations loyal to the republic, thus forcing the anti-republican units to withdraw.

In the years up to 1924, Max Brauer proved himself above all as a crisis manager in the face of hyperinflation . At his decision, quarter-dollar notes were also in circulation in Altona in addition to the usual emergency money . You should ensure monetary stability in times of rampant monetary devaluation. These notes were covered by fine gold. The city guaranteed convertibility with its property . With this idea, Brauer prevailed against skeptical voices from Hamburg, who warned urgently against this procedure. The city officials also received their wages in gas tokens, which were used to operate the gas vending machines installed in many apartments.

Lord Mayor of Altonas

After the sudden death of Schnackenburg in 1924, Max Brauer succeeded him in the office of Lord Mayor. He received a sufficiently large majority in the municipal elections. However, there was massive resistance to a Social Democrat in the mayor's office in conservative and national circles of the bourgeoisie. This resistance was not limited to the right-wing radical camp, but was supported by important notables from Altona. This showed the fragile connection between the SPD and the bourgeoisie. In the city council elections in early 1924, the SPD lost a considerable number of votes. Their share fell from 54 to 33 percent. The DDP only got 9 percent. On the right and left fringes of the political spectrum, on the other hand, an opposition willing to obstruct had grown up, and it was now able to enter the local parliament.

As a result, there were hardly any shackles to put on Brauer's will to power and shape. He was one of the few social democratic city rulers in the Weimar Republic and made use of the strong position of the mayor's office, which the Prussian municipal code provided for. In the years leading up to the Great Depression, Brauer pursued a wide-ranging program of external and internal urban development . In contrast to his predecessor, the new Lord Mayor believed in Altona's independent future prospects. The external development became clear in the considerable expansion of the area. Partly against the strong resistance of local dignitaries, a number of surrounding Elbe villages and Geest communities were incorporated into the Groß-Altona Law in 1927 . Altona received support in this matter from the Prussian state government under the Social Democrat Otto Braun . The external development of the city also contributed to the fact that Prussia and Hamburg signed an agreement on a port community. This agreement solved the problem of the Altona Elbe port, which had become too small for the local economy. The cooperation not only served the port development, but was also intended to develop the entire Lower Elbe region. Other levels of this cooperation were joint traffic route planning and local public transport projects . The establishment of the Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft Altona (VAGA) ensured improved mobility in the grown area of ​​Altona through a well-networked system of bus routes. Cooperations with the Hamburger Hochbahn AG (HHA) also succeed. However, VAGA and HHA did not form a collective bargaining association; mobility between Hamburg and Altona remained limited.

Brauer also directed the inner development of the city. Here, together with the architect and town planner Gustav Oelsner , with whom he had a personal friendship, he set urban development accents. The main idea was to relieve the inner city by building workers' housing estates in the rural outskirts, which were to be connected to the city center via local public transport. The city of Altona became the largest client in the construction sector thanks to the housing construction programs. In particular, the Siedlungs-Aktiengesellschaft Altona (SAGA) - it was founded in 1922 largely on Brauer's initiative - was active here, followed by cooperative and trade union companies.

Proof of work building of the city of Altona, today the Federal Employment Agency on Kieler Strasse. The distinctive grid structure with the load-bearing concrete structure was seen as a structural expression of the rational administrative organization sought. The functionality of the building was to be expressed in particular through the separate entrances for the various professional groups that were now walled up.

In terms of style, Oelsner followed the ideas of New Building , which today are considered to be formative for the architecture of the 1920s. New schools were designed according to these formal principles, as was the new employment office on Kieler Straße. Oelsner's most important work was the Haus der Jugend , opened in 1929 , which was to merge with the town hall (now the Altona Theater ) and the vocational school into a cultural center. In the incorporated suburbs of the Elbe, Brauer let the city buy or lease large areas on which a green belt of several public parks was created, such as the Hirschpark and the Jenischpark . To the communal large buildings included the Altonaer Stadion am Volkspark , the forerunner of the People's Park stadium . When it was opened by Brauer in September 1925, it held 40,000 spectators. At the same time, the city administration's workforce was significantly expanded.

In terms of cultural policy , Brauer endeavored to give broad sections of the population access to education and culture, with his friend and party comrade August Kirch actively supporting him as the competent senator. The expansion of the city archive, the library and the museums were to be understood against this background, but also the promotion of art and theater life. The establishment of a technical university , which Brauer demanded in 1928, did not materialize, however.

The middle years of the Weimar Republic (1924–1929) saw Max Brauer at the first peak of his power. The mayor's pronounced creative will, who acted like a “baroque prince” and “tribune” at the same time in Altona, was also noticed in higher places. For a time he was acted as the future Minister of the Interior of the Prussian state government and as Lord Mayor of Berlin . Brauer financed all of these urban development and municipal policy measures through taxes, including a house interest tax , and through loans. The Dawes Plan of 1924 had opened up the foreign credit market for the German municipalities, and the high German interest rates by international standards meant that American, British and Swedish banks were happy to lend their money to Germany. In the boom that this triggered, the so-called Roaring Twenties from 1924 to 1929, these loans were easy to service. Brauer consciously pursued this debt policy. He emphasized that not only the current generation should be burdened to finance the urban projects, the coming generation will also benefit from these projects and must therefore be involved in the financing.

With the beginning of the world economic crisis, which made itself felt in 1930, Altona was one of the most heavily indebted cities in Prussia thanks to this financial policy. At the same time, the city's coffers were strained by the growing unemployment, which was reflected in the sharp rise in welfare expenses. These frictions - falling tax revenues due to the slowing economy, high debt levels and a growing share of welfare benefits in the city budget - formed the financial background for the incipient political radicalization. The position of the Altona magistrate was not directly affected by this, as there were no corresponding local elections in the crisis years after 1929. The KPD and NSDAP nevertheless massively questioned the legitimacy of local politics, because the elections at the Reich level showed a considerable influx of the radical left and rapid growth of the extreme right.

In Altona, too, the political conflict increasingly turned into a street fight. This reached its peak on July 17, 1932 in the so-called Altona Blood Sunday . On this day, while the SA marched through the communist old town of Altona, two SA men were shot by communists, whereupon the police, led by Social Democrats, shot sixteen residents who they believed were communist snipers. While the KPD saw this street battle as confirmation of its social fascism thesis, the Reich government under Franz von Papen seized the opportunity to overthrow the Prussian minority government, which was led by social democrats. It justified this Prussian strike with Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution as a measure to safeguard public order. This security was primarily endangered by the communists, against whom the Braun government had not acted vigorously enough. Brauer protested emphatically against these allegations, which were put forward in an even sharper form by the National Socialists. The increasing financial and political pressures showed, however, that the formative policy of the Social Democrats, wanted by Brauer, in alliance with compromising bourgeois circles, had long since fallen on the defensive. It was above all those forces who were striving for the abolition of democracy , republic and parliamentarism who were in charge of action .

In exile

Escape to Paris

Like many of his contemporaries, Brauer considered the National Socialists' seizure of power to be a temporary phenomenon. As an exposed social democratic politician, he was immediately caught in the crosshairs of the Nazis. They did not physically attack him directly, but tried to destroy his existence by publicly accusing him of bribery . The director of the Schiller Theater in Altona , Max Ellen, sent him money and gifts, and in return, municipal subsidies were received. Brauer succeeded in a court case on March 3, 1933, to refute these allegations. At the same time, he forced counter-statements to be printed . Nevertheless, Brauer felt that the attempted character assassination would only be the prelude to further attacks against him. Therefore, he had his March salary paid out on the following day, after he had asked the Schleswig-Holstein regional president on March 3 for his temporary leave of absence. On March 5, 1933, the day of the Reichstag election , Brauer's apartment was searched by the police - Brauer had just gone to vote. He immediately went to Bavaria , while his family fled to Oberhof in Thuringia . On March 6, Brauer's official residence was occupied by SA troops; On the night of March 10th to 11th, the Altona SS under Paul Moder occupied the town hall, and the National Socialist Emil Brix was appointed as the new Lord Mayor of Altona. Brauer traveled on to Oberhof because, contrary to his initial hopes, his safety in Bavaria did not seem guaranteed to him. At the end of March, Brauer went to northern Germany again because he believed he could deal with the allegations against him on the spot. However, his brother-in-law Eduard Pehmöller and his friend and lawyer Rudolf Katz urgently advised him against this when he arrived in Hamburg. So on March 24, 1933, he and his brother-in-law took the night train to Munich and hurried from there to Freilassing . Here both of them crossed the border to Austria disguised as day trippers . Brauer used the pass from Henry Everling , a leading cooperative member in Hamburg, whom he had known for a long time and who had his cooperative contacts in Bavaria played for Brauer's flight. Initially, Brauer found refuge with Josef Witternigg , a Salzburg councilor and member of the national council . A few days later, the leading Austrian Social Democrat Karl Renner granted him asylum in Gloggnitz near Vienna . But he wasn't sure here either. German SA men who were able to move unhindered in Austria broke into the apartment; Brauer only barely managed to escape them. Since April 13, 1933, Brauer has been wanted on a wanted list in Germany, the accusation was of "official offense". The pressure of persecution increased because his escape helpers had been exposed and arrested, and many of his relatives' homes were searched by the police. In view of these circumstances, Brauer continued his escape via Switzerland to Altkirch in Alsace , where he met his family again on April 13, 1933. With the help of French acquaintances, including the Alsatian socialist Salomon Grumbach , the family finally came to Paris . The French capital became the first place of residence in exile.

Administrative specialist in China

Already in the summer of 1933 a surprising perspective opened up for the refugee. Grumbach arranged contacts with the League of Nations . There they were looking for experts for the Chinese government who would advise on setting up an efficient administration based on Western models. Max Brauer, who was supposed to be in the Kiangsu province north of Shanghai , dared to undertake this task and embarked for the Far East in the late summer of 1933. Other exiled Germans accompanied him: his friend Rudolf Katz and his wife as well as the former Prussian finance minister Otto Klepper . The journalist Kurt Bloch, who had worked as an assistant at the Prussian Zentralgenossenschaftskasse, was also part of the group of experts that reached Shanghai in October 1933. Another specialist joined them in December 1933: Horst W. Baerensprung , who was police chief of Magdeburg until the Prussian strike. Meanwhile, Brauer's family went to Geneva , where the children were supposed to complete their schooling.

Brauer saw the visit to China as an opportunity to learn. He wanted to bring the knowledge he hoped to gain into the design of a post-National Socialist Germany. He remained optimistic that an internal upheaval, carried by the workers, would bring about the end of the Nazi state, although he hesitated when this upheaval would happen due to the uncertain information, which he mostly received late and on top of that only from a second or third hand expected.

It was apparently more difficult for Brauer than expected to get used to China, because he was doubly isolated. The Katz couple stayed in Shanghai, while Brauer had to settle in Nanking , the seat of the national Chinese government under Chiang Kai-shek . There was a German community of diplomats, experts and business people there, but they kept their distance from exiles and refugees. For example, Brauer was unable to contact Hans von Seeckt , who was head of a Wehrmacht delegation in Nanking. Brauer described the acclimatization process in a letter to a Swiss friend:

“Now every traveler has to go through a little crisis. The separation of family and home, the completely new thing about the environment, seem incredibly daunting at first. [...] I imagined that I already understood quite a few things about the life of peoples and the economy, and didn't think that a quarter of humanity lives here in a country the size of Europe, which we in Europe actually do not know about is. It will be a real apprenticeship for me. "

Brauer did not become active in Kiangsu as initially thought. Instead, he and other League of Nations experts undertook an exploration tour through the southeastern province of Kiangsi from November 1933 , which was already largely under the control of Mao Tse-tung's troops . This trip provided Brauer and the other experts with the information for their memorandum, in which they proposed land reform . The traditional leasing system should be replaced by cooperative forms of organization, the producing farmers should be involved in the administration. The authors also advocated the establishment of agricultural schools and health centers. Ultimately, these proposals remained just paper. As early as January 1934, it became clear that the mission in China would remain an episode. The German authorities, whose liaison offices at the League of Nations had been deliberately bypassed when employing the emigrants, intervened. The Foreign Office in particular reacted with increased pressure to initially hesitant reactions from the Chinese side. In the end, Foreign Minister Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath intervened personally and threatened to let the impending German-Chinese arms and trade agreements be canceled if the consultancy agreements with the exiles were extended. In the autumn of 1934 the Chinese government gave in and the contracts with the experts who were undesirable from the Nazi point of view were not renewed.

Erna Brauer asked her husband for money by telegram, the family's financial resources were strained by traveling from Geneva to Zurich , there passport matters had to be clarified.

During his stay in China, which was filled with further trips to the area around Beijing and to the provinces of Tientsin and Shensi , Brauer received letters from his family, who were in increasing distress. His wife was threatened with expulsion from Switzerland because her passport had expired. In the end she had to go back to Paris with her daughter. Only the son was allowed to stay at the international school in Geneva until he graduated from high school.

Brauer himself began his return journey on September 29, 1934, which initially took him to the United States . While in China he had already renewed old contacts in the USA in order to find employment here. He wrote to one of his uncles, who lived in Indiana , and to Kurt Meyer-Radon , a former Altona building officer who was now working in Los Angeles . Brauer put his greatest hope in his acquaintance with Leopold Lichtwitz , who had previously headed the city ​​hospital in Altona and who now performed managerial tasks in a New York hospital. Via Lichtwitz, Brauer tried to get a job with the Rockefeller Foundation , preferably in Latin America . This hope was dashed, but Lichtwitz assured him that he would continue to intercede for him.

On the day of his arrival in New York on November 3, 1934, Brauer received news of his expatriation from Germany. The National Socialists justified this measure with the fact that, despite ongoing investigations against him, he had gone abroad and did not obey requests to return.

Back in France

The now stateless person settled in Paris, where he spent 1935, the hardest of which was in Brauer's exile. Various efforts to find work in France , Belgium , Great Britain or Sweden failed. His income from the League of Nations mission was largely consumed. Even the establishment of contact with the Social Democratic exile executive in Prague did not lead to a new position, but only to a Sopade check for 1,000 francs, personally initiated by party chairman Otto Wels .

During this period, Brauer's temporary rapprochement with the communists occurred. Since the VII World Congress of the Communist International, these had revised their attitude towards social democracy. Instead of fighting the social democrats as supposed social fascists, fraternization in a popular front from below was on the agenda. Like many other exiles, Brauer hoped for a united resistance against National Socialism . News about the communist action in the Spanish Civil War made him refrain from doing so. As in previous years, he did not believe that communists could forge lasting democratic alliances.

The low point of the depressing year 1935 was reached at Christmas. French police arrested Brauer on December 25 at the request of the German authorities, who still accused brewers of corruption. It was thanks to the efforts of French socialists that Brauer was viewed not as an ordinary, but as a political prisoner. Nevertheless, he was in extradition custody until the end of the year, which seriously shook his optimism. The court hearing on December 31, 1935, at which the asylum law expert Jean Longuet , a grandson of Karl Marx, represented him as a lawyer, earned him two months' exemption from prison. Brauer then decided to look for a refuge on the other side of the Atlantic.

Ten years in the USA

In mid-March 1936, at the invitation of the American Jewish Congress , Brauer went on a lecture tour through the USA and gave a speech at a banquet organized by this association in New York in which he analyzed anti-Semitism as a mainstay of Nazi ideology. He did this more forcefully than was usually the case with Social Democrats at the time. Brauer was shaped by his friendship with the long-time Altona and later Hamburg chief rabbi Joseph Carlebach . He also demanded that the struggle of the Jews in Germany against their increasing disenfranchisement must be supported internationally, ideally through a World Jewish Congress. In Germany, Brauer saw the potential for an arc of resistance against Hitler that ranged from the working class to Catholicism and Protestantism. He did not support Zionist calls to emigrate to Palestine .

Brauer gave this lecture several times in a slightly different form on the American east coast before briefly returning to France. In the fall of 1936 he went on a second lecture tour to the USA, this time at the invitation of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America . In the fall of 1937 he and his son moved to the USA for good, his wife and daughter followed in 1938. The family lived in New York. Brauer viewed his stay as only a temporary stopgap solution, and it was not until 1943 that he took American citizenship.

Brauer developed a lively lecture activity that made him one of the more prominent opponents of the Third Reich in his new environment. In the meantime it was even considered to appoint him to a German government in exile together with Heinrich Brüning and Arnold Brecht . Brauer's agitation did not go unnoticed by the National Socialists either: when he made speeches, German informers were always in the audience.

New York City, here a photo of Manhattan from 1932 with the Chrysler Building in the center, became a refuge on the other side of the Atlantic for Max Brauer and his family.

In the metropolis on the Hudson River , the opportunities to join German-speaking immigrant and exile groups were far more numerous than had been the case in Nanking. The newly founded New School for Social Research , at which some social democrats who were friends with Brauer, such as Eduard Heimann , Hans Simons or Hans Staudinger , taught, as well as the Rand School of Social Science , which was designed as an evening school and was sponsored by the Social Democrats. The Social Democratic Federation split off from the American Socialist Party in 1936 . It soon had several thousand German-speaking members. On March 10, 1939, some people from this circle founded the German Labor Delegation (GLD), which was chaired by the former Prussian Interior Minister Albert Grzesinski . Like his Altona friend and lawyer Katz, Brauer joined this group and took over the chairmanship in early 1943. Although this organization was numerically small, it had a German-language press organ with a large reach - the Neue Volkszeitung - to publish its views . Diverse connections also benefited her. She earned the status of a special committee of the influential conservative union American Federation of Labor (AFL). Its advisory board also included politicians with close ties to the US State Department . The Jewish Labor Committee supported the GLD with monetary donations, and the Sopade board, now residing in London , often approached the GLD, which - although hardly larger than a study group - saw itself as the official representative of German social democracy in the USA. With the donations that the GLD acquired in the United States, hundreds of people in southern France were saved from access by the National Socialists in 1940/41, because these funds financed their visas and ship passages to the USA.

In the meantime, the GLD fought violently with other organizations in exile from the milieu of the labor movement. The Neu Beginnen group and the Socialist Workers' Party in Germany called for lessons to be learned from the defeat of the split workers' movements against National Socialism - the split in the workers' movement must be overcome. They also warned against the belief that the workforce in Germany was resistant to the whispers of National Socialism. The GLD, on the other hand, stuck to the idea that upheaval in Germany would emanate from the workforce who were only waiting for an opportunity to eliminate National Socialist rule. In addition, like Brauer, the GLD stuck to strict opposition to communist organizations. Associations in which communists worked also fell under this ban. The GLD persisted in its anti- totalitarian stance in the second half of the Second World War, when the USA and the Soviet Union were cornerstones of the anti-Hitler coalition and organizations such as the Council for a Democratic Germany were formed as cross-party anti-Nazi groups in American exile . With its strict refusal to make pacts with communists in any way, the GLD increasingly isolated itself. In addition, Brauer in particular initially vigorously opposed the emerging plans for international control and occupation of post-war Germany. Instead, he and his friends in the GLD demanded the full sovereignty and territorial integrity of his fatherland. Only when the control and crew plans became irrefutable did the GLD swing around. She accepted these plans in the hope that the emerging occupation would be used for a comprehensive democratization of German society. Against this background, it seemed to her that the occupation of Germany by American troops would be best.

Politics in Hamburg

Return to Germany

After the end of the war, Max Brauer was forced to return to Hamburg, to which Altona had also been part of the Greater Hamburg Law since 1937 . He wanted to help rebuild his homeland and was looking for a role that was independent of the occupying powers. He turned down a first return offer from the British Foreign Office because he feared he would have to follow British directives. After lengthy negotiations with the AFL, Brauer and Katz were commissioned to travel to Hamburg to explore the possibilities of rebuilding unions. In July 1946 the two arrived in Hamburg, which since the air raids in summer 1943 had largely resembled a landscape of rubble. Brauer noted:

Burned-out buildings in Hamburg, here an aerial photo from 1944 or 1945.

"There we both stood in front of our hometown after long years of emigration and saw the harrowing picture of vast ruins."

The Hamburg Social Democrats, led by Karl Meitmann , were already expecting brewers. They wanted him to return to politics and serve the SPD as the top candidate for the citizenship elections that were scheduled for autumn that year. On July 14, 1946, Brauer made his first public appearance at the state party conference of the Hamburg SPD. His speech, in which he emphasized his proletarian and Altona roots as in 1924, was greeted with great applause, although he had not yet made his decision to become involved in local politics again. It was not until August 3, 1946, that he confessed to this project on the occasion of a lecture he gave in the Senate guest house under the ironic title "My World Tour". A good week later, on August 11th, Brauer appeared in Planten un Blomen as a bearer of hope at the SPD opening rally for the citizenship election campaign. Around 80,000 listeners cheered his return and his political ambitions, because his speech radiated courage, strength, hope and self-confidence. In an article by Brauer's October 12 in the Hamburger Echo , the American citizen also looked confidently ahead. He relied on the role model function of cities in the reconstruction of democracy in Germany:

“I hope that the German cities, these old places of self-government, these places of really democratic life, will give the impetus from which a democratic Germany can be shaped, a Germany that gives its people light, air and freedom again. German self-government is older than English, which only came into effect in 1830, and developed far earlier than French and Italian. This is where the roots of strong German strength lie. "

Naturalization certificate from Max Brauer. It was issued by Rudolf Petersen, Brauer's predecessor in the office of First Mayor. Because new documents had not yet been printed, they fell back on holdings from the Third Reich. The swastika was covered with ink.

The general election of October 13, 1946 , with a turnout of 79 percent, resulted in an overwhelming majority for the SPD (83 out of 110 seats). It resulted not insignificantly from majority voting based on the British model, which Brauer stated with some trepidation: “Our victory was too big! The electoral mode prevents the development of a workable opposition that cannot be dispensed with. ”At the same time, the SPD failed to achieve the absolute majority it was striving for and achieved 43 percent. The distribution of mandates would have made an SPD sole government possible, but as in the Weimar Republic, the party shied away from sole responsibility and formed the Senate together with the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the KPD. So that Brauer could chair the new Senate, he gave up his American citizenship. His predecessor, Rudolf Petersen , personally signed his naturalization certificate. The first freely elected citizenry after the war elected Brauer to the Senate on November 15, 1946. The Senate elected Brauer as President and First Mayor, and on November 22, 1946, the citizenship met again to swear in the Senate ( Senate Brauer I ).

First mayor from 1946 to 1953

Brauer, who was an advocate of Altona's independence before 1933, did not interfere with the expansion of Hamburg carried out by the National Socialists with the Greater Hamburg Law. "Away-from-Hamburg movements" in Wandsbek , Altona and Harburg-Wilhelmsburg had at times great influence in the local structures of the SPD and extended to the parliamentary group. These tendencies were particularly evident in Harburg, although the former Social Democratic Lord Mayor Walter Dudek , Hamburg Senator for Finance since mid-February 1946, opposed it. Right from the start, Brauer was strictly against these decentralization movements and thus asserted himself against high-ranking SPD politicians and against ideas of the British military administration. In doing so, he created facts that neither the SPD parliamentary group nor a Senate commission for decentralization issues set up at the end of 1946 could have ignored without politically damaging their mayor. He saw a reduction in the centralized position of the Senate in power or even a decline in the territorial layout of Hamburg created in 1937 as “the worst that could happen”.

The start of government activity by the Brewers Senate was dominated by the social hardship that characterized everyday life in the bombed city of millions. The work concentrated on the main sources of misery: hunger, diseases of shortage, housing shortages as well as cold and lack of fuel. In particular, Brauer's personal commitment to the fight for fuel, especially coal , established his reputation as the city's savior. Hundreds of people died in Hamburg in the disaster winter of 1946/47 with its icy temperatures of minus 20 degrees. The supply of urgently needed coal to Hamburg had almost come to a standstill, because mining in the Ruhr area was almost at a standstill, the railway network suffered from icing and many locomotives were defective. Brauer appealed several times to the occupation authorities to take remedial action. After all, the miners in the mining area drove extra shifts, and the coal trains reached Hamburg at the last moment - the power plant pumps of the Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke (HEW) were already threatening to freeze after the last fuel reserves had almost been burned on Brauer's orders. This would have resulted in the total collapse of the city's energy supply. Hamburg thanked the miners in the area by initiating the Ruhr Festival in Recklinghausen . Brauer's good contacts in the theater world turned out to be fruitful in this unusual way.

The question of socialization had been the subject of intense discussion in Hamburg since the spring of 1947 . Within the SPD, the left wing in particular campaigned for appropriate measures. At the same time, the occupation authorities and the Senate commissioned a commission under the later Senator for Economics, Karl Schiller, to prepare a corresponding report. It proposed that the iron, steel and metal industry, the chemical industry, shipyards, armaments factories and energy companies be converted into common property. This has to be done on a legal basis, the previous owners are to be adequately compensated. However, the experts set a number of high hurdles to achieve this goal. First, the policy of dismantling must be ended. The obstruction to German shipping should also be abolished. In addition, raw material and food production must be increased significantly. The considerable export of fuels is also a hindrance to socialization projects. What is also necessary is a uniform, pan-German economic area and a coordinated economic and socialization policy in the bizone . While this report was hardly met with approval within the SPD, it was in keeping with Brauer's attitude. In his opinion there were more important problems to be solved than getting bogged down in an economic-political theoretical argument. In the end, there wasn't much left of comprehensive socialization plans. Only the elevated railway and the HEW were transferred into municipal ownership.

After the currency reform , the Senate gradually boosted social housing , which was supposed to alleviate the housing shortage. However, these efforts were only able to remedy the shortage of housing to a limited extent, as the Hamburg population grew significantly - due to immigrants. In 1949, Brauer brought his old comrade from Altona, Gustav Oelsner, back from his exile in Turkey as general representative for the reconstruction . Another prominent remigrant who followed Brauer's invitation from New York was Herbert Weichmann : He became President of the State Audit Office .

During the reconstruction, Brauer also involved those "raped, abused and persuaded by National Socialism, who are honestly willing to relearn and make a fresh start". He occasionally let himself be blinded by the desire to integrate as wide a circle as possible into the democratic reconstruction and pushed for a flexible handling of denazification .

The publication of a book by Kurt Detlev Möller, archivist at the State Archives , turned into a scandal at the end of 1947 . The Appointed Citizenship had already commissioned the Senate to create documentation about the last years of the war and the surrender of Hamburg without a fight. The historian Percy Ernst Schramm and Senate Syndic Kurt Sieveking had approved Möller's manuscript, and neither the military government nor the mayor Adolph Schönfelder raised any objections. Brauer had also read the manuscript and in a speech he praised the "leading National Socialists" giving in to the rescue of Hamburg. Möller, who had just been classified as “unencumbered” at the time of denazification, was appointed director of the State Archives by him. The SPD member of parliament Hellmut Kalbitzer was outraged, however, that the study represented a false justification of the National Socialists. The Hamburg echo was seconded by the fact that she paints “a picture that no Nazi could paint better and more beautifully: ... [Gauleiter] Kaufmann, the capable administrative specialist , Businessman, the savior of Hamburg. "

Brauer immediately distanced himself from Möller and untruthfully described the work as "a private work by Möller". An allegedly already prepared balanced publication will follow. A glorification of Hitler from Möller's pen, published in 1939 and ignored in the denazification process, gave Brauer the reason to immediately take him off work. In response to a parliamentary question , Brauer had a written answer that Möller's work had not been commissioned by the Senate and that the Senate had not been informed of the work before it went to press . In this "deliberate misleading of Parliament", Brauer also subsequently changed the proposal that he had put to the vote in the Senate. The controversy finally ended with the re-establishment of Möller after years of legal action and the establishment of a research center for the history of the city of Hamburg 1933–1945 , today's research center for contemporary history in Hamburg . The historian Joist Grolle judges:

“Brauer wasn't the man who got into long debates. He practiced this attitude both in his own parliamentary group and party as well as towards colleagues in the Senate. [In Brauer's conviction] there were more important things than unpleasant discussions about modalities of coming to terms with the past . "

Other policy areas were far less controversial. One of Brauer's central economic and political concerns was the revitalization of the port . Here he announced in 1947 that half of the port had been restored. Hamburg's dependence on the port industry and trade resulted in his advocacy of reactivating German shipping, which suffered from the drastic Allied restrictions. Brauer also considered it a success that dismantling in Hamburg in 1947 was only carried out in exceptional cases.

Memorial plaque on the Max-Brauer-Haus in Hamburg-Altona, made in 1987 by the Hamburg sculptor Hans-Joachim Frielinghaus.

During these years, Brauer also gained a profile in Germany and foreign policy. An important stop was the Munich Prime Minister's Conference at the beginning of June 1947 . The division of Germany into two states began to take shape here, as the representatives of the Soviet occupation zone left the conference before it actually began. Brauer did not regret her departure, but publicly imputed party tactical motives to the Eastern delegates. His appeal to the Germans in exile to return home and help with the reconstruction was published by the conference without changes - there was not enough time to discuss this resolution.

The emerging establishment of a western state was welcomed by Brauer. He considered the new statehood to be only a temporary arrangement; However, it is preferable to the "auxiliary constructions (...) with which politics has hitherto been made in Germany". He also welcomed the Marshall Plan . At the Rittersturz conference , at which the eleven prime ministers of the western occupation zones decided to found a western state in July 1948, he took an active part and advised that the chairmen of the democratic parties should also be involved in the deliberations, but could not get his way.

The representatives of the occupying power were positive about his positions on the establishment of the state and his orientation towards the West. In your opinion, he shared the Anglo-American view of things. The fact that Max Brauer with these positions was in opposition to Kurt Schumacher and the majority of the post-war SPD did not bother him. This contrast was also evident after 1949 in the European question. In addition to Ernst Reuter (Berlin) and Wilhelm Kaisen ( Bremen ), Brauer was part of the so-called mayor's wing of the SPD. In contrast to the majority in the party leadership bodies, all three wanted a more positive and active European policy for social democracy. At the Hamburg federal party congress of the SPD in May 1950, the conflict that was defeated by the mayor wing was fought out. Nevertheless, Brauer continued to publicly support the unification of Western Europe .

The general election of October 16, 1949 , in which Brauer received a parliamentary seat, was won again by the SPD. She was able to keep her share of the vote almost entirely, and the weakened majority voting rights ensured her a clear mandate majority again this time. Brauer wanted to offer liberal politicians an office in the Senate again, recalling the alliance of Hamburg liberals and social democrats in the Weimar years. Liberal senators were also an effective means of taming the left wing of his own party. At the same time, he expected disadvantages in talks with representatives of the US government if representatives of market-economy positions were pushed out of his Senate. In the election campaign, however, the FDP took to the field together with the other bourgeois parties against the SPD. They were also divided, and the founding of a party with a left-liberal profile had failed despite social democratic protection. The majority of his own party therefore did not follow Brauer. At the end of October 1949, the state party congress decided instead to set up a single SPD government, and liberal forces willing to form alliances were marginalized among the Hamburg bourgeoisie. In his government program on March 3, 1950, Brauer announced the continuation of the previous policy, accentuated by economic policy projects. This included the requirement to build 15,000 residential units in 1950/51, followed by 20,000 annually. The further expansion of the port was also on the agenda.

During his second term in office, brewers had many opportunities to celebrate the successes of material reconstruction. Again and again there were new hospitals, schools or streets to be opened. Brauer himself attributed the reconstruction of the Elbe metropolis to two broad lines that were linked in his biography. On the one hand, he viewed it as a continuation of his Altona policy: what he had initiated as Altona mayor should now shape Hamburg. On the other hand, Brauer let the reconstruction appear as the result of his exile experiences, especially in the United States. His frequent and extensive conversations with Oskar Kokoschka symbolized his taste for modern art and architecture . Both met over the roofs of the city, high up in the Grindel skyscrapers , which were considered the Manhattan of Hamburg, a "sensation in Germany". This friendship was expressed in a portrait of the Social Democrat, whose modern style was not geared towards the tastes of the public.

Forced break

The third township elections after the war were scheduled for November 1, 1953 . Brauer firmly believed in his continued rule, and the presentable social, economic and urban development successes seemed to him a sufficient guarantee for this. Local events in 1953 - the International Horticultural Exposition , the start of construction of the East-West road, the inauguration of the new Lombard Bridge and the television studios of the North West German Radio , the opening of the new People's Park stadium , the launching of Tina Onassis and the Protestant Church - viewed it as an opportunity to present yourself again as the driving force of the Hanseatic city, as the “soul of reconstruction”. The SPD achieved its best result since the end of the war with 45.2 percent. It still had to admit defeat because the bourgeois opposition from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), FDP, German Party (DP) and All-German Bloc / Federation of Expellees and Disenfranchised (BHE) had come together to form the Hamburg Bloc , which on exactly 50 percent of the vote came. The communists failed at the five percent hurdle . "Brauer resented," he interpreted the result as ingratitude on the part of the voters and refused to take up the position of opposition leader, which Paul Nevermann eventually took over. Brauer also refused to resign. The representatives of the Hamburg bloc agreed to submit a motion for a constructive vote of no confidence for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic at the first meeting of the new citizenship on November 20, 1953 . On December 2, the citizenship withdrew their trust in the minority senate under Brauer ( Senate Brauer II ), Kurt Sieveking became Brauer's successor in office. In retrospect, the social democratic side often cited school reform as the reason for the SPD's defeat in the elections. Since 1949, with her, all children’s lessons had been extended from four to six years. Only then should the decision be made about the child's further education in the tripartite school system. Whether this interpretation is correct is controversial.

In the next few years, Brauer did not concentrate on Hamburg politics. However, he also refused to run for the top municipal offices in Kiel and Berlin. Instead, he became more involved in the SPD at the federal level, developed more extensive studies on social policy and maintained personal networks.

In the Federal SPD he was active in the run-up to the Munich Federal Party Congress of 1956 in both the foreign policy and the local political committee. He also participated in the commission, which, under the chairmanship of Willi Eichler, worked out a new party program - the later Godesberg program . However, he did not gain formative influence in any of these bodies, although he was re-elected to the party executive committee at the party congress in Munich.

One of the treatises that Brauer wrote in 1954 in the social policy area was a presentation on social security in the United States. It was published by the Alte Volksfürsorge , which Brauer had brought to the board immediately after his election defeat. Three years later, in 1957, another draft by Brauer appeared. It dealt with the "problems of automation" and was driven out by the Nordmark district of the German Federation of Trade Unions . During these years he cultivated exclusive friendships with influential Hamburg entrepreneurs such as the brothers Hermann and Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma , Kurt A. Körber , Alfred Toepfer and Albert Schäfer from Phoenix AG . He also took part in the Milan conference The Future of Freedom in 1955 and attended the exclusive roundtables of the Bilderberg Conference in those years . At the same time he worked on committees of the Hamburg Übersee-Club , served as President of the German Stage Association , gave speeches on behalf of the Kuratorium Indivisible Germany and was an honorary member of the German Association of Cities .

First mayor from 1957 to 1960

In 1957, Max Brauer celebrated his return as First Mayor. The bourgeois coalition government under Sieveking no longer convinced the majority of the electorate in the mayor elections of November 10, 1957 . In the course of their tenure, three of their senators had to resign, and the parties supporting the Senate had fallen out noticeably. The conservative DP flirted with the plan to overflow with the opposition SPD, but was prevented from doing so by the federal level of the party. The SPD had also made advances to the FDP to involve them in the Senate in the event of an election that was favorable to the Social Democrats. Furthermore, the Social Democrats' offer lured the Free Democrats to campaign for proportional representation.

For the first time in decades, the SPD received an absolute majority of the vote (53.9 percent). Keeping the coalition promise and recalling the frequent cooperation between the SPD and the liberal bourgeoisie, Brauer reserved three senatorial seats for the Free Democrats ( Senate Brauer III ). It was agreed between Brauer and Paul Nevermann that the former SPD opposition leader should succeed the seventy-year-old brewer in the office of First Mayor during the legislative period .

Until then, Hamburg, the social-liberal Senate and Max Brauer could report further reconstruction successes. Nevertheless, in these last years in office, Brauer lacked the drive that had marked his first two terms in office. The routines of the now well-established urban administration, including their characteristic conflicts and stagnations, shaped day-to-day political business. The ways to political decisions became longer. The period from the beginning of 1958 to the end of 1960 is therefore less connected with the continuation of the reconstruction policy, but with Brauer's federal political commitment to the issue of nuclear armament in the Bundeswehr . While the federal government was striving for this military capacity - Adenauer played it down to the mere further development of artillery - the rejection was widespread among the population. The SPD took the lead in this opposition movement known under the slogan fight against atomic death . Brauer was entrusted by the party with the management of this extra-parliamentary protest movement, and Hamburg developed into its center. The SPD had already taken a stand against the federal government's plans in the state election campaign. In January 1958, Brauer formulated the government's goal that the Hamburg Senate should induce the federal government to abandon its plans. The climax of the activities against the nuclear armament of the Bundeswehr was on April 17, 1958 a demonstration on the Hamburg town hall market , in which over 150,000 people took part. Brauer was the main speaker at the rally together with Hans Henny Jahnn and Wolfgang Döring (FDP). A referendum law passed by the Hamburg citizenship was declared unlawful by the Federal Constitutional Court in August 1958. Brauer publicly castigated this judgment as disregard for the majority of the population. He also saw in this court decision a tendency to promote authoritarian and restorative forms of government:

“Our concerns have grown as a result of this judgment because the valve of freedom of expression has been blocked with formal constitutional concerns in the context of a referendum. [It documents] a disturbing disparity between the representative democratic formalism and the vital needs of a democratic community. "

However, because the federal government abandoned its weapons plans for other reasons, the fight-to-death movement quickly petered out. Brauer, however, remained connected to the topic. Brauer's commitment, which was visible throughout Germany, contributed to the fact that he was traded as a candidate for a top position in the restructuring of the SPD, which had been initiated after its election debacle in 1957 .

In the course of 1960, journalists began to ask when Brauer would hand over his position to Nevermann. Brauer found these inquiries inappropriate and reduced his press conferences to a noticeable extent. At the same time, he suspected that Nevermann wanted to inherit him early. Finally, on December 20, 1960, Brauer's farewell to the office of First Mayor was celebrated with a grand ceremony. On this day, the Economic and Social Sciences awarded him the University of Hamburg , the honorary doctorate . He had already become an honorary senator there three years earlier. The Hamburg citizenship made him an honorary citizen of the city . In the evening, torchlight and music parades took place in his honor, which ended in front of the town hall . From its balcony Brauer spoke to the assembled crowd and proudly recalled the reconstruction work after the Second World War. With these celebrations, the brewing era came to an end in Hamburg.

Late years

Before the federal elections on September 17, 1961 , Willy Brandt , the SPD's candidate for chancellor, made Max Brauer Foreign Minister in his shadow cabinet . This was hardly more than a gesture of recognition to the veteran Social Democrat from Hamburg, because the SPD's prospects of being able to form the government after the elections were poor. With this federal election, however, Brauer became a member of the German Bundestag . In Bonn he could no longer set sustainable accents, instead there was a great silence surrounding him. Because of this weak national political record, Brauer was not re-elected to the SPD executive committee at the Karlsruhe SPD federal party congress in 1964 . In addition, he was one of the minority who opposed German participation in a multilateral nuclear force - remaining true to himself in his engagement against nuclear weapons . Corresponding military plans were circulating in NATO at the time . The majority of the party approved the project - a “bitter defeat” for Brauer in his political retirement, according to Helmut Schmidt .

In Hamburg, too, there was competition within the party. General elections were scheduled for September 19, 1965 . In February Brewers defeated by the young Hans Apel in the vote for candidates in the safe constituency Hamburg-Nord I . A few weeks later, the Hamburg comrades voted trade unionist Heinz Scholz to 10th place on the list. Max Brauer could no longer count on a promising place on the list and immediately left the state party conference. The fact that he was honored with the Mayor Stolten Medal in the same year could hardly offset his disappointment with his political end.

From 1962 to 1966 Brauer was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe .

Grave of Max Brauer and his wife in the Altona main cemetery.

After that, Brauer withdrew from politics. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, the press once again paid tribute to his life's work. Brauer used this attention to criticize the grand coalition under Kurt Georg Kiesinger as a serious mistake in an interview and to describe the plans launched by this government to abolish proportional representation as undemocratic. Then everything went quiet around Max Brauer. Five years later, on his 85th birthday, he was seen in a wheelchair, marked by the effects of a stroke . At the end of 1972 he was hospitalized and died on February 2, 1973. He found his final resting place in the main cemetery in Altona.

reception

Commemoration

Street sign in Altona: Max-Brauer-Allee, corner of Hospitalstraße.

There are many memories of Max Brauer in Hamburg. The long avenue that leads from the Altona balcony to the northern edge of the Schanzenviertel has been called Max-Brauer-Allee since 1975. The office of the Altona SPD, called Max-Brauer-Haus, can be found at the southern end of this street. In Altona there is also a comprehensive school, the Max-Brauer-Schule , named after him. The Max-Brauer-Kai is located in the port district of Steinwerder . The Max Brauer Foundation of Hamburger Hochbahn AG is dedicated to promoting the gifted . A care facility in Hamburg-Bramfeld bears the name Max Brauer-Haus . The Alfred Toepfer Foundation FVS awards the Max Brewer Prize every year . It honors personalities and institutions in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg who have committed themselves in a meritorious way to the cultural, scientific or intellectual life in the city. The Max Brauer ferry was part of the Hamburg shipping company HADAG . It was scrapped in 2015. The water police of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg operates the Mayor Brewer patrol boat , which was built in 1992.

research

The essence, work and effect of Brauer have been researched in their basic features today, although a comprehensive biography is pending. The first larger study was presented by his long-time press spokesman Erich Lüth in 1972 . It pays tribute to person and life's work, but is not devoid of legends. For example, the account he has handed down that at the election campaign event on August 11, 1946, tens of thousands of brewers asked to stay in Hamburg, is not guaranteed by the sources. Hamburgers in particular, or historians closely associated with Hamburg, have dealt with brewers. Your judgments are consistently benevolent. Nevertheless, at certain points, the critical distance to the research object becomes clear. The focus is on three aspects. On the one hand, it is emphasized that Brauer, who was firmly rooted in the social democratic labor movement, remained convinced in his years of exile and beyond that the workers were hardly affected by the Nazi ideology. He underestimated the pull of the Volksgemeinschaft ideology , and he did not want to let criticism from his correspondents take away his belief in the working class. On the other hand, he showed little interest in who of those who were involved in the reconstruction of the city had previously become more deeply entangled in the politics and ideologies of the Third Reich. For Brauer, it was primarily a matter of looking ahead. Both have been described as the “power of delusion” ( Wildt ) with a paradoxical effect: Brauer offered those who stayed in Germany after 1933 a “pact” that was ultimately based on repression and nevertheless, or precisely because of that, energies and drive for material tidying up Reconstruction work set free. Finally, historians point to Brauer's sometimes authoritarian leadership style . He was "considered authoritarian, dominant, stubborn and free from all self-doubt". While this was still functional during the Weimar period and in the first years after the Second World War, because the city regiment and political-psychological leadership of the population were particularly important, this leadership style increasingly came up against its limits in the 1950s. Historians believe that the increasing complexity of metropolitan government and administration changed the demands placed on top politicians. You now had to delegate and moderate more strongly . Collegiality as a hallmark of togetherness in the Senate was also required. Apparently the “doer” Max Brauer was unable to adapt sufficiently here. Nonetheless, journalism and history consider him one of the most important Hamburg mayors in the 20th century.

attachment

Writings by Max Brauer

• For the larger Altona . in: Voices on the question of a larger Altona . Compiled by the advertising committee for a larger Altona. Hammerich & Lesser, Altona 1925, pp. 7-18.
• Public and private economy . Verl.-Ges. of general German Trade Union Federation, Berlin 1931. (Reprint from the minutes of the 14th Congress of German Trade Unions in Frankfurt / M. From August 31 to September 4, 1931)
• Social Security. Latest experiences in USA . Published by the "Alte Volksfürsorge " trade union cooperative life insurance company, Hamburg, undated (lecture given at the works meeting of the "Alte Volksfürsorge" Hamburg 1954)
• Sober mind and hot heart. Speeches and speeches . 2nd extended edition, Verlag Auerdruck, Hamburg 1956.
• Automation problems . Published by the German Trade Union Federation, Hamburg 1957.

swell

• Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt (Ed.): Max Brauer in Exile. Letters and speeches 1933–1946 . Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-7672-1219-6 .

Literature on Max Brauer

• Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction, in: Same (Ed.): Max Brauer im Exil… , pp. 13-100.
• Erich Lüth: Max Brauer. Glassblower - mayor - statesman (publications of the Lichtwark Foundation vol. 15). Hans Christians Verlag, 1972, ISBN 3-7672-0210-7 .
• Axel Schildt : Max Brauer . Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-8319-0093-0 .
• Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer: Lord Mayor - Exile - First Mayor . Reprint from 1991 in: State Center for Political Education (Hrsg.), Hamburg after the end of the Third Reich: political rebuilding 1945/46 to 1949. Six articles . Hamburg 2000, pp. 137-164 and pp. 224-229, ISBN 3-929728-50-8 .
• Michael Wildt: Social Democrats in Exile. The example of Max Brauer . In: Uwe Lohalm (Ed.): Workers' Party and Metropolitan Policy. On the change in the SPD in Hamburg in the 20th century . Results-Verlag, Hamburg 1996, pp. 40-49. ISBN 3-87916-039-2 .
• Michael Wildt: Two kinds of new beginnings: the politics of Mayors Rudolf Petersen and Max Brauer in comparison . In: The second chance. The transition from dictatorship to democracy in Hamburg 1945–1949 , on behalf of the Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg and the Catholic Academy Hamburg ed. by Ursula Büttner and Bernd Nellessen, Catholic Academy Hamburg, Hamburg 1997, pp. 41–61, ISBN 3-928750-53-4 .
• Michael Wildt: The power of delusion. The social democrat Max Brauer in exile . In: Exile and Resistance (Exilforschung. An international year book, Volume 15, edited on behalf of the Society for Exile Studies by Claus-Dieter Krohn and others with the assistance of Gerhard Paul). Ed. text + kritik, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-88377-560-6 , pp. 162–179

Further overview presentations

• Rainer Behring: Democratic foreign policy for Germany. The Foreign Policy Concepts of German Social Democrats in Exile 1933–1945 (Contributions to the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties, edited by the Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties , Vol. 117), Droste, Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-7700- 5218-8 .
• Christof Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945 to 1953. Start as a bourgeois left party . With a foreword by Hildegard Hamm-Brücher (DemOkrit 3, Studies on Party Criticism and Party History), M-Press, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-89975-569-3 .
• Susanne Kuss: The League of Nations and China. Technical cooperation and German consultants 1924–34 (Berliner China-Studien Vol. 45), LIT, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-8391-4 .
• Arnold Sywottek: Hamburg since 1945 . In: Werner Jochmann , Hans-Dieter Loose (Ed.): Hamburg. History of the city and its inhabitants . Volume II: Werner Jochmann (Ed.): From the Empire to the Present . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1986, pp. 377-466, ISBN 3-455-08255-6 .
• Walter Tormin : The history of the SPD in Hamburg 1945 to 1950 (Forum Zeitgeschichte, Volume 4), Results-Verlag, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-87916-028-7 .

Web links

Commons : Max Brauer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Max Brauer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Sound recording. In 1950, Brauer christened the merchant ship “Santa Ursula”. (Audio file on one page of the Hans Bredow Institute about the journalist Günter Schwermer; see "Audio sample 1")
• Newspaper article about Max Brauer in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Archive for social history online, detailed review of the study by Axel Schildt about Max Brauer
• Max Brauer - Social Democrat and Mayor . ZeitZeichen on NDR Info , broadcast on September 3, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ^ Quotations about Hamburg and Altona as social democratic centers according to Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 15.
2. ↑ Brauer's inaugural address as Lord Mayor of Altona, given before the Altona city council on May 17, 1924, quoted from Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer , p. 140.
3. ↑ Information on Brauer's origins from Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 15. On Ottensen's urban and political development, the parents' political attitudes and the son's thirst for education, see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 15.
4. ↑ Information on apprenticeship, union and party membership, strike activity and the SPD local group Damgarten from Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 16.
5. ^ Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer , p. 142.
6. ↑ Josef Rieger, Max Mendel, Walter Postelt: The Hamburg consumer cooperative "Production", 1899-1949, page 120 ff, Verlag Friedrich Oetinger, Hamburg 1949
7. ↑ Axel Schildt, Max Brauer , p. 19.
8. ↑ Information on Brauer's professional and political career up to the end of the First World War and on starting a family with Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 16–19.
9. ↑ On Brauer's position and politics as Second Mayor of Altonas see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 22–24.
10. ↑ On the election of Brauer, the resistance to her and on the city council elections of 1924, see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 25 f.
11. ↑ Others were Robert Leinert ( Hanover ), Philipp Scheidemann ( Kassel ), Walter Dudek (Harburg) or Ernst Reuter (Magdeburg), see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 28.
12. ↑ On the external development of Altona under Brauer, see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 32–36 and Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 19 f.
13. ↑ See Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 28 f.
14. ↑ See Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 28–31. See also Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 20 f.
15. ↑ See Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 31 and Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 21.
16. ^ Eckart Klessmann: History of the City of Hamburg , Hoffman and Campe Verlag, Hamburg 1997, p. 603, ISBN 3-455-08803-1 .
17. ↑ So the formulations by Gerd Bucerius and Herbert Weichmann, quoted from Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 21.
18. ↑ Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 33; Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 21.
19. ↑ It was requested by homeowners from 1924 onwards. They had profited from the hyperinflation that reduced debt to their properties.
20. ↑ On the debt policy of the German municipalities after 1924 see Harold James : Deutschland in der Weltwirtschaftskrise 1924–1936 , translated from English by Werner Stingl, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 95–116, ISBN 3-421-06476-8 .
21. ↑ On the development of finances and politics from 1929 to 1932 see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 38 f and Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 22.
22. ↑ For the development from “Altona Blood Sunday” to the rise of the National Socialists, see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 40–42 and Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 23.
23. ↑ On this defamation in detail Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 24-27. There it becomes clear that Brauer did not behave correctly in all points and also did not provide completely correct information. The allegation of corruption is also marked there as a transparent campaign.
24. ↑ Max Brauer later announced, looking back, that he had barricaded himself in his room. See Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 47.
25. ↑ On the escape to Paris see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 43–48 and Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 24–31.
26. ↑ For details on the China Mission, see Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 31–36. See also Susanne Kuss: League of Nations , pp. 300–309. Axel Schildt briefly on this: Max Brauer , p. 49 f.
27. ↑ On this Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 40–43 and Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 50–52.
28. ↑ Max Brauer to Hermann Schöndorff, January 4, 1934, quoted from Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 52.
29. ↑ That was the Yugoslav social medicine specialist Andrija Štampar and the Danish cooperative expert Erik Briand-Clausen. See Susanne Kuß: League of Nations , p. 318.
30. ↑ On the expert trip to Kiangsi and the report see Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 37–39, Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 53 and Susanne Kuß: Völkerbund , p. 318 f.
31. ↑ On the interventions of the official German agencies see Susanne Kuß: Völkerbund , pp. 309–315.
32. ↑ On this Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 44 and 48 and Susanne Kuß: League of Nations , pp. 320 f and p. 326.
33. ↑ For the background to his expatriation see Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 49 f.
34. ↑ On Brauer's temporary support for the Popular Front policy see Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 53–55 and Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 60 f.
35. ↑ For the arrest and the process see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 61 and Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 55 f.
36. ↑ On this speech see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 63–65 and Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 57–59.
37. ↑ Arnold Brecht: With the power of the spirit. Memoirs 1927–1967 , Stuttgart 1967, p. 334.
38. ↑ Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 65 and Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 61.
39. ↑ See the "Guide to the Rand School of Social Science Records 1905–1962" , (English).
40. ↑ On this, Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 66 and Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 62 f.
41. ↑ See the “Guide to the Social Democratic Federation of America Records 1933–1956” , (English).
42. ↑ Brauer initially shared the chairmanship with Siegfried Aufhäuser. After he left the GLD in spring 1944, he was the sole chairman.
43. ↑ For the JLC see the website of this organization , (English), and the “Guide to the Jewish Labor Committee, Chicago Records 1952–1986” , (English).
44. ↑ On the personnel and political environment of the GLD and its support for refugees see Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 63–66 and Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 66 f.
45. ↑ See Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , p. 65 f and Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 67.
46. ↑ See Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 67–71, Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 66–73, Rainer Behring: Democratic Foreign Policy , p. 502.
47. ^ Rainer Behring: Democratic foreign policy , pp. 507-514.
48. ↑ Max Brauer, quoted from Erich Lüth: Max Brauer , p. 38.
49. ↑ On Brauer's activities up to August 11, 1946, see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 72–75 and Christa Fladhammer, Michael Wildt: Introduction , pp. 74–77. Schild dates the speech to August 14th.
50. ↑ Max Brauer on the meaning of choice, in: Hamburger Echo , October 12, 1946, quoted from Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 75 f.
51. ↑ Eckart Klessmann, History of the City of Hamburg , p. 548.
52. ↑ Michael Wildt: Social Democrats , p. 49.
53. ↑ Cf. on the election of the citizenship until the Senate took office under Brauer Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 76–78.
54. ↑ See Holger Martens : Hamburgs way to the metropolis. From the Greater Hamburg question to the district administration law (contributions to the history of Hamburg, vol. 63), Verlag Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-935413-08-4 . Quotation on p. 193. See also State Center for Political Education, Hamburg: From the four-city area to the unitary community. Altona - Harburg-Wilhelmsburg - Wandsbek merge into Greater Hamburg , Heinevetter, Hamburg 1988. Looking back in 1964, Brauer took it succinctly to "take it for granted that with the collapse of the Third Reich, the uniform consolidation of the area had to be maintained." See Max Brauer, 300 years of Altona. Thoughts on his anniversary. In: Martin Ewald (Ed.) 300 years of Altona. Contributions to its history. Hans Christians, Hamburg 1964, pp. 13-17. The fact that this change took place at Brauer is occasionally mentioned in research. The reasons for this have not yet been investigated.
55. ↑ Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 81 f and Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer , p. 151.
56. ↑ On the socialization debate, see Christof Brauers: FDP , pp. 324–328.
57. ↑ Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 84–86.
58. ^ Brauer, quoted by Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 80.
59. ↑ Möller's book was entitled The Last Chapter .
60. ↑ Quotation from Joist Grolle: Difficulties with the past. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History, vol. 78 (1992), pp. 1–65, here p. 22.
61. ↑ Grolle: Difficulties , p. 29.
62. ↑ See also Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 83. See also Michael Wildt: Zweierlei Neubeginn , p. 57 and p. 59, note 9. See also Christof Brauers on this scandal: FDP , p 329–331 and Walter Tormin : History of the SPD in Hamburg , p. 195 f.
63. ↑ Grolle: Difficulties , p. 38.
64. ↑ On Brauer's efforts to reactivate the port and shipping, see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 86 and Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer , p. 151. On Brauer's positions on the question of dismantling see Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer , p. 156 .
65. ↑ On Brauer's activities in relation to the Munich Prime Minister's Conference, see Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer , p. 153 f and Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 88.
66. ^ Brauer, quoted from Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 89.
67. ^ Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer , p. 154.
68. ↑ Henning Koehler, Adenauer. A political biography , Propylaeen, Berlin 1994, p. 464, ISBN 3-549-05444-0 .
69. ↑ See also Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 88 f and Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer , p. 154.
70. ↑ See on this Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer , p. 159 f and Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 90 f.
71. ↑ Brauer was first elected to the citizenry on October 16, 1949, he also belonged to it in the following election periods (3rd and 4th) and left after the new election on November 12, 1961. See the Official Gazette of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg 1949, 1953, 1957, 1961.
72. ↑ For information on the state election, the formation of the Senate and the government program, see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 93–98. On the question of the involvement of liberal politicians, the election campaign of the FDP and the disagreements in the liberal spectrum, see Christof Brauers: FDP , pp. 399–444.
73. ^ Arnold Sywottek: Hamburg since 1945 , p. 380.
74. ↑ See Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 98-100. The picture archive of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation has a photo of the painting
75. ↑ Erich Lüth: Max Brauer , p. 51.
76. ↑ Erich Lüth: Max Brauer , p. 69.
77. ↑ See Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 101 f.
78. ↑ Christof Brauers: FDP , pp. 681 and 683.
79. ↑ On this reform see Arnold Sywottek: Hamburg seit 1945 , pp. 413–415 and Christof Brauers: FDP , pp. 343–353.
80. ↑ Axel Schildt ( Max Brauer , p. 102) emphasizes that this interpretation is “rather doubtful in view of the structural party-political constellations in the first post-war decade.” Sywottek ( Hamburg since 1945 , p. 415) is also not sure whether the opposition will win Was the result of their school policy demands. This could "not be determined beyond doubt."
81. ↑ This gathering was hosted by the Congress for Cultural Freedom , which was closely associated with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Michael Hochgeschwender: Freedom on the offensive? The Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Germans , Oldenbourg, Munich, 1998 ISBN 3-486-56341-6 . For the Milan conference, see p. 450 ff.
82. ^ Website of the Übersee-Club
83. ↑ On Brauer's activities from 1953 to 1957, see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 103-105.
84. ↑ On the election and the formation of the Senate, see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 105-107.
85. ↑ On this Arnold Sywottek: Hamburg since 1945 , p. 441.
86. ↑ " Why don't you differentiate between tactical and large atomic weapons. The tactical weapons are nothing more than the advancement of the artillery. Of course, we cannot do without our troops taking part in the latest developments in their normal armament. ”(Konrad Adenauer, quoted from Wolfgang Altenburg : The nuclear strategy of the North Atlantic Alliance: From opposition to cooperation in the East-West relationship , in: Clausewitz -Gesellschaft e.V. , 2005 yearbook, pp. 18–29, here page 28, note 2.) PDF file (4.7 MB) (PDF)
87. ^ A statement by Brauer in the social democratic forward , quoted from Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 109.
88. ↑ On Brauer's activities against atomic armament of the Bundeswehr see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 107-109 and Arnold Sywottek: Max Brauer , p. 162 f.
89. ^ Willy Brandt, Recollections , Propylaen Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 66, ISBN 3-549-07353-4 .
90. ↑ Honorary Senators of the University of Hamburg. University of Hamburg, accessed on January 23, 2019 . 
91. ↑ For the end of the Brauer era see Erich Lüth: Max Brauer , pp. 71 f and pp. 83–87. See also Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 110 f.
92. ↑ Helmut Schmidt: Menschen und Mächte , Siedler, Berlin 1987, p. 176. ISBN 3-88680-278-7 . For the "great silence" in Bonn see Uwe Bahnsen : The Weichmanns in Hamburg, a stroke of luck for Germany . Edited by Herbert and Elsbeth Weichmann Foundation, Christians Verlag, Hamburg 2001, p. 171, ISBN 3-7672-1360-5 .
93. ↑ On Brauer's last years see Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , pp. 112–115.
94. ↑ Website of the Max Brauer-Haus
95. ↑ Overview of the HADAG ship fleet (2010). Archived from the original on August 22, 2010 ; accessed on January 23, 2019 . 
96. ↑ The last trip of the "Max Brauer". In: New Osnabrück Newspaper. May 21, 2015, accessed January 23, 2019 . 
97. ↑ Illustration of the mayor brewer including technical information. In: schiffsphoto.de. Archived from the original on August 6, 2007 ; accessed on January 23, 2019 . 
98. ↑ Erich Lüth: Max Brauer , p. 40 f.
99. ↑ This is what Tormin draws attention to. See Walter Tormin: History of the SPD in Hamburg , p. 118, see also Axel Schildt: Max Brauer , p. 75.
100. ↑ These are Arnold Sywottek, Axel Schildt, Michael Wildt and Christa Fladhammer.
101. ↑ Christof Brauers: FDP , p. 319.
102. ↑ Here the historians follow the description by Erich Lüth: Max Brauer , pp. 46–48.
103. ↑ The first sentence in Axel Schild: Max Brauer (p. 9) reads: "Max Brauer (1887–1973) was an important and, in retrospect, probably the best-known mayor of Hamburg in the 20th century."

This article was added to the list of excellent articles in this version on October 27, 2007 .