Max Brauer
Max Julius Friedrich Brauer (3 September 1887 – 2 February 1973) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and first elected First Mayor of Hamburg after World War II.
Life
In 1923 Brauer was mayor of the independent city of Altona. Brauer fled the Nazi regime to the United States in 1933 with a passport of a friend. In 1934 Brauer's German citizenship was revoked and he maintained the U.S. citizenship. In July 1946 he came back to Hamburg working for the American Federation of Labor. In October 1946 after the election of the Hamburg Parliament, Brauer was elected as the First Mayor of Hamburg. After Brauer complained in a letter to the British forces about the supply shortfall in Hamburg, the British Governor Vaugham H. Berry ordered not to heat the officers' mess until there were a solution.
16 October 1949, the second Hamburg Parliament election took place. Brauers party, the SPD, gets 65 of the 120 seats there. His new Hamburg government ("Senat Brauer II") starts February 1950. In October 1953, the next election took place. The SPD got only 58 of the 120 seats; an alliance including the CDU got the other 62 seats. Kurt Sieveking (CDU) became Brauers successor; the Senate Sieveking started in December 1953.
On 10 November 1957, the SPD got 69 of the 120 seats. Brauer and his third Senate started working. Brauer had promised to Paul Nevermann (* 1902) that he would succeed him before the end of the term. The 'era Brauer' ended 20 December 1960 with extensive ceremonies.
