Max Seydewitz (December 19, 1892 – February 8, 1987) was a German

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

(

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...

, SAPD and

SED sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs, and is available today for most operating systems. sed w ...

). Between 1947 and 1952 he was the

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

in the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...

Life

Max Seydewitz was born in a small town some 25 km (15 miles) east of

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exte ...

and 150 km (90 miles) south-east of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. His father was a tanner. He attended school locally and undertook an apprenticeship as a book printer. He joined a socialist youth movement in 1907 and in 1910 became a member of the

. He served as a soldier in the war between 1914 and 1915 when he was released from the army on grounds of "unsuitability" for war. From 1918 till 1920 he worked as contributing editor on the "Volksblatt" (''"People's Voice"''), a socialist newspaper in Halle before moving to

Zwickau Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ...

where from 1920 till 1931 he served as Editor in Chief with "Saxony Volksblatt", a daily newspaper of the political left. In 1931 the left-wing of the SPD was expelled and Seydewitz alongside members such as

Kurt Rosenfeld Kurt Rosenfeld (1 February 1877 – 25 September 1943) was a German lawyer and politician ( SPD). He was a member of the national parliament () between 1920 and 1932. Early life Kurt Samuel Rosenfeld was born at Marienwerder, a mid-sized town nea ...

established

Socialist Workers' Party of Germany The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, SAPD) was a centrist Marxist political party in Germany. It was formed as a left-wing party with around 20,000 members which split off from the SPD i ...

, which he became the co-chair. After the Nazi seizure of power, Seydewitz fled Germany and eventually settled in Stockholm and worked as a journalist. During his exile he established contact with the Communist Party of Germany. For a period he was a resident in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and during the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...

he was suppressed although he was later relieved of all charges. His two sons however were sent to gulags and weren't released until after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In 1945 he arrived at Berlin and in 1946 he became a member of the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...

and was for a brief period editor of the theoretical organ of SED, '' Einheit''. From 1946 to 1947 he was director of the

Berliner Rundfunk The Berliner Rundfunk (BERU) was a radio station set in East Germany. It had a political focus and discussed events in East Berlin. Today it is a commercial radio station broadcast with the name "Berliner Rundfunk 91.4". History The Berliner ...

. Seydewitz was elected by the Saxon state parliament as Prime Minister of Saxony and became a member of the

Volkskammer __NOTOC__ The Volkskammer (, ''People's Chamber'') was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic (colloquially known as East Germany). The Volkskammer was initially the lower house of a bicameral legislature. The upper house w ...

. In 1951 was attacked as part of an internal party campaign against former SAPD members and had to practice “self-criticism”. With the dissolution of the federal states in 1952, he lost his position as Prime Minister of Saxony, but remained a member of the Volkskammer until his death in 1987. From 1955 to 1968 Seydewitz was director of

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (, ''Dresden State Art Collections'') is a cultural institution in Dresden, Germany, owned by the State of Saxony. It is one of the most renowned and oldest museum institutions in the world, originating from the ...

. Seydewitz died in 1987 in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

Statistical comparisons

Born in

Forst (Lausitz) Forst (Lausitz) ( dsb, Baršć) is a town in Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany. It lies east of Cottbus, on the river Lausitzer Neiße which is also the German- Polish border, the Oder-Neisse line. It is the capital of the Spree-Neiße distri ...

, Seydewitz was the oldest former Minister-President of Germany from November 26, 1985 to May 5, 1991 preceded by Hans Ehard and succeeded by Bruno Diekmann. If one only counts the Ministers-President of the GDR he was oldest from August 1981 to October 8, 1991; preceded by Karl Steinhoff and succeeded by

Werner Bruschke Werner Bruschke (18 August 1898, Magdeburg, Province of Saxony – 17 February 1995, Halle (Saale)) was an East German politician and member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. He was Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt ( GDR) from 13 A ...

Publications

* ''Die Krise des Kapitalismus und die Aufgabe der Arbeiterklasse''. Verlag der Marxistischen Büchergemeinde, Berlin 1931 * ''Todesstrahlen und andere neue Kriegswaffen'', mit Kurt Doberer. Malik-Verlag, London 1936 * ''Stalin oder Trotzki? Die UdSSR und der Trotzkismus. Eine zeitgeschichtliche Untersuchung.'' Malik-Verlag, London 1938. * ''Hakenkreuz über Europa?'' Vannier, Paris 1939 * ''Civil Life in Wartime Germany. The Story of the Home Front.'' New York 1945. * ''Es geht um Deutschland''. Sachsen-Verlag, Dresden 1949. (gesammelte Rundfunkkommentare 1946–1947). * ''Der Antisemitismus in der Bundesrepublik''. Mit Ruth Seydewitz, Hrsg. Ausschuß für deutsche Einheit, Berlin 1956 * ''Das Dresdener Galerie Buch: 400 Jahre Dresdener Gemäldegalerie'' , mit Ruth Seydewitz, Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1957 * ''Deutschland zwischen Oder und Rhein: Ein Beitr. zur neuesten dt. Geschichte''. Kongress-Verlag, Berlin 1958 * ''Zerstörung und Wiederaufbau von Dresden'' Berlin (Ost) 1955. (ab 3. Auflage: ''Die unbesiegbare Stadt'') * ''Die Dresdener Kunstschätze: Zur Geschichte d. Grünen Gewölbes u.d. anderen Dresdener Kunstsammlungen'', mit Ruth Seydewitz, VEB Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1960 * Ruth und Max Seydewitz, ''Die Dame mit dem Hermelin: Der grösste Kunstraub aller Zeiten.'' Henschelverlag, Berlin (Ost) 1963 * ''Es hat sich gelohnt zu leben. Lebenserinnerungen eines alten Arbeiterfunktionärs.'' Dietz Verlag, Berlin (Ost) 1976. * ''Dresden, Musen und Menschen. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Stadt, ihrer Kunst und Kultur.'' Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin, 1988

External links

References