Georg Gradnauer

Born in Magdeburg, Gradnauer earned a PhD in 1889, and became editor of the Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung (later Dresdner Volkszeitung [de]), the SPD paper in Saxony, in 1891.

[2] Gradnauer then returned to head the Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung once more, meanwhile renamed Dresdner Volkszeitung,[2] and remained in that role until the outbreak of the German Revolution in 1918.

[3] The SPD won a plurality of the votes in the first Saxon elections under the Weimar Republic, on February 2, 1919, and Gradnauer ended up forming a minority government, becoming Saxony's first constitutional Minister-President on March 14.

[5] Left-wing resentment within the SPD began to build in early 1920, however, and Gradnauer was forced to resign in April 1920, with opposition to his use of the military against the radical left being joined by discontent over his unwillingness to replace conservative elements of the bureaucracy with Social Democrats.

[7] After resigning as Minister-President, Gradnauer was reelected to the Reichstag, serving from 1920 to 1924, and briefly (1921) holding a cabinet post as Minister of the Interior under Joseph Wirth.