
Erich Zeigner (17 February 1886, in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits ...
– 5 April 1949, in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
) was a German politician. He was Prime Minister of the German state of
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 ...
during the attempted communist uprising of 1923.
In August 1921 Zeigner was Minister of Justice of Saxony. On 21 March 1923 he became the third prime minister of the Free State of Saxony. On 10 October 1923 he appointed two members of the Communist Party as members of the government. On 27 October 1923,
German Chancellor
The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...
Gustav Stresemann
Gustav Ernst Stresemann (; 10 May 1878 – 3 October 1929) was a German statesman who served as chancellor in 1923 (for 102 days) and as foreign minister from 1923 to 1929, during the Weimar Republic.
His most notable achievement was the reconc ...
issued an ultimatum demanding a dismissal of the Communist ministers. Zeigner refused to comply and, two days later, was deposed as prime minister by the President of Germany
Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925.
Ebert was elected leader of the SPD on ...
(
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 the ...
) under the authority of Article 48 of the Weimar constitution. Zeigner was replaced by a commissioner.
On 21 November 1923 Zeigner was arrested for alleged corruption in office and sentenced in the spring of 1924 to three years in prison, from which he was released on probation in August 1925.
In 1932, he signed the
Urgent Appeal against the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
. He was arrested in August 1933 after the Nazis had come to power but acquitted at trial in 1935. Since then he had to live by doing odd jobs. 1939 re-imprisoned for a short time, he worked as a bookkeeper in Leipzig. After the failed attempt to assassinate
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
on 20 July 1944, Zeigner and
Stanislaw Trabalski, as well as
Heinrich Fleißner
Heinrich Fleissner (born 27 May 1888 in Hirschberg, Thuringia, died 22 April 1959 in Leipzig) was a German politician (USPD / SPD / SED), and chief of police in Leipzig.
Life
Fleißner was born the son of a tanner in Hirschberg an der Saale ...
, was kidnapped, and other Leipzig Solzialdemokraten were arrested in the
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoner ...
. In August 1944 he was arrested in
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or s ...
.
Zeigner returned to Leipzig in 1945, was in June/July 1945 legal council with the city administration in Leipzig and was appointed on 16 July 1945 by the commander of the Soviet military administration in Leipzig, Lieutenant General
Nikolai Trufanov, as Lord Mayor of the city of Leipzig. He held this office until his death. In October 1946 he was confirmed as Lord Mayor by an election.
Zeigner died of natural causes on 5 April 1949. It has been suggested that after his dismissal, fear for his life and the welfare of his family prevented Zeigner from either resisting his dismissal at the time, or publicly denouncing the Nazi regime at a later date.
External links
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1886 births
1949 deaths
Politicians from Erfurt
People from the Province of Saxony
Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Volkskammer
Mayors of Leipzig
Weimar Republic politicians
Ministers-President of Saxony
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