Henry Maier

Henry Walter Maier (February 7, 1918 – July 17, 1994) was an American politician and the longest-serving mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, holding office from 1960 to 1988. A Democrat, Maier was a powerful and controversial figure, presiding over an era of economic and political turbulence for the city of Milwaukee.

Early life Maier was born Henry Walter David Nelke in Dayton, Ohio. After his father died, he moved with his mother to Springfield, Ohio to live with his maternal grandparents. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1936. When his mother moved to Milwaukee and married contractor Charles Maier, Nelke accompanied her.

Maier served in the United States Navy during World War II. He earned a master's degree from University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He worked briefly as an agent in the insurance industry,

In its obituary for Maier, the Chicago Tribune reflected, "Maier began his mayoral reign during a period of urban transition and turbulence. Milwaukee was spared neither." At the time the longest-tenured incumbent mayor in any of any of the top 20 most populace United States cities, he had been in office eleven years longer than the next-longest tenured incumbent (Baltimore mayor William Donald Schaefer).

Racial matters

Maier's opposition to demands of Civil Rights Movement organizers caused constant friction with his administration and Milwaukee's non-white residents. Many of the civil rights protests in Milwaukee were headed by Rev. James Groppi, a Milwaukee-based Roman Catholic priest. Maier and Groppi were lastingly at-odds, with Maiers 1990s autobiography exclaiming that he would have been sooner to forgive Senator Joseph McCarthy for his Red Scare hunts for communists than he would have been willing to forgive Rev. Groppi for his actions. In response to the riot, Maier declared a state of emergency, enforced a curfew, and asked-in the National Guard. While many residents offered plaudits for his handling of the riots (considering him to have acted decisively), many civil rights activists criticized his response and overall handling of racial matters. This change did not materialize.

Development, tourism, and festivals Across his mayoralty, Maier promoted efforts to revitalize the city's downtown, to bring increased tourism to the city, and to establish festival events in the city. Considered a "bombastic" showman, Maier often participated in festivals, even performing songs.

Circa 1970, Maier became the chief organizer of the newly founded Wisconsin Alliance of Cities. In 2017, Prigge recalled that Maier, Battled with…members of the press, governors, the common council, and nearly anyone with a platform who had unkind words for the mayor. Near the end of his term, he had become so isolated that one assemblyman called him "the Howard Hughes of City Hall."

Disputes with news media Maier long feuded with news media, which he disdained and accused of having "kept the pot boiling". Weeks before leaving office, he personally purchased a half-page advertisement in the Milwaukee Sentinel in which he published an open-letter outlining his grievances with the Milwaukee Journal. At time of his retirement, he was the longest tenured major city mayor in U.S. history.

Later life, death, and legacy In 1993, Maier published an autobiographical political memoir: The Mayor Who Made Milwaukee Famous. The title was an allusion to the advertising slogan of a Milwaukee brewery, and the book included an author's note that Maier had objected to the title and that it was used at the insistence of his publisher. Maier died of pneumonia at age 76 at his home in Delafield. Henry Maier Festival Park, where Summerfest is held, was named in his honor.