Editing Wilhelm Hoegner (section)

== Postwar politics ==
Upon his return to Bavaria in June 1945, he served at the court in Munich. He became minister-president of Bavaria from 1945 to 1946, after the sudden dismissal of [[Fritz Schäffer]],<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121024014558/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,776240,00.html?promoid=googlep "You Don't Know What You Want"] Time Magazine, 8 October 1945. Retrieved 9 May 2008</ref> also holding the post of Minister of Justice until 1947. He became known at this time as the father of the new Bavarian constitution. After losing the [[December 1946 Bavarian state election|December 1946 election]], he was replaced as Bavarian minister-president by Hans Ehard but remained as Minister of Justice. When his party decided to leave the coalition with the [[Christian Social Union of Bavaria|Christian Social Union]] (CSU), he opposed this move and temporarily lost influence within the SPD, resigning from his ministerial post. In October 1946 he served as one of two German witnesses at the execution of the war criminals sentenced to death by the [[Nuremberg Trials|International Military Tribunal]] (the Nuremberg Tribunal).<ref>[[Burton C. Andrus]], "I Was the Nuremberg Jailer" (1969)</ref>

From 1946 to 1970, he was again a member of the Bavarian [[Landtag]] (parliament), leading the SPD faction there from 1958 to 1962. He held the post of Minister of the Interior from 1950 to 1954, when Bavaria was ruled by a CSU-SPD coalition. During this time, he devoted a great deal of effort towards the reunification of the [[Palatinate (region)|Palatinate]] with the rest of Bavaria, but ultimately failed, as only 7.6 percent of all eligible voters in the Palatinate voted for reunification.<ref>[http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/artikel/artikel_44564 Pfalz (19./20. Jahrhundert)] Historisches Lexikon Bayerns. Retrieved 9 May 2008 {{in lang|de}}</ref>

He became minister-president of Bavaria for a second time in 1954, when he led a four-party grand coalition government until 1957. The coalition fell apart before the end of its term after the [[1957 German federal election|1957 federal elections]] and, as of 2018, Wilhelm Hoegner is still the last non-CSU minister-president of Bavaria.

He was also a member of the German [[Bundestag]] from 1961 to 1962.

While a social democrat, Hoegner was not a doctrinaire socialist, and he always preferred a common-sense approach to politics and the economy, rather than radical theories. He considered being a social democrat to be wholly compatible with Christian ethics and values—an important factor in the traditionally conservative and Catholic-dominated state of Bavaria.<ref>Anthony James Nicholls, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yy2DzmmH48AC&dq=Wilhelm+Hoegner&pg=PA251 ''Freedom with Responsibility: The Social Market Economy in Germany, 1918-1963''] Oxford University Press, p. 251. Retrieved 3 May 2010</ref>

Hoegner died, aged 92, almost blind but mentally still in full capacity, on 5 March 1980 in Munich.<ref>Hildegard Kronawitter, [http://www.hildegard-kronawitter.de/vermischtes/aufsatz_hoegner.pdf Wilhelm Hoegner] (PDF) Retrieved 9 May 2008 {{in lang|de}}</ref>