Henry Maier
American politician (1918–1994)
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. He changed his name to Henry Walter Maier in 1938.
He graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1940. That same year, he became involved in politics by supporting the 1940 presidential candidacy of Republican nominee Wendell Willkie.
Maier served in the United States Navy during World War II. He earned a master's degree from University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
“Henry Maier” enters the record as american politician (1918–1994). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Henry, Maier and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Henry Maier” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Henry, Maier and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16013253. VIAF identifies the subject as 48425267. The Library of Congress control number is n92076916. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1994, 1960 and 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Henry Maier” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.