Hans-Jochen Vogel
Hans-Jochen Vogel (3 February 1926 – 26 July 2020) was a German lawyer and a politician for the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He served as Mayor of Munich from 1960 to 1972, winning the 1972 Summer Olympics for the city and Governing Mayor of West Berlin in 1981, the only German ever to lead two cities with a million+ inhabitants. He was Federal Minister of Regional Planning, Construction and Urban Development from 1972 to 1974, and Federal Minister of Justice from 1974 to 1981. He served as leader of the SPD in the Bundestag from 1983 to 1991, and as Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 1987 to 1991. In 1993, he co-founded the organisation Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie (Against Oblivion – For Democracy). He was a member of the National Ethics Council of Germany from its beginning in 2001.
Hans-Jochen Vogel
multi-member district
multi-member district
multi-member district
Wenzel Bredl
multi-member district
multi-member district
Manfred Twehle
Hans Ludwig Schoenthal
3 February 1926
Göttingen, Province of Hanover, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic (now Lower Saxony, Germany)
Social Democratic Party (1950–2020)
Bernhard Vogel (brother)
3
- Politician
- Jurist
- Civil Servant
Political career[edit]
Mayor in Munich[edit]
Vogel became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1950.[7][11] At age 34, he was elected Mayor of Munich on 27 March 1960, with 64.3% of the vote,[7] then the youngest mayor of a city in Europe with more than a million inhabitants.[7] His popularity increased further, partly due to his success in tackling the city's traffic problems, and he was re-elected in 1966 with 77.9%.[7] The fact that Munich was chosen as the venue of the 1972 Summer Olympics, which had additional beneficial effects on town planning and traffic projects, was to a large extent a result of his efforts.[9][11]
When Vogel became the leader of the Bavarian Social Democrats and also a member of the executive of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1972, he resigned as Mayor of Munich, succeeded by Georg Kronawitter. He described his Munich years in his book Die Amtskette ("The Chain of Office"), which was published in the same year.[12]
In the Federal Elections of 19 November 1972, Vogel was the top candidate of the Bavarian SPD; two years later he was the SPD's top candidate in the elections for the Bavarian State Parliament. Whereas he could not prevent a victory of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU), he personally gained the best result for any SPD politician in Bavaria after the Second World War.[9]
Awards[edit]
Vogel was awarded the Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1986.[16] He received the Heinz Galinsky Prize for promoting a better understanding between the Jewish community in Berlin and its social surroundings in 1998.[8] In 2001 he won the Leo Baeck Prize, the highest award of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.[4][17]