Richard von Weizsäcker
Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (German: [ˈʁɪçaʁt fɔn ˈvaɪtszɛkɐ] ; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician (CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobility, he took his first public offices in the Protestant Church in Germany.
Richard Freiherr von Weizsäcker
Eberhard Diepgen
Richard Stücklen
Hans Ludwig Schoenthal
Hans Ludwig Schoenthal
Norbert Tietz
Neukölln 2
multi-member district
Rainer Giesel
multi-member district
Werner Dolata
15 April 1920
New Palace, Stuttgart, Württemberg, Weimar Republic
31 January 2015 (aged 94)
Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany
Christian Democratic Union (1954–2015)
4
Ernst von Weizsäcker
Marianne von Graevenitz
A member of the CDU since 1954, Weizsäcker was elected as a member of parliament at the 1969 elections. He continued to hold a mandate as a member of the Bundestag until he became Governing Mayor of West Berlin, following the 1981 state elections. In 1984, Weizsäcker was elected as President of the Federal Republic of Germany and was re-elected in 1989 for a second term. As yet, he and Theodor Heuss are the only two Presidents of the Federal Republic of Germany who have served two complete five-year-terms. On 3 October 1990, during his second term as president, the reorganized five states of the German Democratic Republic and East Berlin joined the Federal Republic of Germany, which made Weizsäcker President of a reunified Germany.
Weizsäcker is considered the most popular of Germany's presidents,[1] held in high regard particularly for his impartiality.[2][3] His demeanor often saw him at odds with his party colleagues, particularly longtime Chancellor Helmut Kohl. He was famous for his speeches, especially one he delivered at the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe on 8 May 1985. Upon his death, his life and political work were widely praised, with The New York Times calling him "a guardian of his nation's moral conscience".[4]
German Evangelical Church Assembly[edit]
Between 1964 and 1970, Weizsäcker served as president of the German Evangelical Church Assembly. He was also a member of the Synod and the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany from 1967 to 1984.[38] During his early tenure as president, he wrote a newspaper article supporting a memorandum written by German evangelical intellectuals including Werner Heisenberg and his brother Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker who had spoken out in favour of accepting the Oder–Neisse line as the western border of Poland as an indispensable precondition for lasting peace in Europe. While this was met by negative reactions from politicians, especially in Weizsäcker's own party, he nevertheless led the Evangelical Church on a way to promoting reconciliation with Poland, leading to a memorandum by the Church in both West and East Germany. The paper was widely discussed and met with a significantly more positive response.[39]
Publications[edit]
Weizsäcker's publications include Die deutsche Geschichte geht weiter (German History Continues), first published in 1983;[86] Von Deutschland aus (From Germany Abroad), a collection of speeches first published in 1985;[112] Von Deutschland nach Europa (From Germany to Europe, 1991)[113] and his memoirs Vier Zeiten (Four Times), published in German in 1997[114] and in English as From Weimar to the Wall: My Life in German Politics in 1999.[115] In a review in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Friedrich Karl Fromme wrote that the memoirs tell nothing new about the times he lived in, but "something about the person".[116] In 2009, he published a book on his recollections of German reunification, titled Der Weg zur Einheit (The Path to Unity). German newspaper Die Welt dismissed the book as "boring", accusing the account of being too balanced.[117]