Björn Engholm (born 9 November 1939) is a German politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SPD). He was Federal Minister for Education and Science from 1981 to 1982, and in 1982 also Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests. From 1988 to 1993 he was the

Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein The Minister-Presidents of Schleswig-Holstein since 1946 have been: List Political party: See also *Schleswig-Holstein *List of rulers of Schleswig-Holstein *Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Ministers-President Of Schles ...

and from 1991 to 1993 the leader of the Social Democratic Party. Engholm was educated at

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...

. He was elected Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein in 1988, in the wake of the Barschel affair/Waterkantgate: he had been spied on and was a victim of severe defamation (

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

infection, tax evasion, etc.) by the Barschel campaign. The Social Democrats won an impressive 54.2% (up almost 10%) and gained an absolute majority for the first time ever. Engholm served as

President of the Bundesrat In Germany, the President of the Bundesrat or President of the Federal Council (German: ''Bundesratspräsident'') is the chairperson (speaker) of the Bundesrat (Federal Council). The president is elected by the Bundesrat for a term of one year ...

in 1988/89. While Engholm was popular with the electorate, he was forced to resign as party leader and Minister-President in 1993 after discrepancies surfaced over the testimonies he gave in the Barschel affair (''Schubladenaffäre'', drawer affair). A party official had paid 50,000

Deutsche Mark The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...

(kept in a kitchen drawer) to the spy of the Barschel affair to keep the espionage a secret for several weeks, to reveal the scandal on election weekend with a bigger impact and then present Engholm as a victim. He was succeeded by

Rudolf Scharping Rudolf Albert Scharping (born 2 December 1947) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He was from 1991 to 1994 the 6th Minister President of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and from 1998 to 2002 Federal Minis ...

as party chairman and by Heide Simonis as Minister-President. Since 1964, Engholm has been married to painter Barbara Engholm (born 1940); they have two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Engholm, Bjorn 1939 births Living people Agriculture ministers of Germany Education ministers of Germany Presidents of the German Bundesrat Members of the Bundestag for Schleswig-Holstein Members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein Politicians from Lübeck Ministers-President of Schleswig-Holstein Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany Members of the Bundestag 1980–1983 Members of the Bundestag 1976–1980 Members of the Bundestag 1972–1976 Members of the Bundestag 1969–1972 University of Hamburg alumni