Friedrich Zimmermann (18 July 1925 – 16 September 2012) was a German politician and a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU). From 1982 to 1989, he was the federal minister of interior. From 1989 to 1991 he held the position of federal minister for transport.

Biography

Zimmermann was born on 18 July 1925. He served in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

between 1943 and 1945 and held a lieutenant rank. In 1946, he studied law and economics in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

, where he received a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

. From 1951 until 1954, he was a civil servant in Bavaria and became a lawyer in 1963. In 1943, Zimmermann became a member of the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

. From 1948, he was a member of the

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social ...

. In 1955, he was managing director of the CSU and then from 1956 to 1963 held the position of General Secretary. As part of the CSU's hard-fought struggle against the

Bayernpartei The Bavaria Party (german: Bayernpartei, BP) is an autonomist, regionalist and conservative political party in the state of Bavaria, Germany. The party was founded in 1946, describes itself as patriotic Bavarian and advocates Bavarian independen ...

for political supremacy in Bavaria, Zimmermann was convicted in 1960 of perjury in connection with the Bavarian casino affair, but was finally acquitted in 1961 after a medical report that said: During the time of the oath, he had a reduced mental performance due to

hypoglycaemia Hypoglycemia, also called low blood sugar, is a fall in blood sugar to levels below normal, typically below 70 mg/dL (3.9 mmol/L). Whipple's triad is used to properly identify hypoglycemic episodes. It is defined as blood glucose bel ...

. In his overall assessment, however, the court explicitly stated: "there can be no talk of that the accused's innocence has been proven." According to the German '' Spiegel''-magazine Zimmermann remarked about the expert himself: "He was named by my defense, I got it for the first time seen in the courtroom." The affair earned him the nickname "Old Schwurhand" (an allusion to a Karl May character,

Old Surehand ''Old Surehand'' (german: Old Surehand 1. Teil, also known as ''Flaming Frontier'') is a 1965 German Western film starring Stewart Granger, Pierre Brice and Letitia Roman. The film is based on a novel by Karl May. It was shot at the Spanda ...

, with "Schwur" meaning oath), which haunted him throughout his life. Because of the affair, he was – in reference to Ludwig Anzengruber's play of the same name – also called "The perjury-farmer", but that was banned by a court. From 1963 to 1967, he was treasurer of the CSU for Bavaria and from 1979 to 1989, he was vice chairman of the CSU. He was a member of the

German parliament The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

from 1957 to 1990. From October 1982 until 1989, Zimmermann served as minister of interior in the Cabinet of Chancellor

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...

.West German Warns About Missile Protests
''The New York Times'', 3 July 1983 As part of a cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed minister of transport on 21 April 1989, replacing Jürgen Warnke in the post. After the parliamentary elections in 1990, he resigned from the federal government on 18 January 1991.

Personal life and death

Zimmermann was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and had two children. He was in his third marriage. He died on 16 September 2012.

Awards

Bavarian Order of Merit The Bavarian Order of Merit (german: Bayerischer Verdienstorden) is the Order of Merit of the Free State of Bavaria. It is awarded by the Minister-President of Bavaria as a "recognition of outstanding contributions to the Free State of Bavaria ...

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

(1976)

References

External links