Hans-Dietrich Genscher
Hans-Dietrich Genscher (21 March 1927 – 31 March 2016) was a German statesman and a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1969 to 1974, and as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor of Germany from 1974 to 1992 (except for a two-week break in 1982, after the FDP had left the Third Schmidt cabinet), making him the longest-serving occupant of either post and the only person to have held one of these positions under two different Chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1991 he was chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). A proponent of Realpolitik, Genscher has been called "a master of diplomacy". He is widely regarded as having been a principal "architect of German reunification". In 1991, he played a pivotal role in international diplomacy surrounding the breakup of Yugoslavia by successfully pushing for international recognition of Croatia, Slove ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Egon Franke (politician)
Egon Franke (11 April 1913 – 26 April 1995) was a German politician and a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He served as Federal Minister for Intra-German Relations from 1969 to 1982 and, for the short period between the breakup of the SPD-FDP coalition on 17 September 1982 and the constructive vote of no confidence on 1 October of the same year, by which Helmut Kohl replaced Helmut Schmidt, as Vice Chancellor of Germany The vice-chancellor of Germany, officially the deputy to the federal chancellor (), is the second highest ranking German cabinet member. The chancellor is the head of government and, according to the constitution, gives this title of deputy to o .... With a tenure of 14 days he is, as yet, the vice chancellor with the shortest time in office. In 1986 he was accused, along with confidant Edgar Hirt, of embezzlement and suppression of documents. They were accused of stealing 5.56 million marks, and on trial Franke said he knew nothing about the cas ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gustav Heinemann
Gustav Walter Heinemann (; 23 July 1899 – 7 July 1976) was a German politician who was President of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He served as mayor of Essen from 1946 to 1949, West German Minister of the Interior from 1949 to 1950, and Minister of Justice from 1966 to 1969. Early years and professional career Heinemann was named after his mother's father, a master roof tiler in Barmen, with radical-democratic, left-liberal, and patriotic views. His maternal grandfather, Heinemann's great-grandfather, had taken part in the Revolution of 1848. His father, Otto Heinemann, a manager at the Krupp steelworks in Essen, shared his father-in-law's views. In his youth, Gustav already felt called upon to preserve and promote the liberal and democratic traditions of 1848. Throughout his life, he fought against all kinds of subservience. This attitude helped him to maintain his intellectual independence even in the face of majorities in political parties and in the Church. Having finis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Third Schmidt Cabinet
The Third Schmidt cabinet was the government of West Germany between 6 November 1980 and 1 October 1982, during the 9th legislature of the Bundestag. Led by the Social Democrat Helmut Schmidt. After the 1980 federal election, incumbent Chancellor Schmidt continued the social-liberal coalition between his SPD and the FDP. In 1982 the coalition collapsed. A first cabinet reshuffle was performed on 28 April, replacing several ministers. The split culminated in the resignation of all FDP ministers on 17 September. Schmidt briefly replaced them with an all-SPD cabinet before being voted out of office in a constructive vote of no confidence in favour of Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ..., who formed the first Kohl cabinet. Composition ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Electoral System Of Germany
The German federal election system regulates the election of the members of the national parliament, called the Bundestag. According to the principles governing the law of elections, set down in Art. 38 of the German constitution, elections are to be universal, direct, free, equal, and secret. Furthermore, the constitution stipulates that Bundestag elections are to take place every four years and that one can vote, and be elected, upon reaching the age of 18. All other stipulations for the federal elections are regulated by the Federal Electoral Act. Elections always take place on a Sunday. Mail votes are possible upon application. Germans elect their members of parliament with two votes. The first vote is for a '' direct candidate'', who is required to receive a plurality vote in their electoral district. The second vote is used to elect a party list in each state as established by its respective party caucus. The Bundestag comprises, then, the seats representing each electora ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most populous state in Germany. Apart from the city-states (Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen), it is also the List of German states by population density, most densely populated state in Germany. Covering an area of , it is the List of German states by area, fourth-largest German state by size. North Rhine-Westphalia features 30 of the 81 German municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants, including Cologne (over 1 million), the state capital Düsseldorf (630,000), Dortmund and Essen (about 590,000 inhabitants each) and other cities predominantly located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, the largest urban area in Germany and the fourth-largest on the European continent. The location of the Rhine-Ruhr at the heart of the European Blue Banana make ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag was established by Title III of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany () in 1949 as one of the legislative bodies of Germany, the other being the German Bundesrat, Bundesrat. It is thus the historical successor to the earlier Reichstag (Weimar Republic), Reichstag. The members of the Bundestag are representatives of the German people as a whole, are not bound by any orders or instructions and are only accountable to their conscience. As of the current 21st Bundestag, 21st legislative period, the Bundestag has a fixed number of 630 members. The Bundestag is elected every four years by German citizens aged 18 and older. Elections use a mixed-member proportional representation system which combines First-past-the-post voting for co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Werner Maihofer
Werner Maihofer (20 October 1918 – 6 October 2009) was a German jurist and legal philosopher. He served as Germany's Federal Minister of the Interior from 1974 to 1978 until he resigned after a scandal involving an illegal wiretapping of Klaus Traube. Biography An avid speed skater in his youth, Maihofer was a member of the German national team at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Maihofer served in the Wehrmacht in World War II. He studied law at the University of Freiburg, and received his Doctor of Laws degree in 1950. Maihofer gained his habilitation in 1953 and eventually obtained a professorship at the University of Saarbrücken. Maihofer did not join the Free Democratic Party until 1969. One of the leaders of thought of social liberalism in Germany, he co-authored the ''Freiburg theses'' alongside Karl-Hermann Flach and Walter Scheel in 1971. In 1974, he succeeded Hans-Dietrich Genscher as Federal Ministry of the Interior, and—during the Ger ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ernst Benda
Ernst Benda (15 January 1925 – 2 March 2009) was a German legal scholar, politician, and judge. He was the fourth president of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany from 1971 to 1983. He also held the position of Minister of the Interior of Germany from 1968 to 1969. Benda was born in Berlin, the son of an engineer. After completing his schooling, he served in the Kriegsmarine from 1943 to 1945. After World War II, he pursued law studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin in East Berlin. However, in 1948, he moved to the University of Wisconsin and later to the Free University of Berlin in West Berlin. In 1956, he began working as a lawyer in Berlin. Benda became a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 1946. He played a role in founding the Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit (KgU) ("Combat Group against Inhumanity") in 1948, an anti-communist organization that operated in the German Democratic Republic ( GDR). The KgU received financial support from vari ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 Nobel Peace Prize, 1971 for his efforts to strengthen cooperation in Western Europe through the EEC and to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe. He was the first Social Democratic chancellor since 1930. Fleeing to Norway and then Sweden during the Nazi regime and working as a left-wing politics, left-wing journalist, he took the name Willy Brandt as a pseudonym to avoid detection by Nazi agents, and then formally adopted the name in 1948. Brandt earned initial fame as Governing Mayor of Berlin, governing mayor of West Berlin. He served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), foreign minis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Federal Ministry Of The Interior, Building And Community
The Federal Ministry of the Interior (, ; abbreviated BMI) is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its main office is in Berlin, with a secondary seat in Bonn. The current minister is Nancy Faeser. It is comparable to the UK Home Office or a combination of the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Justice, because both manage several law enforcement agencies. The BMI is tasked with the internal security of Germany. To fulfill this responsibility it maintains, among other agencies, the two biggest federal law enforcement agencies in Germany, the Federal Police (including the GSG 9) and the Federal Criminal Police Office. It is also responsible for the federal domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. History The ''Reichsamt des Innern'' (Imperial Office of the Interior) was the Ministry of the Interior of the German Empire. On the proposal of the Reichskanzler Otto von Bisma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Martin Bangemann
Martin Bangemann (15 November 1934 – 28 June 2022) was a German politician and a leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) from 1985 to 1988. He was German Federal Minister of Economics and European Commissioner. Life and career Bangemann was born on 15 November 1934 in Wanzleben. He studied law in Tübingen and Munich, and earned a Dr. jur. (not equivalent to J.D., but a PhD in law) in 1962 with a dissertation entitled ''Bilder und Fiktionen in Recht und Rechtswissenschaft'' (Imagery and fiction in law and jurisprudence). He qualified as an attorney in 1964. In 1963, he joined the FDP. He worked as a lawyer in Baden-Württemberg. In 1972, he was elected to the Bundestag and became briefly Secretary General of the FDP. Bangemann was a member of the European Parliament from 1973 to 1984; from 1976 to 1979 he was vice-chairman, from 1979 to 1984 chairman of the Liberal and Democratic Group. From 1978 to 1979 he was vice-chair of the Committee on Budgets. Bangemann was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Free Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party (, FDP, ) is a liberalism, liberal political party in Germany. The FDP was founded in 1948 by members of former liberal political parties in Germany before World War II, namely the German Democratic Party and the German People's Party. For most of the second half of the 20th century, particularly from 1961 to 1982, the FDP held the Balance of power (parliament), balance of power in the Bundestag. It has been a junior coalition partner to both the CDU/CSU (1949–1956, 1961–1966, 1982–1998, and 2009–2013) and Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD; 1969–1982 and 2021–2024). In the 2013 German federal election, 2013 federal election, the FDP failed to win any directly elected seats in the Bundestag and came up short of the Electoral threshold#Germany, 5 percent threshold to qualify for list representation, being left without representation in the Bundestag for the first time in its history. In the 2017 German federal el ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |