Philipp Jenninger (10 June 1932 – 4 January 2018) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union and diplomat. He was the ninth

president of the Bundestag The president of the Bundestag ( or ; Grammatical gender in German#Professions, when the office is held by a man) presides over the sessions of the Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany, with functions similar to that of a speaker (poli ...

from 1984 to 1988. He also served as Member of the German Parliament, the

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 wa ...

(1969–1990),

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

at the

German Chancellery The Federal Chancellery (, ) is a Germany, German Federal agency (Germany), federal agency serving the executive office of the chancellor of Germany, the head of the Government of Germany, federal government, currently Friedrich Merz. The Chancel ...

(1982–1984), German Ambassador to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

(1991–1995) and German Ambassador to the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

(1995–1997).

Life and ministerial career

Phillipp Jenninger, whose full name is Philipp-Hariolf Jenninger, was born in 1932 in Rindelbach, now a part of

Ellwangen Ellwangen an der Jagst, officially Ellwangen (Jagst), in common use simply Ellwangen () is a town in the district of Ostalbkreis in the east of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated about north of Aalen. Ellwangen has 25,000 inha ...

. He studied law at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

, obtaining a doctoral degree in 1957 with a dissertation titled ''Die Reformbedürftigkeit des Bundesverfassungsgerichts'' (The necessity of reform of the Federal Constitutional Court) and passing the state examination in 1959. In 1960, he started working in the

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

administration in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. He became an assistant in the Federal Ministry of Defense and later personal assistant and press contact of Heinrich Krone. After the dissolution of this ministry, he worked from 1966 to 1969 as political assistant of Federal Minister of Finance Franz Josef Strauß. Between 1982 and 1984, Jenninger served as

at the

, under Chancellor

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 ...

Bundestag membership and presidency

Jenninger was a member of the

from 1969 to 1990, always as directly elected representative of a constituency. At first, he represented ; after 1976, he represented Schwäbisch Hall. After Rainer Barzel's resignation, Jenninger was elected

President of the Bundestag The president of the Bundestag ( or ; Grammatical gender in German#Professions, when the office is held by a man) presides over the sessions of the Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany, with functions similar to that of a speaker (poli ...

on 5 November 1984. As President, he made a controversial speech in a special session on 10 November 1988 commemorating the 50th anniversary of

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

.Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia): newspaper clippings, transcript of speech by Philipp Jenninger, Speaker of the West German Parliament, 1988
November Pogrom, 1938 Commemoration Collection
AR 6342; Box 1; Folder 11; Leo Baeck Institute. Jenninger tried to explain the reasons behind German enthusiasm for

National Socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...

in the 1930s. His speech was presented badly (by his own later admission), as his way of speaking allowed the interpretation that Jenninger didn't sufficiently dissociate himself from the Nazi ideas he referred to, making it hard to distinguish what were his own ideas and what were the "fascinating" (as Jenninger said) Nazi ideas he was just reporting.

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wi ...

,
American Jewish Yearbook Vol. 90
'', 1990, p. 358. More than 50 members of parliament walked out during their President's speech in protest.

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

, November 13, 1988
Storm of Protest
. This caused a political storm, and Jenninger resigned his Bundestag presidency on 11 November. He did not stand for reelection as a Bundestag member in the 1990 elections. One year after the incident, Jewish community leader Ignatz Bubis, who later became chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, used several passages of Jenninger's speech verbatim (although he didn't use the word "fascinating"), demonstrating that the content of Jenninger's speech had not been ambiguous, just his performance of it.Peter Schmalz,
"Keiner hat etwas gemerkt"
''

Die Welt (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

'', 1 December 1995.

Ambassador to Austria and the Holy See

Jenninger served as German ambassador to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

from 1991 to 1995, and as ambassador to the

from 1995 to 1997.

Other offices

Philipp Jenninger was President of the

European Movement The European Movement International is a lobbying association that coordinates the efforts of associations and national councils with the goal of promoting European integration, and disseminating information about it. History Initially the Euro ...

in Germany from 1985 to 1990, and has since been their honorary President. He was a member of the presidium of Studienzentrum Weikersheim.

Death

Jenninger died on 4 January 2018 in Stuttgart, aged 85.

Honours

*Knight Grand Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic () is the most senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking honour of the Republi ...

(1986)

References

Literature

* Michael F. Feldkamp (ed.), ''Der Bundestagspräsident. Amt - Funktion - Person.'' 16. Wahlperiode, München 2007, *Jürgen Mittag: "Vom Honoratiorenkreis zum Europanetzwerk: Sechs Jahrzehnte Europäische Bewegung Deutschland"; in: ''60 Jahre Europäische Bewegung Deutschland''; Berlin 2009; pp. 12–28 * Jeffrey Herf: "Philipp Jenninger and the Dangers of Speaking Clearly." Partisan Review 56 (1989): 225–236.

External links