Rudolf Dreßler (17 November 1940 – 8 January 2025) was a German politician and diplomat.

Early life and career

Born in 1940, the son of a German who resisted

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

, Dreßler grew up in

Sprockhövel Sprockhövel is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Sprockhövel is located in the southern suburban part of the Ruhr area. It is 6 km southeast of Hattingen, 8 km northwest of Gevelsb ...

and went to school in Wuppertal. He was an apprentice at a printer company and worked then for different newspapers. From 1969 to 1981 he was a member of the

work council A works council is a shop-floor organization representing workers that functions as a local/firm-level complement to trade unions but is independent of these at least in some countries. Works councils exist with different names in a variety of re ...

of the newspaper

Westdeutsche Zeitung The ''Westdeutsche Zeitung'' (''WZ'') () is one of the largest regional newspapers in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Its headquarters is in Wuppertal with additional offices in Düsseldorf and Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld ...

(WAZ). From 1974 to 1983, he was a member of the Printing and Paper Union.

Political career

Since 1969 Dreßler was a member of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

(SPD). From 1980 to 2000, Dreßler was a member of German

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 ...

, representing the Wuppertal I district. In 1982, he briefly served as

Parliamentary State Secretary A Parliamentary State Secretary (') is a member of the Bundestag given a portfolio to assist a Minister with running a government ministry Ministry or department (also less commonly used secretariat, office, or directorate) are designations us ...

at the

Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs The Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs (, ; abbreviated BMAS) is a federal ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany headed by the Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs as a member of the Cabinet of Germany (). Its first ...

, in this capacity assisting minister Heinz Westphal. From 1987 to 2002, he served as deputy chair of the SPD parliamentary group, under the leadership of successive chairmen

Hans-Jochen Vogel Hans-Jochen Vogel (; 3 February 192626 July 2020) was a German lawyer and a politician for the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD). He served as List of mayors of Munich, Mayor of Munich from 1960 to 1972, winning t ...

Hans-Ulrich Klose Hans-Ulrich Klose (14 June 1937 – 6 September 2023) was a German politician from the Social Democratic Party and a member of the German Federal parliament (German: ''Bundestag''). Klose was the First Mayor (German: ''Erster Bürgermeister'') ...

Rudolf Scharping Rudolf Albert Scharping (born 2 December 1947) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He first rose to prominence as Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate (1991–1994). He was his party's federal chairman ...

and Peter Struck. From 2000 to 2005, Dreßler served as German ambassador in Israel. During this time, he coined the phrase that "Israel's security is part of German raison d'état." He wrote these words in a 2005 article for the

Federal Agency for Civic Education The Federal Agency for Civic Education (FACE, (''bpb'')) is a German federal government agency responsible for promoting civic education. It is subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Thomas Krüger has served as president of t ...

. Later, then-Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

(CDU) reiterated this principle in a speech to the Kneset. In February 2023, Dreßler was one of the first signatories of a petition initiated by

Sahra Wagenknecht Sahra Wagenknecht (; 16 July 1969) is a German politician. She was a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2025, where she represented The Left until 2023. From 2015 to 2019, she served as that party's parliamentary co-chair. With a small team ...

and

Alice Schwarzer Alice Sophie Schwarzer (born 3 December 1942) is a German journalist and prominent feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal '' EMMA''. Beginning in France, she became a forerunner of feminist positions against anti-ab ...

calling for an end to military support for Ukraine in the wake of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Personal life

Dreßler married three times and had two children. On 11 November 1997, he had a car accident near

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. Dreßler died on 8 January 2025, at the age of 84.Der ehemalige SPD-Bundespolitiker Rudolf Dreßler ist tot
wz.de, 9 January 2025. Retrieved 9 January 2025 (in German).

Awards

* 1988: ''Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany''

References

External links

* *
Ein Parteitag muss den Richtungskampf beenden
– interview i ''Freitag'' Nr. 25/2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dressler, Rudolf 1940 births 2025 deaths Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany Members of the Bundestag 1980–1983 Members of the Bundestag 1983–1987 Members of the Bundestag 1987–1990 Members of the Bundestag 1990–1994 Members of the Bundestag 1994–1998 Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002 20th-century German politicians German trade unionists Parliamentary state secretaries of Germany Ambassadors of Germany to Israel Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Politicians from Wuppertal