Heiner Geißler (3 March 1930 – 12 September 2017) was a German politician with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and a federal minister from 1982 to 1985.

Career

Born Heinrichjosef Georg Geißler in

Gleisweiler Gleisweiler is a municipality in Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country ...

, he studied law and philosophy in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

, where he graduated in 1960. From 1967 to June 1977, Geißler was minister of the state government of Rhineland-Palatine, serving prime ministers

Peter Altmeier Peter Altmeier (12 August 1899 – 28 August 1977) was a German politician ( Zentrum, later CDU). From 1947 to 1969, he was the Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate. He served as the President of the Bundesrat In Germany, the Preside ...

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 ...

and

Bernhard Vogel Bernhard Vogel (; born 19 December 1932) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the 4th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1976 to 1988 and the 2nd Minister President of Thuringia from 1992 to 2003. ...

. During that time, he implemented the first law concerning kindergartens, and introduced the state's first welfare stations. From 1982 to 1985 Geißler served as federal minister, heading the Bundesministerium für Jugend, Familie und Gesundheit (youth, family, and health) for

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Kohl. It was during this period that said federal ministry was alerted to the Austrian wine scandal in 1985. From 1977 to 1989, Geißler was Secretary General of the CDU under the leadership of Kohl, shaping strategy and running election campaigns. He was widely regarded as a principal architect of Kohl's rise to the chancellorship in 1982. In the following years, he kept the party on a centrist track, hoping to attract moderate voters among the opposition Social Democrats alarmed by the gains of the Republicans and the environmentalist Green Party. Despite becoming a major figure in the CDU, differing and increasingly left-leaning views eventually strained relations with Kohl. Reports that Geißler would be replaced cropped up after the Christian Democrats lost elections in West Berlin and Frankfurt in 1989 and polled only 37.6 percent in the

European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until ...

that year, a drop of 8.2 percentage points from the 1984 elections. In late 1989, he joined forces with

Kurt Biedenkopf Kurt Hans Biedenkopf (; 28 January 1930 – 12 August 2021) was a German jurist, academic teacher and politician of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU). He was rector of the Ruhr University Bochum. Biedenkopf made a political career firs ...

Lothar Späth Lothar Späth (16 November 1937 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (Germany), CDU. Life Späth was born in Sigmaringen. From 30 August 1978 to 13 January 1991 Späth was the 5th Minister President of ...

Rita Süssmuth Rita Süssmuth ( ''née'' Kickuth; ; born 17 February 1937) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She served as the 10th President of the Bundestag. From 1985 to 1988, she served as Federal Minister for Youth, Family ...

and others in an unsuccessful effort to oust Kohl as CDU chairman. Geißler was subsequently forced to resign as secretary general. Geißler remained a member of the Bundestag until 2002 as a member of parliament for his home state Rhineland-Palatinate. From 1991 until 1998, he served as deputy chairman of the

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Soc ...

parliamentary group under the leadership of chairman

Wolfgang Schäuble Wolfgang Schäuble (; born 18 September 1942) is a German lawyer, politician and statesman whose political career has spanned for more than five decades. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he is one of the longest-serving politi ...

. In addition to his parliamentary work, Geißler also served as Vice-President of the Christian Democrat and People's Parties International from 1986 until 1993. Geißler later became a sought-after arbitrator in wage and other disputes.

Political positions

During the 1991 parliamentary vote to move the seat of federal government from

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, the country's historic capital, Geißler proposed a two-city capital as a compromise. From being a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

er until the early 1990s, he also became increasingly

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

in his views as far as

social policy Social policy is a plan or action of government or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform society. Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize soci ...

and

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

are concerned. In 2007, he announced he had become a member of the

attac The Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (''Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action'', ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the e ...

network. This happened weeks before the 2007 G8 summit, which Germany, holding the 2007 G8 presidency, was hosting. Geißler himself said that his joining of attac had to be seen in the context of the upcoming G8 summit.

Other activities

* Aktion Courage, Chairman (2002–2005) * Barmenia Versicherungen, Member of the Advisory Board

Personal life

Heiner Geißler auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse 2016

Geißler was married and had three children. Since 1980 he lived in

. He died on 11 September 2017, aged 87.

References

External links