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, he studied law and philosophy in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, 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 (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

, 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,

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 ...

and Bernhard Vogel. 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 () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

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 the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until 2019, 751 ...

that year, a drop of 8.2 percentage points from the 1984 elections. In late 1989, he joined forces with Kurt Biedenkopf, Lothar Späth, Rita Süssmuth 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 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, he served as deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group under the leadership of chairman Wolfgang Schäuble. 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 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 ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, 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 and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

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

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 either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

in his views as far as

social policy Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD a ...

and

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

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

Geißler was married and had three children. Since 1980 he lived in Gleisweiler. He died on 11 September 2017, aged 87.

References

External links