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Hans-Dietrich GenscherGerman politician
Date of Birth: 21.03.1927
Country:  Germany |
Content:
- Biography of Hans-Dietrich Genscher
- Political Career
- Political and Public Activities
- Awards and Honorary Titles
Biography of Hans-Dietrich Genscher
Early Life and EducationHans-Dietrich Genscher was born on March 21, 1927, in Reideburg, Germany. He grew up in a bourgeois-conservative and nationalist-conservative environment. His father, Kurt Genscher, was a lawyer and legal counselor for an agricultural association, and his mother, Hilda Kräme, came from a farming family. Genscher attended a local high school in Halle, where his family had lived since 1933.
During World War II, Genscher served as an assistant in the anti-aircraft defense units and later in the army in Harz. In October-November 1944, he was sent by the Imperial Labor Service to work in the Ore Mountains. At the age of 17, in 1944, Genscher joined the Nazi Party (membership number 10123636) without his knowledge, according to his own statement. He wanted to become a reserve officer and volunteered for the front in January 1945, claiming to avoid being conscripted into the SS troops. He was sent to the engineering troops in Wittenberg. Shortly before the end of the war in May 1945, Genscher, who had participated in the Battle of Berlin, was captured first by the Americans and then by the British. After his release in July 1945, Genscher worked as a construction laborer.
Genscher attended Friedrich Nietzsche High School in Halle from December 1945 and received his high school diploma in March 1946. In the winter of 1946-1947, Genscher contracted tuberculosis and spent three months in a sanatorium. Despite suffering from this incurable disease for the next ten years, Genscher studied at Halle-Wittenberg and Leipzig universities from 1946 to 1949 and passed the first state examination in law in Leipzig in 1949. Until 1952, he worked as a legal intern at the district court in Halle. On August 20, 1952, Genscher left East Germany via West Berlin and worked as a legal trainee in Bremen. In 1954, he passed the second state examination in Hamburg. Until 1956, Genscher worked as an assistant assessor and lawyer in a Bremen law firm specializing in commercial and tax law.
Political Career
From 1946 to 1952, Genscher was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. In 1952, he joined the Free Democratic Party (FDP). In 1954, he was elected deputy chairman of the regional division of the "Young Democrats" in Bremen. From 1956 to 1959, Genscher served as a research assistant for the FDP faction in the Bundestag in Bonn.
From 1959 to 1965, Genscher served as the managing director of the FDP parliamentary group, and from 1962 to 1964, he held the position of party manager. In 1968, Genscher was elected deputy chairman of the party. From October 1, 1974, to February 23, 1985, Hans-Dietrich Genscher served as the chairman of the Free Democratic Party of Germany. In 1985, Genscher stepped down from the party chairmanship. After resigning as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1992, Genscher was appointed Honorary Chairman of the FDP.
Political and Public Activities
Genscher was a member of the Bundestag from 1965 to 1998 and always ran on the list of the North Rhine-Westphalia region. From 1965 until his appointment to the Brandt Cabinet in 1969, he served as the parliamentary manager for the FDP faction.
After the 1969 Bundestag elections, Genscher actively participated in the formation of the social-liberal coalition and on October 22, 1969, he was appointed Minister of the Interior in the federal government led by Willy Brandt. In 1972, during the terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics, Genscher was prepared to go to the terrorists as a hostage in exchange for the release of the athletes, but the Palestinian terrorists refused. Following the bloody events in Munich, Genscher instructed the Federal Border Guard to form the anti-terrorism unit GSG 9. After Willy Brandt's resignation and Walter Scheel's election as Federal President, Hans-Dietrich Genscher was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor in the federal government led by Helmut Schmidt on May 15, 1974. In this position, Genscher actively participated in the negotiations for the preparation of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. In December 1976, the United Nations General Assembly in New York accepted Genscher's proposal for an anti-terrorism convention, which stated that the demands of terrorists holding hostages could not be met under any circumstances.
After the formation of the new social-liberal coalition following the 1980 Bundestag elections, Genscher, supported by the Minister of Economics Otto Lambsdorff, from the middle of 1981, took a course towards the termination of the SPD-FDP coalition. The increasing differences between the coalition partners, especially in economic and social policy, served as an external reason for the rupture. However, the decisive role was played by the gradual distancing of the SPD from the dual decision of NATO. On September 17, 1982, Genscher and other FDP ministers resigned.
On October 1, 1982, Helmut Kohl, the former leader of the opposition, was elected Chancellor with the support of the majority of the FDP parliamentary group through a constructive vote of no confidence. On October 4, 1982, Genscher returned to the federal government as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor. From 1984 to 1985, Genscher served as the Chairman of the NATO Council and the Council of Ministers of the Western European Union.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Genscher advocated a policy of compromises between East and West and developed strategies for an active policy of détente and continued dialogue between Western countries and the Soviet Union, as well as for the formation of the European Community. From 1987, Genscher promoted an "active policy of détente" as a response from the West to the efforts of the Soviet Union. Genscher played a major role in the unification of Europe and in preparing the reunification of Germany. Initially, Genscher took a wait-and-see position regarding Chancellor Kohl's plan for the gradual reunification of Germany. In the late summer of 1989, Genscher managed to obtain permission for the departure of GDR citizens who had taken refuge in the FRG embassy in Prague. Genscher also actively supported the process of political reforms in Poland and Hungary. During his visit to Poland in January 1980, he met with Lech Walesa, the leader of "Solidarity," and promised to support the Polish opposition in its path towards democratic reforms. Genscher also participated in three meetings of foreign ministers within the framework of the "Two Plus Four" negotiations, discussing the external aspects of a unified Germany. In November 1990, Genscher and his Polish counterpart, Krzysztof Skubiszewski, signed an agreement in Warsaw on the German-Polish border, establishing the western border of Poland along the Oder-Neisse line.
Genscher's popularity in his hometown of Halle and hopes for development after reunification led to the FDP receiving 17.61% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt in the 1990 Bundestag elections.
On January 31, 1990, Hans-Dietrich Genscher made a public statement as the head of the German Foreign Ministry (later revealed to be false) about not expanding NATO after German reunification: "We agreed that the territory of NATO would not expand to the east. This, incidentally, applies not only to the GDR, which we do not want to simply take over. There will be no NATO expansion anywhere."
In July 1984, Genscher became the first Western European Foreign Minister to visit the capital of Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
On May 18, 1992, Genscher retired from the federal government by his own request after serving a total of 23 years.
In 2013, Genscher contributed to the release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky from imprisonment and welcomed him to Berlin after his release.
On the night of April 1, 2016, Hans-Dietrich Genscher passed away at the age of 90 from cardiovascular failure at his home in Wachtberg-Pech, North Rhine-Westphalia.
Awards and Honorary Titles
Hans-Dietrich Genscher was an honorary citizen of the cities of Halle and Berlin.
Honorary Doctor of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) - the first to receive this title.
Recipient of the Order of Prince Trpimir (Croatia).
