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The title of this article contains the character ä. Where it is unavailable, the name may be represented as Richard von Weizsaecker. Richard Karl von Weizsäcker Weizsäcker was born in Stuttgart, the son of the diplomat and war criminal Ernst von Weizsäcker and brother of physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. His grandfather Carl von Weizsäcker had been Minister President of Württemberg. He lived several years in Switzerland and Denmark because of his father's diplomatic duties. When he was 17 years old, he moved to Britain, where he studied philosophy and history at Balliol College, Oxford. Later he studied in Grenoble in France. After the outbreak of World War II, he served in the German Army, ultimately as a captain in the Reserves. He was wounded in East Prussia in 1945 and transported home to Stuttgart. Then he continued his study of history in Göttingen and eventually studied law.   As a law student he was a member of his father's defence team at the Eleventh secondary Nuremberg Trial. He took his first judicial state exam in 1950, the second in 1953, and in 1955 was promoted to doctor juris. In 1953 he married Marianne von Kretschmann; they have four children. He was a member of the Synod and the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany from 1967-1984. Weizsäcker joined the CDU in 1954, becoming a member of the Bundestag (German Parliament) in 1969 (1969-1981). In 1981 he was elected vice president of the Bundestag (1979-1981) and then Governing Mayor (Regierender Bürgermeister) of West Berlin (1981-1984). He was elected President of Germany by the Bundesversammlung (Federal Convention) in 1984, succeeding Karl Carstens. Weizsäcker is known for his speeches. He gained wide national and international attention and respect with his speech on the fortieth anniversary of VE Day in which he referred to May 8, 1945 as "the day of liberation from the inhuman system of Nazi tyranny". This helped to redefine the meaning of this event as a positive landmark in German history, rather than as a point of agony as it had often been referred to before. Because of the high esteem in which he is held by Germany's political establishment, Weizsäcker is so far the only candidate to have stood for elections for the office of federal president uncontested; he was elected in such a way to a second term of office on May 23, 1989. He took office for his second presidential term on July 1, 1989, and, during that second term, German reunification took place, with the incorporation of the territory of the former German Democratic Republic into the Federal Republic of Germany. Weizsäcker thereby became the first head of state of all Germany since World War II. Weizsäcker stretched the traditionally ceremonial position of Germany’s president to reach across political, national, and generational boundaries to address a wide range of controversial issues. In his public addresses and writings, Weizsäcker has been a strong and articulate advocate of democratic principles, tolerance, and social responsibility. He has been actively involved in food aid activities targeted at relieving global hunger problems. Although now an elder statesman, Weizsäcker is still involved in politics and charitable affairs. He was the chair of a commission installed by the then Social Democratic-Green government for reforming the Bundeswehr. Weizsäcker has served on many international commissions. He was chairman of the Independent Working Group on the future of the United Nations and was one of three "Wise Men" appointed by European Commission President Romano Prodi to consider the future of the European Union. Weizsäcker's publications include Von Deutschland aus; Die deutsche Geschichte geht weiter; Von Deutschland nach Europa; and Vier Zeiten. His memoirs have been published as From Weimar to the Wall: My Life in German Politics (1999). He has received many honors in his career, including an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1993 and the creation of the Richard von Weizsäcker Professorship at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University and the Robert Bosch Foundation of Stuttgart in 2003, and more than 11 other honorary doctorates, ranging from the Weizmann Institute in Israel to Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard universities, the Charles University in Prague and the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras[1], the Leo Baeck Prize from the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and the Buber-Rosenzweig Medallion from the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation. [edit] References[edit] External links
Categories: Mayors of Berlin | 1920 births | Living people | University of Göttingen alumni | Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford | Presidents of Germany | German Christian Democratic Union politicians | German Lutherans | German military personnel of World War II | Weizsäcker family | People from Stuttgart | Recipients of the Royal Victorian Chain | Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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