Gustav Walter Heinemann

Gustav Heinemann participated in World War I as soldier in 1917-1918. He studied in several German cities and was an activist of a student group of the German Democratic Party (DDP). After his graduation he settled in Essen, where he was admitted to the bar. In 1928-1936, Heinemann worked as lawyer for the Rhine steelworks in Essen. By 1936 he was promoted to manager and also continued his public work as a chairman of the Christian Youth Association in Essen (1936-1950). In 1945 Heinemann was made mayor of Essen by the British occupational authorities and actively participated in setting up a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) branch organization in the city. He continued to serve as the Essen mayor until 1949 and was a deputy to the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. He briefly held a portfolio of justice minister in the government of North Rhine-Westphalia (1947-1948) and assumed the office of federal minister for internal affairs in 1949. His resignation in October 1950 was a response to rearmament program proposed by the Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. A convinced pacifist, Heinemann withdrew from the CDU in 1952 and organized the All-German People's Party (Gesamtdeutsche Volkspartei, GVP), which was dissolved in 1957. Heinemann severely criticized Adenauer's politics and blamed him for the failure of German unification and for militarization. After the fall of Adenauer, Heinemann became federal justice minister (1966-1969) in the government of Ludwig Erhard. On 5 Mar 1969, he was elected the Federal President on the third ballot by a narrow majority. As head of state, Heinemann supported the Ostpolitik ("eastern policy") of Chancellor Willy Brandt targeted at the improvement of relations with East Germany, other Communist nations in eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union. Heinemann's personal integrity and modesty exempted him from the right-wing criticism. In April 1972, he survived an attempt on his life made by a young gardener from Hamburg. In 1974 Heinemann refused to be nominated for reelection because of his advanced age and died two years after. Biography source: [2]