Gustav Walter Heinemann, GCBThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(July 23, 1899 - July 7, 1976) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
politician. He was Minister of Interior Affairs from 1949 to 1950, Minister of Justice from 1966 to 1969 and
President of the Federal Republic of GermanyThe President of Germany is Germany's head of state. The position is largely a ceremonial one, with the president acting in accordance with the advice and directives of the legislature...
from 1969 to 1974. He was famous for being open-minded with respect to the student protests of 1968, and he tried to keep his office as down-to-earth as possible (e.g. when asked whether he loved Germany, he answered that he loved his wife).
In the
Weimar RepublicThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government, named after Weimar, the place where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was still Deutsches Reich , however...
Heinemann was member of the
Christian Social People's ServiceThe Christian Social People's Service was a protestant conservative political party in the Weimar Republic....
(CSVD).
Gustav Walter Heinemann, GCBThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(July 23, 1899 - July 7, 1976) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
politician. He was Minister of Interior Affairs from 1949 to 1950, Minister of Justice from 1966 to 1969 and
President of the Federal Republic of GermanyThe President of Germany is Germany's head of state. The position is largely a ceremonial one, with the president acting in accordance with the advice and directives of the legislature...
from 1969 to 1974. He was famous for being open-minded with respect to the student protests of 1968, and he tried to keep his office as down-to-earth as possible (e.g. when asked whether he loved Germany, he answered that he loved his wife).
In the
Weimar RepublicThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government, named after Weimar, the place where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was still Deutsches Reich , however...
Heinemann was member of the
Christian Social People's ServiceThe Christian Social People's Service was a protestant conservative political party in the Weimar Republic....
(CSVD). After World War II he was one of the founders of the
CDUThe Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany....
and became mayor of the city of
EssenEssen is a city in the central part of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Located on the Ruhr River, its population of approximately 579,000 makes it either the 7th- or 8th-largest-city in Germany...
. He was Minister of the Interior in the first cabinet of
Konrad AdenauerKonrad Hermann Josef Adenauer , 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman.Although his political career spanned sixty years, beginning as early as 1906, he is most noted for his role as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949–1963 and chairman of the...
. In 1950 he left the cabinet and the CDU in 1952 to form the
All-German People's PartyThe All-German People's Party, in German Gesamtdeutsche Volkspartei was a political party in the Federal Republic of Germany. The party was founded on November 29 1952....
(GVP) with Helene Wessel and other CDU- and
Center PartyThe German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic...
members. In 1957 he, and most GVP members, joined the SPD. In the grand coalition (1966-69) he was Minister of Justice.
In 1969 he became the first SPD member to be elected President of Germany since the death of Reichspräsident
Friedrich EbertFriedrich Ebert was a German politician , who served as Chancellor of Germany and its first president during the Weimar period.-Background:...
(president since 1919) in 1925.
His daughter
Uta Ranke-HeinemannUta Ranke-Heinemann is a German Christian theologian, academic and author. She holds the chair of History of Religion at University of Essen in Essen, her birthplace...
ran for the German presidency unsuccessfully in 1999. The president who was elected that year (
Johannes RauJohannes Rau was a German politician of the SPD. He was President of Germany from 1 July 1999, until 30 June 2004, and Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1978 to 1998.-Education and work:...
) was the husband of Heinemann's granddaughter (Uta Ranke-Heinmann's niece)
Christina DeliusChristina Rau, née Delius was the First Lady of Germany from 1999 to 2004. She was married to the late Johannes Rau, the President of Germany....
.
The
Gustav-Heinemann-Friedenspreis (Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize) is awarded every year to a book judged to have best promoted the cause of world peace.