Roman Herzog (born April 5, 1934) is 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 (
CDUThe Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany....
) and was the
President 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 1994 to 1999. He was the first President of the Federal Republic of Germany to be elected to office after the reunification of Germany that took place in 1990, and the second person to serve as all-German head of State since the end of WWII.
Roman Herzog was born in
LandshutLandshut is a city in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany, belonging to both Eastern and Southern Bavaria. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut acts is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also the seat of the...
,
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
in 1934 to a Protestant family.
He studied law in
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
and took his first juristic state exam in 1957.
Roman Herzog (born April 5, 1934) is 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 (
CDUThe Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany....
) and was the
President 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 1994 to 1999. He was the first President of the Federal Republic of Germany to be elected to office after the reunification of Germany that took place in 1990, and the second person to serve as all-German head of State since the end of WWII.
Biography
Roman Herzog was born in
LandshutLandshut is a city in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany, belonging to both Eastern and Southern Bavaria. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut acts is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also the seat of the...
,
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
in 1934 to a Protestant family.
He studied law in
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
and took his first juristic state exam in 1957. In 1958, he gained the title
Doctor juris and worked as an assistant at the University of Munich until 1964, where he also passed his second juristic state exam. For his paper
Die Wesensmerkmale der Staatsorganisation in rechtlicher und entwicklungsgeschichtlicher Sicht ("Characteristics of State Organization from a Juristic and Developmental-Historical Viewpoint"), in 1964 he was awarded the title of
professorThe meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual...
, a title of academic distinction in Germany, and taught at the University of Munich until 1966. From 1966 he taught state law and
political sciencePolitical science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the pragmatic application of the art and science of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how",...
as a full professor at the
Free University of BerlinThe Free University of Berlin is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on humanities and social sciences and on health and natural sciences...
(FUB). In 1969 he accepted an administrative position at the FUB in
SpeyerSpeyer is a city in Germany with approx. 50,000 inhabitants, located beside the river Rhine. It lies 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Its oldest known name was Civitas Nemetum, named by a Teutonic tribe, the Nemeter, settling in this area...
, and was the University President from 1971 to 1972.
In 1973 his political career began as a representative of the state (
Land) of
Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 federal states of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz....
with the Federal government in
BonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990...
. He was minister for culture and sports in the
Baden-WürttembergBaden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine—but one which has some of its major cities straddling the banks of the Neckar River...
State Government from 1978. In 1980 he was elected to the State Parliament (
Landtag), and took over the state Ministry of the Interior.
Roman Herzog has also always been active in the
Evangelical Church in GermanyEvangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 regional Lutheran, Reformed and United Protestant church bodies. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding, because of the denominational differences...
. Until 1980 he was head of the Chamber for public responsibility of this church and since 1982 he has been a member of the
synodA synod is a council of a church, usually a Christian church, convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application...
of the
Evangelical Church in GermanyEvangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 regional Lutheran, Reformed and United Protestant church bodies. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding, because of the denominational differences...
.
In 1983 he became a judge at the
Federal Constitutional Court of GermanyThe Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...
(“
Bundesverfassungsgericht”) in
KarlsruheKarlsruhe is a city in the south west of Germany, in the Bundesland Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border....
. From 1987 until 1994, he also served as the president of this Court, until he was elected President of Germany by the Federal Assembly (
BundesversammlungThe Federal Convention is a special body in the institutional system of Germany, convened solely for the purpose of electing the German Federal President every five years....
) in 1994. He retained this position until 1999, when he was succeeded by
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:...
.
In 1994 Herzog participated in the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the
Warsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising was a struggle by the Polish Home Army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi German occupation during World War II. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion, Operation Tempest. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Army reached the...
during the Nazi occupation of Poland. In a widely commended speech he paid tribute to the Polish fighters and people and asked Poles for "forgiveness for what has been done to you by the Germans".
His wife, Christiane Herzog, died on June 19, 2000. He later married Alexandra Freifrau von Berlichingen.
Quote