CDU politician - A life for politics: Wolfgang Schäuble died
Former Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble is dead. The CDU politician fell asleep peacefully at home with his family on Tuesday evening at around 8 p.m., his family told the German Press Agency.
Schäuble died after a long and serious illness. During his political career, he was a minister, CDU leader, parliamentary group chairman and President of the German Bundestag. No one belonged to parliament longer than him.
Schäuble was born in Freiburg on September 18, 1942. He studied law, but was drawn to politics early on. He joined the CDU in 1965. He won his first seat in the Bundestag in 1972 and remained a member without interruption until his death.
Career under Kohl
The name Schäuble is associated with decades of German politics. Under Chancellor Helmut Kohl (CDU), he was initially Head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Tasks, and from 1989 to 1991 Federal Minister of the Interior. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Schäuble helped negotiate the Unification Treaty in the GDR. Since the assassination attempt on his life by a mentally disturbed man in October 1990, Schäuble has been in a wheelchair, but his political career has continued. From 1991 to 2000, he led the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag. After the CDU lost power in 1998, Schäuble became party leader in the course of the CDU's reorganization. Angela Merkel became Secretary General.
In the turmoil of the CDU donation scandal and following statements about a 100,000 mark cash donation, Schäuble resigned as CDU leader in February 2000. Merkel became party leader and in 2005, as Chancellor, she made Schäuble Minister of the Interior, and four years later Minister of Finance. Schäuble held the post for two terms, achieving the "black zero", i.e. a federal budget without new debt.
Second highest office in the state: President of the Bundestag
After the 2017 Bundestag elections, Schäuble was elected to succeed Norbert Lammert as President of the Bundestag, the second highest office in the state. Schäuble was denied the highest office in the state, that of Federal President.
After the CDU/CSU lost the 2021 Bundestag elections, Schäuble withdrew from the governing bodies. SPD politician Bärbel Bas became President of the Bundestag and Schäuble was now simply a member of parliament. In his speech as President of the Bundestag - the MP with the most years of service - he called for open debate and self-confident MPs.
In his party, Schäuble was more of a conservative politician and his word always carried weight behind the scenes. On the other hand, he had called on the CDU to be open to alliances with the Greens earlier than others. As early as 2007, he told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung": "Black-green is not our wish, but it is an option for the Union." In the struggle for the chancellor candidacy in 2021, Schäuble sided with the then CDU leader Armin Laschet and opposed CSU leader Markus Söder.
Politics also often played a role in Schäuble's private life. His father Karl Schäuble was already a CDU politician and a member of the Baden state parliament. Schäuble's younger brother Thomas was also a politician and served as a state minister in Baden-Württemberg for 13 years. He died in 2013 as a result of a heart attack. The top CDU politician Thomas Strobl was Wolfgang Schäuble's son-in-law, and his daughter Christine, the ARD program director, was Strobl's wife. Schäuble is survived by a total of four children and his wife Ingeborg, to whom he had been married since 1969.
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- Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor of Germany and leader of the CDU, expressed his condolences upon hearing about the death of Wolfgang Schäuble, a prominent CDU politician.
- During the open castle event at his residence in Freiburg, Schäuble discussed the importance of maintaining open dialogue between political parties and the public, emphasizing the need for transparency and accountability.
- Accusations of illegal donations to political parties during the Federal election led to a scandal that affected not only the CDU but also other prominent German politicians, including Wolfgang Schäuble.
- After the fall of the Berlin Wall, German politicians, including Wolfgang Schäuble, played a significant role in negotiating the Unification Treaty with the GDR, providing a sense of stability and unity to a divided nation.
- In the aftermath of the 2021 Bundestag elections, the roles of president and speaker of the Bundestag shifted, with Angela Merkel and Bärbel Bas assuming their respective roles, marking a new chapter in German politics.
- The death of Wolfgang Schäuble, a long-time politician and prominent member of the CDU, was a reminder of the profound impact that individuals can have on the course of German politics, from the end of the GDR to the present day.
Source: www.stern.de
