Heinrich von Brentano

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Heinrich von Brentano
Franz Josef Strauß
Richard Stücklen
Preceded byKonrad Adenauer
Succeeded byHeinrich Krone
Member of the Bundestag
for Bergstraße
In office
14 August 1949 – 14 November 1964
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byCarl Otto Lenz
Personal details
Born(1904-06-06)6 June 1904
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
Alma materUniversity of Giessen

Heinrich Joseph Maximilian Johann Maria von Brentano di Tremezzo (20 June 1904 – 14 November 1964), known professionally as Heinrich von Brentano, was a German politician of the

Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs
from 1955 to 1961.

Personal life

Brentano was born in

Italian (Lombard) origin, had settled in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in the 17th century and were recognized as Hessian nobles, with close contact to important figures of the German Romanticism, including Goethe, Savigny and Arnim. He was related to famous German poets such as Clemens Brentano (1778–1842) and Bettina von Arnim (1785–1859). The author Bernard von Brentano
(1901–1964) was his elder brother.

Upon his

University of Munich and took his first and second Staatsexamen in 1925 and 1929. He received his doctorate from the University of Giessen and from 1932 worked as a lawyer in Darmstadt, from 1943 until 1945 as a prosecutor in Hanau
.

Brentano remained a bachelor throughout his life, living with his mother up to her death in 1948. In 1961, rumors circulated about his homosexuality, to which Adenauer drily replied: "He has not hit on me yet."[2]

Brentano died of cancer at the age of 60. He was buried at Waldfriedhof Darmstadt.

Political career

Brentano (r.) with Adenauer at a 1957 CDU party conference

After World War II, Brentano was one of the founders of the Christian Democratic Union in Hesse and became a member of the Landtag of Hesse in 1946, from 1947 as chairman of the parliamentary group.

He also attended the proceedings of the

plurality voting system instead of the personalized proportional representation
concept, though to no avail. In the federal parliament, he served as head of the CDU/CSU faction from 1949 to 1955 and again from 1961 until his death.

A member of the European Movement Germany, the European Common Assembly and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Brentano was an important figure in the foundation of the European Economic Community (EEC).

After the Allied

Foreign Office. He was succeeded by his party fellow Gerhard Schröder
.

Honours

Grave.

Foreign honours

References

  1. ISBN 9781317884248
    .
  2. ^ Schwule: Die rosa Normalität; quote: "Bei mir hat er es noch nit versucht."; Focus; 26 July 2004; retrieved on 19 November 2009.
  3. ^ "ENTIDADES ESTRANGEIRAS AGRACIADAS COM ORDENS PORTUGUESAS - Página Oficial das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas". www.ordens.presidencia.pt. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
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Political offices
Preceded by
Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs

1955–1961 		Succeeded by