Karl Carstens

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Karl Carstens
Chief of the Federal Chancellery
In office
1 January 1968 – 22 October 1969
ChancellorKurt Georg Kiesinger
Preceded byWerner Knieper
Succeeded byHorst Ehmke
Member of the Bundestag
for Ostholstein
In office
3 October 1976 – 1 July 1979
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byGünther Jansen
Member of the Bundestag
for Schleswig-Holstein
In office
19 November 1972 – 3 October 1976
Personal details
Born(1914-12-14)14 December 1914
Goethe University, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, University of Königsberg, University of Hamburg
Signature

Karl Carstens (German: [kaʁl ˈkaʁstn̩s] ⓘ; 14 December 1914 – 30 May 1992) was a German politician. He served as the president of West Germany from 1979 to 1984.

Early life and education

Carstens was born in the City of

LL.M.) degree from Yale Law School
.

World War II

Karl and Veronica Carstens in 1949

From 1939 to 1945, during the

Luftwaffe, reaching the rank of Leutnant (Second Lieutenant) by the war's end. In 1940 he joined the Nazi Party; reportedly, he had applied for admission in 1937 to avoid detrimental treatment when he worked as a law clerk. He had, however, joined the Nazi SA
paramilitary organisation already in 1934.

Post-war years

In 1944 Carstens married the medical student

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
.

In July 1960 Carstens reached the position of secretary of state at the Foreign Office and in the same year was also appointed as professor for public and international law at University of Cologne. During the grand coalition government of 1966-1969 under Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger, he first served as secretary of state in the Ministry of Defence, and after 1968 as head of the German Chancellery.

In

German student movement and particular accused the governing Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) of being too soft on left-wing extremists. He also famously denounced the author and Nobel laureate Heinrich Böll as a supporter of left-wing terrorism (specifically, the Baader-Meinhof Gang) for his 1974 novel The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
.

After the 1976 federal elections, which made the CDU/CSU the largest group in parliament, Carstens was elected president of the Bundestag on 14 December 1976. The CDU/CSU had also reached a majority in the Federal Convention electing the President of Germany, and in 1979 the party nominated Carstens, though in contestation due to his Nazi past, as candidate, whereafter incumbent President Walter Scheel (FDP) chose to renounce a second term.

President of West Germany

The hiking president, 1979

On 23 May 1979, Carstens was elected as the fifth President of the Federal Republic of Germany, prevailing against the SPD candidate Annemarie Renger in the first ballot. During his term of office, Carstens was well known for hiking Germany in order to decrease the gulf between politics and the people.

In December 1982, the new Chancellor

Federal Constitutional Court so that 1983 general elections
could take place on 6 March.

In 1984 Carstens decided not to seek a second term on account of his age and left office on 30 June 1984. He was succeeded by Richard von Weizsäcker.

Carstens was a member of the Protestant Church in Germany.[1][2][3][4]

Literature

References

  1. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Karl Carstens | president of West Germany". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  3. ^ "Personal Information: Karl Carstens (1914-1992)". Willy Brandt Biografie. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  4. ^ "www.bundespraesident.de: Der Bundespräsident / Karl Carstens". www.bundespraesident.de. Retrieved 8 May 2021.

External links

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Political offices
Preceded by President of the Bundestag
1976–1979 		Succeeded by
Preceded by President of West Germany
1979–1984 		Succeeded by