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Wolfgang Hicks: Without title, 1969
© Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland


Gustav Heinemann

born in Schwelm/Westphalia on 23.7.1899, died in Essen on 7.7.1976
Heinemann studied law and was mine director at the Rhine Steel Works in Essen from 1936 to 1949. He was a Landtag Deputy in North Rhine-Westphalia from 1947 to 1950 and Land Justice Minister in 1947/48. Adenauer appointed him Federal Interior Minister in his first cabinet in 1949, but Heinemann left out of protest at Adenauer's rearmament plans in October 1950. He founded the Pan-German People's Party in 1952. It was dissolved in 1957 and Heinemann joined the SPD. Heinemann was Federal Interior Minister during the Grand Coalition from 1966 to 1969. He was elected Federal President on 5 March 1969. He declined to stand for a second term on age grounds.