1. Gustav Heinemann served as mayor of Essen from 1946 to 1949, West German Minister of the Interior from 1949 to 1950, and Minister of Justice from 1966 to 1969.
32 Facts About Gustav Heinemann
1. 2.
From 1918, Gustav Heinemann studied law, economics, and history at the universities of Munster, Marburg, Munich, Gottingen, and Berlin, graduating in 1922 and passing the bar in 1926.
3.
The friendships that Gustav Heinemann formed during his student years often lasted for a lifetime.
4.
At the beginning of his career, Gustav Heinemann joined a renowned firm of solicitors in Essen.
5.
The steelworks were considered to be essential for the war so Gustav Heinemann was not drafted into the army.
6.
Gustav Heinemann was a lecturer at the law school of the University of Cologne between 1933 and 1939.
7.
Gustav Heinemann was invited to join the board of directors of the Rheinisch-Westfalische Kohlensyndikat in 1936, but the invitation was withdrawn due to Gustav Heinemann's refusal to end his work for the anti-Nazi Confessing Church.
8.
In 1926, Gustav Heinemann married Hilda Ordemann, who had been a student of Rudolf Bultmann, the famous Protestant theologian.
9.
Gustav and Hilda Heinemann had three daughters, Uta, Christa and Barbara; they had a son, Peter.
10.
Gustav Heinemann was an elder in Wilhelm Graeber's parish in Essen, when Graeber was sacked in 1933 by the new church authorities who co-operated with the Nazis.
11.
Opposition against those German Christians came from the Confessing Church, and Gustav Heinemann became a member of its synod and its legal adviser.
12.
From 1936 to 1950, Gustav Heinemann was head of the YMCA in Essen.
13.
Gustav Heinemann regarded the declaration as a "linchpin" in his work for the church.
14.
From 1949 to 1955, Gustav Heinemann was president of the all-German Synod of the Protestant Churches of Germany.
15.
Gustav Heinemann was among the founders of the German Protestant Church Congress, a congress of the Protestant laity.
16.
Gustav Heinemann heard Hitler speak in Munich in 1920 and had to leave the room after interrupting Hitler's diatribe against the Jews.
17.
In 1930, Gustav Heinemann joined the Christlich-Sozialer Volksdienst, but he voted for the Social Democratic Party in 1933 to try to prevent a victory of the NSDAP.
18.
Gustav Heinemann was one of the founders of the Christian Democratic Union in North Rhine-Westphalia, in which he saw an interdenominational and democratic association of people opposed to Nazism.
19.
Gustav Heinemann was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian parliament, and from 1947 to 1948, he was Minister of Justice in the North Rhine-Westphalian government of CDU Prime Minister Karl Arnold.
20.
Gustav Heinemann was convinced that any form of armament in West Germany would diminish the chances of German reunification and increase the risk of war.
21.
Gustav Heinemann left the CDU, and in 1952 he founded his own political party, the All-German People's Party.
22.
Gustav Heinemann dissolved his party in 1957 and joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany, whose aims were relatively close to his own.
23.
Gustav Heinemann helped the SPD to change into a Volkspartei by opening it up for socially-minded Protestants and middle-class people especially in the industrial districts of Germany.
24.
In October 1950 Gustav Heinemann had started practising as a lawyer again.
25.
Gustav Heinemann worked for the release of prisoners in East Germany.
26.
Gustav Heinemann initiated a number of liberal reforms, especially in the field of criminal law.
27.
In March 1969 Gustav Heinemann was elected President of West Germany.
28.
Gustav Heinemann established the tradition of inviting ordinary citizens to the president's New Year's receptions, and in his speeches, he encouraged West Germans to overcome the tradition of submissiveness to the authorities, to make full use of their democratic rights and to defend the rule of law and social justice.
29.
Gustav Heinemann mainly visited countries that had been occupied by German troops in World War II.
30.
Gustav Heinemann supported the social-liberal government's policy of reconciliation with the Eastern European states.
31.
Gustav Heinemann promoted research into the nature of conflicts and of peace, as well as into environmental problems.
32.
Gustav Heinemann thought it was not compatible with the spirit of the constitution that a large group of people were generally treated as suspects.