Joachim Wilhelm Gauck is a German politician and civil rights activist who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017.
41 Facts About Joachim Gauck
2.
Joachim Gauck served as Federal Commissioner from 1990 to 2000, earning recognition as a "Stasi hunter" and "tireless pro-democracy advocate", for exposing the crimes of the communist secret police.
3.
Joachim Gauck was nominated as the candidate of the SPD and the Greens for President of Germany in the 2010 election, but lost in the third ballot to Christian Wulff, the candidate of the government coalition.
4.
Joachim Gauck was a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, together with Vaclav Havel and other statesmen, and of the Declaration on Crimes of Communism.
5.
Joachim Gauck has called for increased awareness of communist crimes in Europe, and for the necessity of delegitimizing the communist era.
6.
Joachim Gauck is the author and co-author of several books, including The Black Book of Communism.
7.
Joachim Gauck's father was an experienced ship's captain and distinguished naval officer, who after World War II worked as an inspector at the Neptun Werft shipbuilding company.
8.
When Joachim Gauck was eleven years old, in 1951, his father was arrested by Soviet occupation forces; he was not to return until 1955.
9.
Joachim Gauck was convicted by a Russian military tribunal of espionage for receiving a letter from the West and of anti-Soviet demagogy for being in the possession of a western journal on naval affairs, and deported to a Gulag in Siberia, where he was mistreated to the extent that he was considered physically disabled after one year, according to his son.
10.
Joachim Gauck was freed in 1955, following the state visit of Konrad Adenauer to Moscow.
11.
Joachim Gauck graduated with an Abitur from Innerstadtisches Gymnasium in Rostock.
12.
Joachim Gauck wanted to study German and become a journalist, but because he was not a communist, he was not allowed to do so.
13.
Joachim Gauck has stated that his primary intention was not to become a pastor, but the theology studies offered an opportunity to study philosophy and the church was one of the few institutions in East Germany where communist ideology was not dominant.
14.
Joachim Gauck took part in major demonstrations against the communist regime of GDR.
15.
Joachim Gauck served in this position until 2000, when he was succeeded by Marianne Birthler.
16.
Joachim Gauck served as a member of the Bundestag, the Parliament of Germany, from 3 to 4 October 1990.
17.
Joachim Gauck stepped down following his appointment as Special Representative of the Federal Government.
18.
Joachim Gauck was succeeded by fellow civil rights activist Vera Lengsfeld.
19.
Joachim Gauck refused the position of president of the Federal Agency for Civic Education as well as offers to be nominated as a candidate for parliament by the SPD.
20.
Joachim Gauck has written on Soviet-era concentration camps such as the NKVD Special Camp No 1, the crimes of communism, and political repression in East Germany, and contributed to the German edition of The Black Book of Communism.
21.
In 2007, Joachim Gauck was invited to deliver the main speech during a commemoration ceremony at the Landtag of Saxony in memory of the Reunification of Germany and the fall of the communist government.
22.
All parties participated, except The Left, whose members walked out in protest against Joachim Gauck's delivering the speech.
23.
Joachim Gauck has lauded the SPD for distancing itself from The Left.
24.
Joachim Gauck is a founding signatory of both the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, with Vaclav Havel, and the Declaration on Crimes of Communism, both calling for the condemnation of communism, education about communist crimes and punishment of communist criminals.
25.
In 2010, Joachim Gauck criticized the political left of ignoring communist crimes.
26.
Joachim Gauck is a supporter of the idea to establish a Centre Against Expulsions in Berlin.
27.
Joachim Gauck supported the economic reforms initiated by the red-green government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder.
28.
Joachim Gauck supported the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, to end Yugoslav atrocities in Kosovo.
29.
Joachim Gauck is a proponent of market economy, and is sceptical towards the occupy movement.
30.
In 2012, Joachim Gauck said that "Muslims who are living here are a part of Germany", but refused to say whether Islam was a part of Germany, as asserted by previous president Christian Wulff.
31.
On 3 June 2010, Joachim Gauck was nominated for President of Germany in the 2010 election by the SPD and the Greens.
32.
Joachim Gauck is not a member of either the SPD or the Greens, and has stated that he would have accepted a nomination by the CDU as well.
33.
Joachim Gauck was originally proposed as a presidential candidate for the Greens by Andreas Schulze, then communications adviser to the Greens in the Bundestag.
34.
Joachim Gauck was thus supported by all major parties represented in the Federal Convention, except Die Linke, the successor party to the former East German communist party.
35.
On 18 March 2012, Joachim Gauck was elected President of Germany with 991 of 1228 votes in the Federal Convention.
36.
On 6 June 2016, President Joachim Gauck announced he would not stand for re-election in 2017, citing his age as the reason.
37.
Joachim Gauck has visited a significant number of countries as president.
38.
Joachim Gauck regularly welcomed state officials in different parts of Germany, especially for remarkable events in history.
39.
On 18 September 2014, Joachim Gauck welcomed the heads of states of German-speaking countries Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein to his home region of Mecklenburg.
40.
Joachim Gauck married Gerhild "Hansi" Joachim Gauck, his childhood sweetheart whom he met at age ten, but the couple has been separated since 1991.
41.
Joachim Gauck's children were discriminated against and denied the right to education by the communist regime because their father was a pastor.