Horst Paul August Ehmke (4 February 1927 – 12 March 2017) was a German lawyer, law professor and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He served as Federal Minister of Justice (1969), Chief of Staff at the German Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Affairs (1969–1972) and Federal Minister for Research, Technology, and Post (1972–1974).
Life
Ehmke was born in the Free City of Danzig, where he passed his Abitur.[1] In 1944, at the age of 17, Ehmke was enrolled as a member of the Nazi Party, although when this became public knowledge in 2007 as part of a media investigation of Nazi archives, he stated that he had made no application and was previously unaware of the enrollment.[2][3] Following the Expulsion of Germans after World War II he came as a refugee to western Germany. He studied Law and Economics in Göttingen and Political science and History at Princeton University (U.S.) from 1949 to 1950. In 1952, he promoted as Dr. iur., and in 1956, he passed his final examinations. In these years, he was the assistant of Adolf Arndt, member of the Bundestag (SPD).
Since 1947, Ehmke has been a member of the SPD, where he was a member of the executive board from 1973 to 1991. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1969 to 1994 for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Here, he was deputy whip of the SPD faction from 1977 to 1990.
Politik der praktischen Vernunft – Aufsätze und Referate, 1969
Politik als Herausforderung. Reden – Vorträge – Aufsätze 1968–1974, 1974
Politik als Herausforderung. Reden – Vorträge – Aufsätze 1975–1979, 1979
Beiträge zur Verfassungstheorie und Verfassungspolitik, 1981
Mittendrin – Von der Großen Koalition zur Deutschen Einheit, 1994
After retiring, Ehmke also wrote detective stories revolving around politics:
Global Players, 1998
Der Euro-Coup, 1999
Himmelsfackeln, 2001
Privatsache, 2003
Im Schatten der Gewalt, 2006
References
^ abcdDer Spiegel, 4 February 2007, Der flotte Hotte sah sich als kommenden exzellenten Kanzler
^Die Welt, 14 July 2007, Weitere Prominente in der Nazi-Kartei
^Der Spiegel, 16 July 2007, Hoffnungslos dazwischen
^The ministry subsequently was split into the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Germany) and the Federal Ministry for Post and Communications.
^"Horst Ehmke, aide to West German leader Brandt, dies at 90". Archived from the original on 13 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
External links
Media related to Horst Ehmke at Wikimedia Commons
Interview about the play Democracy 2005, on Broadway about Willy Brandt
Speaker: Marieluise Beck-Oberdorf, Petra Kelly, Otto Schily until 3 April 1984; Annemarie Borgmann, Waltraud Schoppe, Antje Vollmer until 30./31. January 1985; Sabine Bard, Hannegret Hönes, Christian Schmidt until 1 February 1986; Annemarie Borgmann, Hannegret Hönes, Ludger Volmer until 18 July 1986); Willi Hoss (8 September 1986)
Speaker: Thomas Ebermann, Bärbel Rust, Waltraud Schoppe until 26 January 1988; Helmut Lippelt, Regula Schmidt-Bott, Christa Vennegerts until 30 January 1989, Helmut Lippelt, Jutta Oesterle-Schwerin, Antje Vollmer until 15 January 1990; Willi Hoss, Waltraud Schoppe (until 21 June 1990), Marianne Birthler (from 4 October 1990), Antje Vollmer