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Bernhard Vogel

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Bernhard Vogel
Vogel in 1994
Vogel in 1994
Minister-President of Thuringia
In office
5 February 1992 – 5 June 2003
Deputy Ulrich Fickel
Gerd Schuchardt
Andreas Trautvetter
Preceded by Josef Duchač
Succeeded by Dieter Althaus
President of the Bundesrat
In office
1 November 1987 – 31 October 1988
First Vice President Walter Wallmann
Preceded by Walter Wallmann
Succeeded by Björn Engholm
In office
3 December 1976 – 31 October 1977
First Vice President Albert Osswald
Preceded by Albert Osswald
Succeeded by Gerhard Stoltenberg
Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate
In office
2 December 1976 – 8 December 1988
Deputy Otto Meyer
Carl-Ludwig Wagner
Preceded by Helmut Kohl
Succeeded by Carl-Ludwig Wagner
Minister for Education and Culture of Rhineland-Palatinate
In office
18 May 1967 – 2 December 1976
Minister-President Peter Altmeier
Helmut Kohl
Preceded by Eduard Orth
Succeeded by Hanna-Renate Laurien
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of the
Landtag of Thuringia
for Erfurt II
In office
10 November 1994 – 8 July 2004
Preceded by
Norbert Otto
Succeeded by
Michael Panse
Member of the
Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate
for Wahlkreis 3
(Wahlkreis 5; 1971–1975)
In office
29 April 1971 – 6 December 1988
Preceded by
multi-member district
Succeeded by
Hans-Henning Grünwald
Member of the Bundestag
for Neustadt – Speyer
In office
19 October 1965 – 17 July 1967
Preceded by
Constituency established
Succeeded by
Ludwig Knobloch
Personal details
Born 19 December 1932
Göttingen, Province of Hanover, Prussia, Germany
Died 2 March 2025 (aged 92)
Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Party CDU (from 1960)
Relatives Hans-Jochen Vogel (brother)
Alma mater Heidelberg University
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Bernhard Vogel (German: [ˈbɛʁnhaʁt ˈfoːɡl̩]; 19 December 1932 – 2 March 2025) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the 4th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1976 to 1988 and the second Minister President of Thuringia from 1992 to 2003. He was the only person to have been head of two different German federal states and was the longest-governing Minister President of Germany. He served as the 28th and 40th President of the Bundesrat in 1976 to 1977 and 1987 to 1988.

Life and career

Early life and education

Vogel was born in Göttingen on 19 December 1932 and grew up in Giessen.[1] He received his Abitur in Munich in 1953,[2] and began studies in political science, history, sociology, and economics, first at Heidelberg University and then at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.[2] He received his doctorate in 1960,[2] while working as a research assistant at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg.[3] He became a lecturer there the following year, also working in adult education.[4]

Political career

In 1960, Vogel joined the CDU.[5] In 1963, Vogel was elected to the municipal council of Heidelberg, but resigned two years later, following his election to the Bundestag.[3] He joined the governing board of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1965.[2][5] From 1965 to 1967, Vogel was a member of the German Bundestag, a position from which he resigned to assume the job of State Minister of Culture and Education in Rhineland-Palatinate under Minister President Peter Altmeier.[4][5] He continued in the same cabinet position under Altmeier's successor in 1969, Helmut Kohl.[4] In 1973, when Kohl became chair of the national CDU, Vogel succeeded him as state party chair in Rhineland-Palatinate.[6]

In December 1976, Vogel became Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate to replace Kohl, who had been elected a federal deputy.[6] Vogel immediately assumed the presidency of the Federal Council[7] until 31 October 1977, at the same time becoming chairman of the supervisory board of the Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF),[8] Germany's second-largest public broadcaster. In the regional elections of March 1979 he maintained a bare majority of his party, with 50% of the vote and 51 regional deputies out of 100.[9] In March 1983 the party improved its position, obtaining 52% of the vote and 57 deputies.[10] Vogel became vice-president of the European Democratic Union (EDU) in 1985 and again won the regional elections on 17 May 1987 but with only a plurality of 45.1% of the vote and 48 deputies elected out of 100, ending the sixteen-year absolute majority of Christian Democrats.[11] Vogel's failure to be re-elected as state chair of his party in 1988 led to his resignation as Minister President in a famous speech which he ended with the often-quoted phrase: "May God protect Rhineland-Palatinate!", an unusual display of public piety by German standards.[12]

After his resignation, Vogel concentrated on the management of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, of which he became chairman in 1989.[2] After the resignation of the first Thuringian Prime Minister Josef Duchač 1992, Vogel became Minister-President of Thuringia on 5 February.[13] From 1993 to 1999, he was chairman of the Thuringian CDU.[2] He gave up the chairmanship of the Adenauer Foundation in 1993.[2] 1994 CDU and SPD formed a grand coalition.[2][14] In the 1999 elections, the CDU achieved an absolute majority.[15] For reasons of age, Vogel resigned from office as Minister-President on 5 June 2003.[5] He was followed by Dieter Althaus.[16]

Life after politics

From 2001 until 2009, Vogel served again as president of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin.[17]

In 2012, Vogel was awarded the Mercator Visiting Professorship for Political Management at the Universität Essen-Duisburg's NRW School of Governance. He gave both seminars and lectures at the university.[18]

Vogel was nominated by his party as delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2022.[19]

Personal life and death

Vogel was a devout Roman Catholic.[20] He was single and had no children.[21] His brother was the SPD politician Hans-Jochen Vogel (1926–2020), a former mayor of Munich and Berlin, federal minister of justice and candidate for chancellorship.[21] He had lived in Speyer.[22] since 1965.

Vogel died in Speyer on 2 March 2025, at the age of 92.[1][23]

Other activities

Corporate boards

  • Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG), member of the advisory board[24]

Non-profit organizations

  • donum vitae, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2001)[25]
  • CARE Deutschland-Luxemburg, member of the board of trustees[26]
  • Eugen Biser Foundation, member of the board of trustees
  • European Foundation for the Speyer Cathedral, member of the board of trustees[27]
  • Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), member of the board of trustees[28]
  • Willy Brandt Foundation, member of the board of trustees[29]

Awards

  • 1984 Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany[2]
  • 1990 Order of Merit of Rhineland-Palatinate[2]
  • 2002 Honorary citizen of Speyer[22]
  • 2005 Order of Merit of the Free State of Thuringia[2]

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 "Bernhard Vogel: Ex-Ministerpräsident stirbt mit 92 Jahren". DIE WELT (in German). Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.00 Back to citation occurrence 2.01 Back to citation occurrence 2.02 Back to citation occurrence 2.03 Back to citation occurrence 2.04 Back to citation occurrence 2.05 Back to citation occurrence 2.06 Back to citation occurrence 2.07 Back to citation occurrence 2.08 Back to citation occurrence 2.09 Back to citation occurrence 2.10 "Gerade auf LeMO gesehen: LeMO Biografie: Bernhard Vogel". hdg.de (in German). 1 January 1970. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  3. Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 "Curriculum Vitae Prof. Dr. Bernhard Vogel". NRW School of Governance (in German). 3 November 2023. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 Back to citation occurrence 4.2 "Stolz auf die prägenden Jahre in Heidelberg". Universität Heidelberg (in German). Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  5. Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Back to citation occurrence 5.2 Back to citation occurrence 5.3 "Bernhard Vogel". Geschichte der CDU (in German). 3 March 2025. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  6. Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 "Geschichte der CDU". Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (in German). Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  7. Back to citation "Bernhard Vogel". Public History Weekly. 10 December 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  8. Back to citation "Bernhard Vogel: Ex-Ministerpräsident stirbt mit 92 Jahren". Die Welt (in German). 3 March 2025. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  9. Back to citation "Landtagswahl Rheinland-Pfalz 1979" (in German). tagesschau.de. 12 May 2023. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  10. Back to citation "Landtagswahl Rheinland-Pfalz 1983" (in German). tagesschau.de. 12 May 2023. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  11. Back to citation "Landtagswahl Rheinland-Pfalz 1987" (in German). tagesschau.de. 12 May 2023. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  12. Back to citation "Journal@RupertoCarola". Universität Heidelberg (in German). Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  13. Back to citation "Vor 30 Jahren: Bernhard Vogel wird Thüringer Ministerpräsident". CDU Thüringen (in German). 28 June 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  14. Back to citation "Landtagswahl Thüringen 1994" (in German). tagesschau.de. 12 May 2023. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  15. Back to citation "Landtagswahl Thüringen 1999" (in German). tagesschau.de. 12 May 2023. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  16. Back to citation Historischer Überblick lztthueringen.de
  17. Back to citation "CDU-Politiker Bernhard Vogel ist tot". ZDFheute (in German). 3 March 2025. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  18. Back to citation Dähn, Vanessa (6 December 2012). "Wie Politik die Zukunft gestaltet". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  19. Back to citation 17th Federal Convention, 13 February 2022, List of Members Bundestag.
  20. Back to citation Blöcher-Weil, Johannes (18 December 2022). "Bernhard Vogel wird 90". PRO (in German). Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  21. Back to citation occurrence 21.0 Back to citation occurrence 21.1 Sondermann-Becker, Ulli (7 April 2024). "Seltsam minimalinvasiv: Was Bernhard Vogel über sein politisches Leben verrät". MDR.DE (in German). Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  22. Back to citation occurrence 22.0 Back to citation occurrence 22.1 "Dr. Bernhard Vogel". Stadt Speyer (in German). 5 February 2019. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  23. Back to citation "Thüringens Ex-Ministerpräsident Bernhard Vogel im Alter von 92 gestorben". Der Spiegel (in German). 3 March 2025. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  24. Back to citation Tobias Romberg (19 May 2011), "Ritter der Schwafelrunde". Die Zeit.
  25. Back to citation Donum vitae gründet Stiftung Die Tageszeitung, 18 May 2001.
  26. Back to citation Board of Trustees Archived 18 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine CARE Deutschland.
  27. Back to citation Board of Trustees Archived 29 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine European Foundation for the Speyer Cathedral.
  28. Back to citation Board of Trustees Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
  29. Back to citation Board of Trustees Archived 18 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine Willy Brandt Foundation.

Bibliography

  • Beckmann, Christopher (2017). Klares Ziel und langer Atem: Bernhard Vogel – Brückenbauer zwischen Ost und West. Deutschland- und außenpolitische Positionen und Aktivitäten (in German). Freiburg: Herder Verlag. ISBN 978-3-451-81221-7. OCLC 1003262432.
  • Vogel, Bernhard; Roman Herzog; Michael Borchard; Uwe Spindeldreier (2002). "Lebensstationen". Sorge tragen für die Zukunft: Reden 1998–2002 (in German) (1st ed.). Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag. pp. 237f. ISBN 978-3-86153-283-5.
  • Vogel, Bernhard; Vogel, Hans-Jochen (2007). Deutschland aus der Vogelperspektive (in German). Freiburg im Breisgau Basel Wien: Herder. ISBN 978-3-451-29810-3.
  • Vogel, Bernhard (11 March 2024). Erst das Land (in German). Freiburg Basel Wien: Herder. ISBN 978-3-451-39545-1.
  • Wiedemeyer, Wolfgang (1997). Bernhard Vogel (in German). Bonn: Bouvier Verlag. ISBN 978-3-416-02707-6.
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