Karl Carstens

Infobox_President | name=Karl Carstens
nationality=German


order=9^th President of Germany
5^th President of the Federal Republic of Germany
term_start=July 1, 1979
term_end=June 30, 1984
predecessor=Walter Scheel
successor=Richard von Weizsäcker
birth_date=birth date|1914|12|14
birth_place=Bremen, Germany
death_date=death date and age|1992|5|30|1914|12|14
death_place=Meckenheim, Germany
spouse=Veronica Carstens
party=CDU (since 1955); NSDAP (1940-1945)
religion=Protestant

Karl Carstens (December 14, 1914 - May 29, 1992) was a German politician. He served as the fifth Federal President of West Germany.

Biography

Born in Bremen, Carstens studied law and political science at the universities of Frankfurt, Dijon, Munich, Königsberg, and Hamburg from 1933 to 1936. In 1949 he received a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from Yale Law School.

Carstens joined the NSDAP in 1940, reportedly to avoid detrimental treatment when he was a law clerk. Carstens had, however, joined the SA, the Nazi paramilitary organisation, already in 1933.

From 1939 to 1945, during the Second World War, he was a member of an anti-aircraft artillery unit, reaching the rank of Leutnant "(Second Lieutenant)" by the wars end. Afterwards he became a lawyer in Bremen, and in 1955 he joined the CDU.

In July 1960 Carstens entered government service as a secretary of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the same year he was also appointed as professor for public and international law at Cologne University. During the Grand coalition government (1966-1969), he first served as secretary of state in the Ministry of Defence, and after 1968 as Director of the Chancellor's Office.

In 1972 Carstens was first elected into the Bundestag, of which he was a member until 1979. From May 1973 until October 1976 he was chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. During that time he was an outspoken critic of left-wing tendencies in German society and particular accused the governing SPD of being too soft on left-wing extremists. He also famously denounced the author Heinrich Böll as a supporter of left-wing terrorism (specifically, the Baader-Meinhof Gang).

On 14 December 1976, following the general elections which made the CDU/CSU the largest group in parliament, Carstens was elected president of the Bundestag.

On May 23, 1979 Carstens was elected as the fifth President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Carstens is well known for hiking Germany during his term in order to decrease the gulf between politics and the people.

In December 1982, the recently elected Chancellor Helmut Kohl deliberately lost a motion of confidence in order to obtain a clearer majority in new general elections. This gave rise to a discussion whether such a step constitutes a "manipulation of the constitution". On January 7 1983, President Carstens nonetheless dissolved the Bundestag and called for new elections. In February 1983 Carstens' decision was approved by the Federal Constitutional Court so that general elections could take place.

In 1984 he decided not to seek a second term on account of his age and left office on 30 June, 1984.

Literature

*Michael F. Feldkamp (ed.), "Der Bundestagspräsident. Amt - Funktion - Person." 16. Wahlperiode, München 2007, ISBN 978-3-7892-8201-0