biography
| name: |
Weizsäcker, Richard Freiherr, Freiherr (Baron) von
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pronunciation:
[viytseker]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1920– )
|
| biography:
| President of Germany (1990–4), and president of the former Federal Republic of Germany (1984–90), born in Stuttgart, SW Germany, the son of Ernst Freiherr von Weizsäcker. He studied at Berlin, Oxford, Grenoble, and Göttingen universities, and during World War 2 served in the Wehrmacht. After the war he worked as a professional lawyer, and was active in the German Protestant Church, becoming president of its Congress (1964–70). A member of the conservative Christlich-Demokratische Union (CDU, Christian Democratic Union) since 1950, he served as a deputy in the Bundestag (1969–81), as deputy CDU/CSU (Christlich Soziale Union) parliamentary party chairman (1972–9), vice-president of the Bundestag (1979–81), and Bürgermeister (mayor) of W Berlin (1981–4). He was elected federal president in 1984, re-elected in 1989, and signed the treaty re-uniting East and West Germany in 1990. |
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