Hans-Dietrich Genscher

After the federal election of 1969 Genscher was instrumental in the formation of the social-liberal coalition of chancellor Willy Brandt and was on 22 October 1969 appointed as federal minister of the interior. In 1972, while minister for the interior, Genscher rejected Israel's offer to send an Israeli special forces unit to Germany to deal with the Munich Olympics hostage crisis. A flawed rescue attempt by German police forces at Fürstenfeldbruck air base resulted in a bloody shootout, which left all eleven hostages, five terrorists, and one German policeman dead. Genscher's popularity with Israel declined further when he endorsed the release of the three captured attackers following the hijacking of a Lufthansa aircraft on 29 October 1972.[5][12]

In the SPD–FDP coalition, Genscher helped shape Brandt's policy of deescalation with the communist East, commonly known as Ostpolitik, which was continued under chancellor Helmut Schmidt after Brandt's resignation in 1974.[10] He would later be a driving factor in continuing this policy in the new conservative-liberal coalition under Helmut Kohl.[9]

In the negotiations on a coalition government of SPD and FDP following the 1976 elections, it took Genscher 73 days to reach agreement with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.[13]

As Foreign Minister, Genscher stood for a policy of compromise between East and West, and developed strategies for an active policy of détente and the continuation of the East–West dialogue with the USSR. He was widely regarded a strong advocate of negotiated settlements to international problems.[14] As a popular story on Genscher's preferred method of shuttle diplomacy has it, "two Lufthansa jets crossed over the Atlantic, and Genscher was on both."[15]

Genscher was a major player in the negotiations on the text of the Helsinki Accords. In December 1976, the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City accepted Genscher's proposal of an anti-terrorism convention in New York,[16] which was set among other things, to respond to demands from hostage-takers under any circumstances.

Genscher was one of the FDP's driving forces when, in 1982, the party switched sides from its coalition with the SPD to support the CDU/CSU in their Constructive vote of no confidence to have incumbent Helmut Schmidt replaced with opposition leader Helmut Kohl as Chancellor. The reason for this was the increase in the differences between the coalition partners, particularly in economic and social policy. The switch was controversial, not least in his own party.[17]

At several points in his tenure, he irritated the governments of the United States and other allies of Germany by appearing not to support Western initiatives fully. "During the Cold War, his penchant to seek the middle ground at times exasperated United States policy-makers who wanted a more decisive, less equivocal Germany," according to Tyler Marshall.[18] Genscher's perceived quasi-neutralism was dubbed Genscherism.[14] "Fundamental to Genscherism was said to be the belief that Germany could play a role as a bridge between East and West without losing its status as a reliable NATO ally."[14] In the 1980s, Genscher opposed the deployment of new short-range NATO missiles in Germany. At the time, the Reagan Administration questioned whether Germany was straying from the Western alliance and following a program of its own.[19]

In 1984, Genscher became the first Western foreign minister to visit Tehran since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. In 1988, he appointed Jürgen Hellner as West Germany's new ambassador to Libya, a post that had been vacant since the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing, a tragedy which U.S. officials blamed on the government of Muammar Gaddafi.[20]

Genscher's proposals frequently set the tone and direction of foreign affairs among Western Europe's democracies.[18] He was also an active participant in the further development of the European Union, taking an active part in the Single European Act Treaty negotiations in the mid-1980s, as well as the joint publication of the Genscher-Colombo plan with Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Emilio Colombo which advocated further integration and deepening of relations in the European Union towards a more federal Europe. He later was among the politicians who pushed hard for monetary union alongside Edouard Balladur, France's finance minister, and Giuliano Amato,[21] circulating a memorandum to that effect.[22]

Genscher retained his posts as foreign minister and vice chancellor through German reunification and until 1992 when he stepped down for health reasons.[23]

Reunification efforts

Genscher in the GDR, 1990

Genscher is most respected for his efforts that helped spell the end of the Cold War, in the late 1980s when Communist eastern European governments toppled, and which led to German reunification. During his time in office, he focused on maintaining stability and balance between the West and the Soviet bloc. From the beginning, he argued that the West should seek cooperation with Communist governments rather than treat them as implacably hostile; this policy was embraced by many Germans and other Europeans.[19]

Genscher had great interest in European integration and the success of German reunification. He soon pushed for effective support of political reform processes in Poland and Hungary. For this purpose, he visited Poland to meet the chairman of Solidarity Lech Wałęsa as early as January 1980. Especially from 1987 he campaigned for an "active relaxation" policy response by the West to the Soviet efforts. In the years before German reunification, he made a point of maintaining strong ties with his birthplace Halle, which was regarded as significant by admirers and critics alike.[24]

When thousands of East Germans sought refuge in West German embassies in Czechoslovakia and Poland, Genscher held discussions on the refugee crisis at the United Nations in New York with the foreign ministers of Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1989.[25] Genscher's 30 September 1989 speech from the balcony of the German embassy in Prague was an important milestone on the road to the end of the GDR. In the embassy courtyard thousands of East German citizens had assembled. They were trying to travel to West Germany, but were being denied permission to travel by the Czechoslovak government at the request of East Germany. He announced that he had reached an agreement with the Communist Czechoslovak government that the refugees could leave: "We have come to you to tell you that today, your departure ..." (German: "Wir sind zu Ihnen gekommen, um Ihnen mitzuteilen, dass heute Ihre Ausreise ..."). After these words, the speech was drowned in cheers.[26]

With his fellow foreign ministers James Baker of the United States and Eduard Shevardnadze of the Soviet Union, Genscher is widely credited with securing Germany's subsequent peaceful unification and the withdrawal of Soviet forces.[27] He negotiated the German reunification in 1990 with his counterpart from the GDR, Markus Meckel. On 12 September 1990 he signed the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany on behalf of West Germany.[28] In November 1990, Genscher and his Polish counterpart Krzysztof Skubiszewski signed the German-Polish Border Treaty on the establishment of the Oder–Neisse line as Poland's western border. Meanwhile, he strongly endorsed the plans of the Bush Administration to assure continued U.S. influence in a post-Cold War Europe.[29]

Hans-Dietrich Genscher, 2013

Ahead of the German presidential election in 1994, Genscher proclaimed his lack of interest in the position, but was nonetheless widely considered a leading contender. After a poll taken for Stern magazine showed him to be the favored candidate of 48 percent of German voters, he reiterated in 1993 that he would "in no case" accept the presidency.[39]

Having finished his political career, Genscher remained active as a lawyer and in international organizations. In late 1992, Genscher was appointed chairman of a newly established donors' board of the Berlin State Opera.[40] Between 1997 and 2010, Genscher was affiliated with the law firm Büsing, Müffelmann & Theye.[41] He founded his own consulting firm, Hans-Dietrich Genscher Consult GmbH, in 2000. Between 2001 and 2003, he served as president of the German Council on Foreign Relations.[42] In 2001, Genscher headed an arbitration that ended a monthlong battle between German airline Lufthansa and its pilots' union and resulted in an agreement on increasing wages by more than 15 percent by the end of the following year.[43]

In 2008, Genscher joined former Czech President Václav Havel, former United States Ambassador to Germany John Kornblum and several other well-known political figures in calling for a Cold War museum to be built at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.[44] In 2009 Genscher expressed public concern at Pope Benedict XVI's lifting of excommunication of the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X. Genscher wrote in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung: "Poles can be proud of Pope John Paul II. At the last papal election, we said We are the pope! But please—not like this."[45] He argued that Pope Benedict XVI was making a habit of offending non-Catholics. "This is a deep moral and political question. It is about respect for the victims of crimes against humanity", Genscher said.[46]

On 20 December 2013, it was revealed that Genscher played a key role in coordinating the release and flight to Germany of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of Yukos. Genscher had first met Khodorkovsky in 2002 and had chaired a conference at which Khodorkovsky blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin's pursuit of his oil company.[47] Khodorkovsky asked his lawyers during a 2011 prison visit to let Genscher help mediate early release. Once Putin was re-elected in 2012, German Chancellor Angela Merkel instructed her officials to lobby for the president to meet Genscher.[47][48] The subsequent negotiations involved two meetings between Genscher and Putin – one at Berlin Tegel Airport at the end of Putin's first visit to Germany after he was re-elected in 2012, the other in Moscow. While keeping the chancellor informed, Khodorkovsky's attorneys and Genscher spent the ensuing months developing a variety of legal avenues that could allow Putin to release his former rival early, ranging from amendments to existing laws to clemency.[47] When Khodorkovsky's mother was in a Berlin hospital with cancer in November 2013, Genscher passed a message to Khodorkovsky suggesting the prisoner should write a pardon letter to Putin emphasizing his mother's ill health.[49] Following Putin's pardoning of Khodorkovsky "for humanitarian reasons" in December 2013, a private plane provided by Genscher brought Khodorkovsky to Berlin for a family reunion at the Hotel Adlon.[50]

Genscher signed on in 2014 to be a member of the Southern Corridor Advisory Panel, a BP-led consortium which includes former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Peter Sutherland, chairman of Goldman Sachs International.[51] The panel's purpose is to facilitate the expansion of a vast natural-gas field in the Caspian Sea and the building of two pipelines across Europe. The $45 billion enterprise, championed by the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, has been called by critics "the Blair Rich Project."[52]

Genscher died at his home outside Bonn in Wachtberg on 31 March 2016 from heart failure, one week and three days after his 89th birthday.[53][54]

• CARE Deutschland-Luxemburg, Chairman of the Board of Trustees[55]
• Club of Budapest, Honorary Member[56]
• German-Azerbaijani Forum, Honorary Chairman[57]
• German-Polish Society (DPG), Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees[58]
• Baltic Development Forum, Member of the Honorary Board[59]
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen, Member of the Board of Trustees[60]
• Dimitris Tsatsos Institute for European Constitutional Law at the FernUniversität Hagen, Member of the Board of Trustees[61]
• EastWest Institute, Chairman Emeritus[62]
• ELSA Deutschland, Member of the Advisory Board (1993–2008)[63]
• Foundation Wittenberg-Center for Global Ethics, Member of the Board of Trustees[64]
• Bonner Akademie für Forschung und Lehre praktischer Politik (BAPP), Member of the Board of Trustees[65]
• Ilsenburg Abbey, Patron[66]
• Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Honorary Chairman of the Board of Trustees[67]
• University of Bonn, Member of the Board of Trustees[68]
• A Soul for Europe initiative, Member of the Board of Trustees
• Gedächtnis der Nation project, Member of the Board of Trustees

Genscher has been awarded honorary citizenship by his birthplace Halle (Saale) (in 1991)[69] and the city of Berlin (in 1993).[70]

• 2015 - The National German Sustainability Award

• Die Rolle Europas im Kontext der Globalisierung, in: Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y. (ed.): Herausforderung Demokratie. Demokratisch, parlamentarisch, gut? (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisziplinär/Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Vol. 6), Baden-Baden 2011, ISBN 978-3-8329-5816-9
• (Hrsg.): Nach vorn gedacht … Perspektiven deutscher Aussenpolitik. Bonn Aktuell, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-87959-290-X.
• Zukunftsverantwortung. Reden. Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-371-00312-4.
• Unterwegs zur Einheit. Reden und Dokumente aus bewegter Zeit. Siedler, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-88680-408-9.
• Wir wollen ein europäisches Deutschland. Siedler, Berlin 1991, Goldmann 1992 ISBN 3-442-12839-0.
• Politik aus erster Hand. Kolumnen des Bundesaußenministers a. D. Hans-Dietrich Genscher in der Nordsee-Zeitung Bremerhaven. Nordwestdeutsche Verlags-Gesellschaft, Bremerhaven 1992, ISBN 3-927857-36-X.
• Kommentare. ECON-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Düsseldorf/Wien 1994, ISBN 3-612-26185-1.
• Erinnerungen. Siedler, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-88680-453-4; Goldmann, München 1997, ISBN 3-442-12759-9.
• Sternstunde der Deutschen. Hans-Dietrich Genscher im Gespräch mit Ulrich Wickert. Mit sechs Beiträgen. Hohenheim, Stuttgart/Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-89850-011-X.
• Die Chance der Deutschen. Ein Gesprächsbuch. Hans-Dietrich Genscher im Gespräch mit Guido Knopp. Pendo, München 2008, ISBN 978-3-86612-190-4.
• Die Rolle Europas im Kontext der Globalisierung, in: Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha (Hrsg.): Herausforderung Demokratie. Demokratisch, parlamentarisch, gut? (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisziplinär/Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Bd. 6), Baden-Baden 2011, ISBN 978-3-8329-5816-9.
• Zündfunke aus Prag. Wie 1989 der Mut zur Freiheit die Geschichte veränderte, mit Karel Vodička. dtv, München 2014, ISBN 978-3-423-28047-1.
• Meine Sicht der Dinge. Im Gespräch mit Hans-Dieter Heumann. Propyläen, Berlin, 2015, ISBN 978-3-549-07464-0.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

• Politics of Germany
• History of Germany since 1945

• Wilsford, David, ed. Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood, 1995) pp 155–64.

• Bresselau von Bressensdorf, Agnes: Frieden durch Kommunikation. Das System Genscher und die Entspannungspolitik im Zweiten Kalten Krieg 1979–1982/83. Berlin, De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2015, ISBN 3-11-040464-8.
• Brauckhoff, Kerstin, Schwaetzer, Ingrid (Hrsg.): Hans-Dietrich Genschers Außenpolitik. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-06650-5.
• Heumann, Hans-Dieter: Hans-Dietrich Genscher. Die Biografie. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-77037-0.
• Lucas, Hans-Dieter (Hrsg.): Genscher, Deutschland und Europa. Nomos-Verlag, Baden-Baden 2002, ISBN 3-7890-7816-6.
• Mittag, Jürgen: Vom Honoratiorenkreis zum Europanetzwerk: Sechs Jahrzehnte Europäische Bewegung Deutschland. at the Wayback Machine (archived 18 January 2012) In: 60 Jahre Europäische Bewegung Deutschland, Berlin 2009, S. 12–28.
• Gerhard A. Ritter: Hans-Dietrich Genscher, das Auswärtige Amt und die deutsche Vereinigung. Beck, München 2013, ISBN 3-406-64495-3.

• Appearances on C-SPAN