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Alfred Dregger | |
|---|---|
 Dregger in 1973 | |
| Leader of theCDU/CSU group in theBundestag[a] | |
| In office 4 October 1982 – 25 November 1991 | |
| First Deputy | Theo Waigel Wolfgang Bötsch |
| Chief Whip | Wolfgang Schäuble Rudolf Seiters Friedrich Bohl |
| Preceded by | Helmut Kohl |
| Succeeded by | Wolfgang Schäuble |
| Member of theBundestag forFulda | |
| In office 13 December 1972 – 26 October 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Hermann Götz |
| Succeeded by | Martin Hohmann |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1920-12-10)10 December 1920 Münster,Province of Westphalia,Free State of Prussia,Weimar Republic(now Germany) |
| Died | 29 June 2002(2002-06-29) (aged 81) Fulda,Hesse,Germany |
| Political party | Christian Democratic Union(1947–2002) NSDAP(1940–1945) |
| Alma mater | University of Tübingen University of Marburg |
| Occupation |
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Alfred Dregger (10 December 1920 – 29 June 2002) was a Germanpolitician and a leader of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU).
Dregger was born inMünster. After graduating from a school inWerl, he entered the GermanWehrmacht in 1939. He was wounded four times[1] and served until the end of the war, when he commanded abattalion on the Eastern Front at the rank ofCaptain. In 1946, he began studyinglaw and government at the universities ofMarburg andTübingen, earning his doctorate in 1950.[1][2]
Dregger served from 1956 to 1970 asOberbürgermeister ormayor of Fulda; when first elected, he was the youngest mayor inWest Germany.[2] He also served from 1962 to 1972 as a member of theLandtag ofHesse. He was for a time leader of the CDU in that body, and, in 1967, became state party chairman, an office which he held until 1982. In 1969 he was also elected as a member of the national board of the party. From 1972 1998 he was a representative in the GermanBundestag; from 1982 to 1991 he was Chairman of the CDU/CSU group there.[2]
Dregger was known as a staunchconservative and was a prominent member of the so-calledStahlhelm-Fraktion, aNational-Conservative wing of the CDU.[3][4][5]
In the 1970s he was an outspoken proponent of outlawing theGerman Communist Party.[2] He was responsible for the slogan "Freiheit statt Sozialismus" (Freedom instead of Socialism) with which the CDU had great success in the 1976 elections.[1][2] In his eulogy, CDU/CSU parliamentary group leaderFriedrich Merz said of him, "Few have so clearly and categorically opposed the Left for decades".[6] He called for Germany to "come out of Hitler's shadow".[7]
He resisted criticism of the Wehrmacht, strongly opposing a travelling exhibition calledDie Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 - 1944 (The Crimes of the Wehrmacht, 1941–1944)[2] and writing to United States Senators that if they discouragedRonald Reagan fromhis presidential visit to the Bitburg military cemetery, he would "consider this to be an insult to my brother and my comrades who were killed in action."[8] He saw himself as a defender of Germany and the last representative of the war generation in the Bundestag.[9]
Alfred Dregger was married and had two sons; his elder son was killed in an accident in 1972.[1]
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