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Hans Apel | |
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| Federal Minister of Defence (West Germany) | |
| In office 16 February 1978 – 1 October 1982 | |
| Chancellor | Helmut Schmidt |
| Preceded by | Georg Leber |
| Succeeded by | Manfred Wörner |
| Federal Minister of Finance (West Germany) | |
| In office 16 May 1974 – 16 February 1978 | |
| Chancellor | Helmut Schmidt |
| Preceded by | Helmut Schmidt |
| Succeeded by | Hans Matthöfer |
| ParliamentaryState Secretary in theGerman Foreign Office (West Germany) | |
| In office 15 December 1972 – 16 May 1974 | |
| Chancellor | Willy Brandt |
| Minister | Walter Scheel |
| Succeeded by | Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski |
| Deputy Chairman of theSPD Parliamentary Group in theBundestag (West Germany) | |
| In office 28 September 1969 – 19 November 1972 | |
| In office 6 March 1983 – 5 September 1988 | |
| Member of the GermanBundestag | |
| In office 19 October 1965 – 20 December 1990 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 February 1932 Hamburg, Germany |
| Died | 6 September 2011(2011-09-06) (aged 79) Hamburg, Germany |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party (1955–until his death) |
| Alma mater | University of Hamburg |
Hans Eberhard Apel (25 February 1932 – 6 September 2011) was a German politician and a member of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD). From 1972 to 1974 he was Parliamentary State Secretary to theForeign Minister. From 1974 to 1978 he was theMinister of Finance and from 1978 to 1982 he was theMinister of Defence.[1][2]
After completing hisAbitur (roughly equivalent to graduating high school, A-Level exam) in 1954 inHamburg, Apel served an apprenticeship as an import and export businessman, in Hamburg. After completing his apprenticeship, Apel went to university, where he studied economics. In 1960, he was awarded adoctorate in Political Science. From 1958 to 1961, he was the Secretary of theSocialist Group in theEuropean Parliament.
In 1962, Apel became a civil servant at the European Parliament, where he served as Department Head responsible for Economics, Finance and Transport. In 1993, he was appointed an honorary professor of economics at theUniversity of Rostock.
Hans and Ingrid Apel married in 1956; they had two daughters.
Apel joined the SPD in 1955. From 1970 to 1988, he was a member of the National Executive (Bundesvorstand) of the SPD, and from 1986 to 1988 he was also a member of the executive board (Präsidium).From 1965 to 1990, Apel was a member of the GermanBundestag, representingHamburg-Nord. In 1969, he was deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group and again in 1983, after the new elections, until 1988.[3]
In 1972, Apel was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary for European Questions at the German Foreign Office. In 1974, he was appointed Finance Minister in the government ofHelmut Schmidt.[4] After thecabinet reshuffle of 1978, he was put in charge of the Ministry of Defense.[4]
He left government on 1 October 1982, afterHelmut Kohl becameChancellor. In 1985, Apel ran as the top candidate for the SPD inBerlin, which implied standing asMayor of Berlin, but lost to theCDU candidateEberhard Diepgen.[5]
Apel spent his later years speaking about religion. In 2004, he was awarded theWalter Künneth Prize by the "Kirchliche Sammlung um Bibel und Bekenntnis in Bayern" (the Ecclesiastical Assembly for theBible and Commitment in Bavaria), a conservativeLutheran organization. The prize, named after the Germantheologian,Walter Künneth, was awarded principally for Apel's bookVolkskirche ohne Volk (People's Church without a People), in which he criticizes the "rampant modernism" of the Evangelical Church; he left theNorth Elbian Evangelical Church and joined theIndependent Evangelical-Lutheran Church.[citation needed]
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Federal Minister of Defence (Germany) 1978–82 | Succeeded by |
