Rau was a member of theAll-German People's Party (GVP), which was founded byGustav Heinemann. The party was known for proposing German reunification from 1952 until it was disbanded in 1957.
In 1958, the pacifist[1] Rau and his political mentor,Gustav Heinemann, joined theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), where he was active in the Wuppertal chapter. He served as deputy chairman of the SPD party of Wuppertal and was elected later on to the City Council (1964–1978), where he served as chairman of the SPD Group (1964–1967) and later as Mayor (1969–1970).
In July 1958, Rau waselected for the first time as member of theLandtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. In 1967, he became chairman of the SPD fraction in the Landtag, and from 1970 to 1975, he was Minister of Science and Education in the second cabinet of Minister PresidentHeinz Kühn. He soon gained a reputation as a reformer. As part of the mass education campaign of the 1970s, he founded five universities, each at different sites, in North Rhine-Westphalia and initiated Germany's firstdistance learning university atHagen (modelled on the BritishOpen University).
In 1977, Rau became Chairman of theSPD North Rhine-Westphalia and, in 1978, Minister President of the state, which he remained until 1998, with four successful elections for the SPD, which became strongest party in the Landtag each time and gained an absolute majority three times, in1980,1985,1990 and finally1995. From 1995 onwards, Rau led an SPD-Greens coalition in North Rhine-Westphalia. Rau twice served asPresident of theBundesrat in 1982/83 and 1994/95.
Rau had a long history of heart disease and died 11 days after his 75th birthday on 27 January 2006. The funeral took place on 7 February following a funeral act of state on theDorotheenstadt cemetery in Berlin in the closest of family and friends.
The maxim of Rau was "to reconcile, not divide".[6]
As his personal motto, Rau adopted theConfessing Church dictum "teneo, quia teneor" (I hold because I am held).
In his acceptance speech after his election, Rau claimed "I never want to be a nationalist but rather a patriot. A patriot is someone who loves his fatherland. A nationalist is someone who condemns the fatherland of others."[7] The quote can be attributed to the French writerRomain Gary.[8]
Rau was known as a practising Christian (sometimes known asBruder Johannes, "Brother John", in ridicule of his intense Christian position.[6] He held lay positions in and was a member of theSynod of theEvangelical Church in the Rhineland, a member church of theProtestant Church in Germany.
On 9 August 1982, Rau married the political scientist Christina Delius (born 1956).Christina Rau is a granddaughter of her husband's mentor,Gustav Heinemann, formerPresident of Germany. The couple had three children: Anna Christina, born 1983, Philip Immanuel, born 1985 and Laura Helene, born 1986.
On 18 August 2004, Rau had to undergo serious heart surgery, in which anartificial heart valve was inserted. Only two months later (19 October 2004), ahematoma in theabdominal cavity was surgically removed.
After leaving office, Rau lived with his family in the federal capital, Berlin. However, they also kept a house inWuppertal.
^Icelandic Presidency Website (Icelandic), Order of the Falcon,Johannes & Christina RauArchived 1 November 2013 at theWayback Machine, 1 July 2003, Grand Cross with Collar & Grand Cross respectively
^Slovak republic website,State honours: 1st Class in 2001 (click on "Holders of the Order of the 1st Class White Double Cross" to see the holders' table)
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