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Otto Graf Lambsdorff | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Lambsdorff in 1978 | |
| Federal Minister of Economics | |
| In office 7 October 1977 – 17 September 1982 | |
| Preceded by | Hans Friderichs |
| Succeeded by | Manfred Lahnstein |
| In office 4 October 1982 – 24 June 1984 | |
| Preceded by | Manfred Lahnstein |
| Succeeded by | Martin Bangemann |
| Chairman of the FDP | |
| In office 1988–1993 | |
| Preceded by | Martin Bangemann |
| Succeeded by | Klaus Kinkel |
| Member of theBundestag | |
| In office 13 December 1972 – 26 October 1998 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Otto Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von der Wenge Graf Lambsdorff (1926-12-20)20 December 1926 |
| Died | 5 December 2009(2009-12-05) (aged 82) Bonn, Germany |
| Political party | FDP |
| Spouse(s) | Renate Lepper (1953–1975) Alexandra von Quistorp (1975–2009) |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | University of Bonn University of Cologne |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Otto Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr[1] von der Wenge Graf[2] Lambsdorff, known asOtto Graf Lambsdorff (20 December 1926 – 5 December 2009), was a German politician of theFree Democratic Party (FDP). He was theGerman Federal Minister of Economics from 1977 to 1984, when he resigned due to corruption allegations.
Lambsdorff was born inAachen (Rhineland) to Herbert Graf Lambsdorff and Eva,née Schmidt. He attended school inBerlin andBrandenburg an der Havel and became an officer cadet in theWehrmacht in 1944. In April 1945 he was severely wounded in an Alliedstrafing attack and lost his lower left leg. Lambsdorff was a prisoner of war until 1946. AfterWorld War II he passed hisAbitur and studied law at the Universities ofBonn andCologne where he obtained a PhD.
In 1951, Lambsdorff became a member of the liberal FDP, and from 1972 to 1998 he represented this party in the Federal parliament, theBundestag.[3]
Within and outside his party he was known as a representative of themarket liberals; a mocking name wasder Marktgraf ("the market count", a play onMarkgraf, "margrave").
WhenChancellorWilly Brandt made way forHelmut Schmidt in 1977, Lambsdorff was appointedWest German Federal Minister of Economics in the new government and served from 1977 until 1982. He held the same office again from 1982 until 1984 in the government ofChancellorHelmut Kohl after his party pulled out of the coalition with the Social Democratic Party to form a new Government with Kohl's Christian Democratic Union.
In 1987, Lambsdorff became the first West German cabinet minister to be indicted while in office[4] when he was forced to resign over allegations of corruption in the so-calledFlick Affair. By January 1987, however, the prosecutor asked the court to acquit Lambsdorff of all corruption charges, including charges he accepted $50,000 between 1977 and 1980 from the Flick concern in return for granting lucrative tax waivers.[5] On 16 February 1987, he was convicted by the Bonn State Court on lesser charges, namely tax evasion on donations to political parties.[4][6][7] During the 18-month trial, he won re-election to Parliament and served as his parliamentary group's spokesman on economic matters.[8]
Lambsdorff served as chairman of the FDP from 1988 until 1993.[9][10]
In 1991, during the Persian Gulf war, Lambsdorff joined American officials in voicing anger at the German government, accusing it of moving slowly to prevent some German companies from supplying Iraq with arms and poison gas plants.[11]
FollowingHans-Dietrich Genscher's resignation, Lambsdorff and ChancellorHelmut Kohl namedIrmgard Schwaetzer, a former aide to Genscher, to be the new Foreign Minister. In a surprise decision, however, a majority of the FDP parliamentary group rejected her nomination and voted instead to name Justice MinisterKlaus Kinkel to head the Foreign Ministry.[12]
After resigning from active politics, Lambsdorff remained an advocate of free markets, becoming an active figure in the DSW shareholder action group, and regularly warned about the dangers of growing bureaucracy and tax burdens.[13] From 1993 until 2008, he served on the supervisory board ofLufthansa.[14]
In 1999 Lambsdorff was appointed as the federal envoy to the negotiations for the compensation of the victims offorced labor in Germany during World War II by ChancellorGerhard Schröder, which led to the establishment of theFoundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future".[15]
He also served as a member of the scientific advisory board of theCentre Against Expulsions[16] and a jury member of theFranz Werfel Human Rights Award.
Lambsdorff was honorary president of theLiberal International.[17] In this capacity, he personally delivered theWorld Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award toKenyan human rights activistGitobu Imanyara in 1992, who was banned by his country's authorities from leaving the country.[18]
The pro-businessFree Democratic Party (FDP) had been in coalition with thesocial democraticSPD, but changed direction in the early 1980s.[19] Lambsdorff led the FDP to adopt the market-oriented "Kiel Theses" in 1977; it rejected the Keynesian emphasis on consumer demand, and proposed to reduce social welfare spending, and try to introduce policies to stimulate production and facilitate jobs. Lambsdorff argued that the result would be economic growth, which would itself solve both the social problems and the financial problems. As a consequence switched allegiance to the CDU, and Schmidt lost his parliamentary majority in 1982. For the only time in West Germany's history, the government fell on a vote of no confidence.[20]
The Lambsdorff family is of oldWestphalian aristocratic descent, but settled for centuries in theBaltic countries[9] and was hence closely connected toTsarist and Imperial Russia (seeBaltic Germans). Lambsdorff's father served as a tsarist cadet inSt. Petersburg and the former Russian foreign ministerVladimir Lambsdorff was one of his relatives.[21]
Between 2004 and 2017, his nephewAlexander Graf Lambsdorff represented the FDP in theEuropean Parliament. He has been a member of the Bundestag since September 2017.
Lambsdorff married Renate Lepper in 1953; they had two daughters and a son. He was married to Alexandra von Quistorp from 1975 until his death on 5 December 2009. He is buried at theStahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery near Berlin. He is survived by all three children.
Regarding personal names:Graf was a title before 1919, but now is regarded as part of the surname. It is translated asCount. Before the August 1919 abolition of nobility as a legal class, titles preceded the full name when given (Graf Helmuth James von Moltke). Since 1919, these titles, along with any nobiliary prefix (von,zu, etc.), can be used, but are regarded as a dependent part of the surname, and thus come after any given names (Helmuth James Graf von Moltke). Titles and all dependent parts of surnames are ignored in alphabetical sorting. The feminine form isGräfin.
Media related toOtto Graf Lambsdorff at Wikimedia Commons| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of theLiberal International 1992–1994 | Succeeded by |
| Civic offices | ||
| Preceded by | European Group Chairman of theTrilateral Commission 1992–2001 | Succeeded by |
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