Philipp Jenninger | |
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.jpg) Jenninger in 1987 | |
| President of the Bundestag West Germany | |
| In office 5 November 1984 – 11 November 1988 | |
| Preceded by | Rainer Barzel |
| Succeeded by | Rita Süssmuth |
| German Ambassador toAustria | |
| In office 1991–1995 | |
| German Ambassador to theHoly See | |
| In office 1995–1997 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1932-06-10)10 June 1932 |
| Died | 4 January 2018(2018-01-04) (aged 85) |
| Political party | CDU |
Philipp Jenninger (10 June 1932 – 4 January 2018) was aGerman politician of theChristian Democratic Union and diplomat. He was the ninthpresident of the Bundestag from 1984 to 1988. He also served as Member of the German Parliament, theBundestag (1969–1990),Minister of State at theGerman Chancellery (1982–1984), German Ambassador toAustria (1991–1995) and German Ambassador to theHoly See (1995–1997).
Phillipp Jenninger, whose full name is Philipp-Hariolf Jenninger, was born in 1932 in Rindelbach, now a part ofEllwangen. He studied law at theUniversity of Tübingen, obtaining a doctoral degree in 1957 with a dissertation titledDie Reformbedürftigkeit des Bundesverfassungsgerichts (The necessity of reform of the Federal Constitutional Court) and passing the state examination in 1959. In 1960, he started working in theBundeswehr administration inStuttgart. He became an assistant in theFederal Ministry of Defense and later personal assistant and press contact ofFederal Minister for the Affairs of the Defence Council [de]Heinrich Krone. After the dissolution of this ministry, he worked from 1966 to 1969 as political assistant ofFederal Minister of FinanceFranz Josef Strauß.
Between 1982 and 1984, Jenninger served asMinister of State at theGerman Chancellery, under ChancellorHelmut Kohl.
Jenninger was a member of theBundestag from 1969 to 1990, always as directly elected representative of a constituency. At first, he representedCrailsheim [de]; after 1976, he representedSchwäbisch Hall.
AfterRainer Barzel's resignation, Jenninger was electedPresident of the Bundestag on 5 November 1984. As President, he made a controversial speech in a special session on 10 November 1988 commemorating the 50th anniversary ofKristallnacht.[1] Jenninger tried to explain the reasons behind German enthusiasm forNational Socialism in the 1930s. His speech was presented badly (by his own later admission), as his way of speaking allowed the interpretation that Jenninger didn't sufficiently dissociate himself from the Nazi ideas he referred to, making it hard to distinguish what were his own ideas and what were the "fascinating" (as Jenninger said) Nazi ideas he was just reporting.[2] More than 50 members of parliament walked out during their President's speech in protest.[3] This caused a political storm, and Jenninger resigned his Bundestag presidency on 11 November. He did not stand for reelection as a Bundestag member in the1990 elections. One year after the incident,Jewish community leaderIgnatz Bubis, who later became chairman of theCentral Council of Jews in Germany, used several passages of Jenninger's speech verbatim (although he didn't use the word "fascinating"), demonstrating that the content of Jenninger's speech had not been ambiguous, just his performance of it.[4]
Jenninger served asGerman ambassador toVienna,Austria from 1991 to 1995, and as ambassador to theHoly See from 1995 to 1997.
Philipp Jenninger was President of theEuropean Movement in Germany from 1985 to 1990, and has since been their honorary President. He was a member of the presidium ofStudienzentrum Weikersheim.
Jenninger died on 4 January 2018 in Stuttgart, aged 85.[5][6]
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