Bruno Menzel | |
|---|---|
 Menzel in 1990 | |
| Member of theBundestag forSaxony-Anhalt | |
| In office 20 December 1990 – 10 November 1994 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Uwe Lühr |
| Chairman of the Free Democratic Party of the GDR | |
| In office 4 February 1990 – 11 August 1990 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished Otto Graf Lambsdorff(asFederal Chairman of the FDP) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Bruno Menzel (1932-02-25)25 February 1932 |
| Died | 14 September 1996(1996-09-14) (aged 64) Dessau,Saxony-Anhalt, Germany |
| Political party | Free Democratic Party (1990–1996) |
| Other political affiliations | Free Democratic Party of the GDR (1990) |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation |
|
Bruno Menzel (25 February 1932 – 14 September 1996) was a German politician of theFree Democratic Party (FDP).
Aphysician by trade, Menzel became politically active during thePeaceful Revolution, co-founding theFree Democratic Party of the GDR and serving as their only leader until the merger with theWest GermanFDP. He afterward was elected to theBundestag, retiring in 1994 and dying soon thereafter.
After passing hisAbitur in 1950, Menzel began studyingmedicine at theUniversity of Halle, completing his state exam and doctorate in medicine (Dr. med.) in 1956.[1]
He trained as a specialist ininternal medicine until 1961, and also trained as a subspecialist ininfectious diseases andtropical medicine.[1] He then became head of the 3rd medical clinic at the district hospital inDessau and later served as the leading chief physician there.[1][2]
The Society for Infectious and Tropical Medicine elected him as its deputy chair; he also served as chairman of the local chapter of theGerman Red Cross in the GDR.[1]
Menzel became politically active during thePeaceful Revolution in the GDR. In January 1990, he was one of the co-founders of theCommittee for the Formation of a Free Democratic Party in the GDR,[1][3] and in the following month, he was elected chairman at the party's founding convention in wealthyBerlin-Weißensee.[1][2][3][4][5][excessive citations] He was the favored candidate of the West German FDP leadership because he was not as opposed to a possible merger with a renewedLDPD as the East Berlin founding circle.[4]
Shortly afterward, he led the party into anelectoral alliance with the now renamed LDP and theGerman Forum Party calledAssociation of Free Democrats (German:Bund Freier Demokraten) (BFD) for theVolkskammer election in March.[1][3][4][5]
The party struggled, it had low membership and it was hardly possible to build up its own structures. Even the West German FDP paid more attention to the formerbloc party LDP with its over 100,000 members.[3][5][6]
The BFD ultimately elected 21 members to theVolkskammer,[3] including, initially, only 4 GDR-FDP members. Menzel himself was elected to the Volkskammer forBezirk Halle, being the first-placed candidate on the BFD list. However, he resigned from his mandate before the first session to focus more on party work. He was replaced by LDP member Gerry Kley.
After merging with the West German FDP into the unified FDP in August 1990,[3][4][5] Menzel became their deputy chairman, a position he held until 1992. He was re-elected as a member of the federal board at the party congresses in 1993 and 1995.[1][2]
In the1990 federal election, he was elected to parliament via the state list ofSaxony-Anhalt. There, he served as deputy chairman of the FDP parliamentary group.[1][2] From 1990 to 1994, Menzel also served as German representative in theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe[7] and in the Assembly of the Western European Union.[citation needed]
In 1992, Menzel became deputy chairman of the FDP in Saxony-Anhalt. When embattled chairman Peter Kunert resigned after the disastrous results of theJune 1994 state election, Menzel, who himself would not be re-elected to the Bundestag in the1994 federal election, took over as acting leader until the party electedCornelia Pieper in early 1995.[2]
Menzel died in 1996 at the age of 64.[2]
Media related toBruno Menzel at Wikimedia Commons