Ernst Albrecht | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Albrecht in 1988 | |
| Minister-President of Lower Saxony | |
| In office 6 February 1976 – 21 June 1990 | |
| Deputy | Wilfried Hasselmann Rötger Groß Wilfried Hasselmann Josef Stock |
| Preceded by | Alfred Kubel |
| Succeeded by | Gerhard Schröder |
| President of the Bundesrat | |
| In office 1 November 1985 – 31 October 1986 | |
| First Vice President | Lothar Späth |
| Preceded by | Lothar Späth |
| Succeeded by | Holger Börner |
| Director-General of theDirectorate-General for Competition | |
| In office 1967–1970 | |
| Member of the Landtag of Lower Saxony | |
| In office 22 June 1982 – 21 June 1990 | |
| Preceded by | Hans-Jürgen Mellentin |
| Succeeded by | Lutz von der Heide |
| Constituency | Burgdorf |
| In office 10 July 1974 – 22 June 1982 | |
| Preceded by | Werner Evers |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Constituency | Wietze |
| In office 20 June 1970 – 10 July 1974 | |
| Preceded by | multi-member district |
| Succeeded by | multi-member district |
| Constituency | Christian Democratic Union List |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ernst Carl Julius Albrecht (1930-06-29)29 June 1930 |
| Died | 13 December 2014(2014-12-13) (aged 84) Burgdorf-Beinhorn,Lower Saxony, Germany |
| Party | Christian Democratic Union |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 7, includingUrsula andHans-Holger |
| Parent |
|
| Relatives | Albrecht family |
| Residence | Burgdorf-Beinhorn |
| Alma mater | University of Tübingen University of Bonn |
| Occupation |
|
Ernst Carl Julius Albrecht (29 June 1930[1] – 13 December 2014) was a German politician of theChristian Democratic Union and a former high-rankingEuropean civil servant. He was one of the first European civil servants appointed in 1958 and served as director-general of theDirectorate-General for Competition from 1967 to 1970. He served asMinister President of thestate ofLower Saxony from 1976 to 1990. He was the father of the politicianUrsula von der Leyen, thePresident of the European Commission.
Ernst Albrecht was born inHeidelberg, the son of the psychologist, psychotherapist and medical doctorCarl Albrecht, who was known for developing a new method ofmeditation; theAlbrecht family had been among thehübsche ("genteel") families of theElectorate of Hanover as doctors, jurists and civil servants since the 17th century, but his immediate ancestors had been wealthy cotton merchants inBremen and members of the city-state'sHanseatic elite in the 19th and 20th centuries. His grandmother Mary Ladson Robertson was an American of prominentplanter class origin fromCharleston, South Carolina, and a descendant ofJames H. Ladson and several colonial governors.[2]
Ernst Albrecht studied law and economics. In 1958 he moved toBrussels where he became one of the firstEuropean civil servants. He initially served as theChef de Cabinet to the European Commissioner for CompetitionHans von der Groeben in theHallstein Commission, and in 1967, at the age of 37, he became the Director-General of theDirectorate-General for Competition.
Albrecht entered politics in his native Germany when he was elected to theLower Saxon Landtag (parliament) in 1970, and moved to Hanover with his family the following year. From 1971 to 1976, he was member of the management board ofBahlsen.[3]
WhenAlfred Kubel resigned from the office ofState Premier in 1976, Albrecht was unexpectedly elected as his successor. Since he received three more votes than his party had representatives in the Legislative Assembly, some members of the governing coalitionSPD andFDP must have secretly voted for him. He was re-elected in state parliament elections in 1978, 1982 and 1986. In 1976, Albrecht made Hans Puvogel his minister of justice. During his tenure, Puvogel was particularly active in combatting notions of more liberal penal and rehabilitation systems. He had already set out justification for his stance in a 1935-1936 doctoral thesis. There, he wrote of the “inheritance of criminal tendencies”, of “constitutionally predisposed criminals” and “inferior people”, who would have to be “eliminated from the community”. “Only a person of value to the race” would have “a right to exist within the national community”.
The state government under Ernst Albrecht used every opportunity to court former Nazis. In a 1978 speech, Deputy Premier Wilfried Hasselmann (CDU) greeted the Association of Knight's Cross Recipients, a league of former Wehrmacht (Hitler's army) officers and SS men, certifying that they had “shown courage and given an example to others”. Hasselmann declared he was “deeply impressed by the solidarity of your order. You have fulfilled your duty as soldiers in an exemplary manner. This will continue to be evident to a younger generation”.[4]
Albrecht is known for the decision to make the County ofLüchow-Dannenberg the state's "nuclear district" where the radioactive waste dump atGorleben was realized. During his tenure Albrecht was embroiled in an unusually large number of political scandals; most famously, thefalse flag operation ″Celle Hole″ by thefederal intelligence agency and the special forcesGSG 9 to lay blame on the militant left-wingRed Army Faction.
In 1980, Albrecht launched a campaign for election asChancellor, but he lost out to fellow conservativeFranz-Josef Strauß. Albrecht did not contest the1990 state elections. Instead, then-President of the Bundestag andGöttingenMember of the German BundestagRita Süssmuth was lead candidate. They had an agreement whereby, if re-elected, Albrecht would continue as Minister-President until 1992, then Süssmuth would take over. Süssmuth lost the 1990 state elections toGerhard Schröder, who later became Chancellor.
Albrecht married Heidi Adele Stromeyer (1928–2002) in 1953. They had seven children, among them politicianUrsula von der Leyen andHans-Holger Albrecht, President & CEO of the international telecom and media groupDeezer. A daughter died at age 11 and one son at age 49 of cancer.
His brother wasGeorge Alexander Albrecht, a conductor. Ernst Albrecht hadAlzheimer's disease since 2003,[5] which was announced to the public in 2008. He died at the age of 84 inBurgdorf in December 2014.[6]
| Ancestors of Ernst Albrecht (politician, born 1930) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Lower Saxony 1976–1990 | Succeeded by |
 | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
