Joschka Fischer | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Fischer in 2018 | |
| Vice Chancellor of Germany | |
| In office 27 October 1998 – 22 November 2005 | |
| President | Roman Herzog Johannes Rau Horst Köhler |
| Chancellor | Gerhard Schröder |
| Preceded by | Klaus Kinkel |
| Succeeded by | Franz Müntefering |
| Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 27 October 1998 – 22 November 2005 | |
| Chancellor | Gerhard Schröder |
| Preceded by | Klaus Kinkel |
| Succeeded by | Frank-Walter Steinmeier |
| Member of theBundestag forHesse | |
| In office 16 October 1994 – 1 September 2006 | |
| Constituency | Alliance 90/The Greens List |
| In office 6 March 1983 – 31 March 1985 | |
| Preceded by | The Greens List |
| Deputy Minister President of Hesse | |
| In office 5 April 1991 – 5 October 1994 | |
| Prime Minister | Hans Eichel |
| Preceded by | Wolfgang Gerhardt |
| Succeeded by | Rupert von Plottnitz |
| Hessian Minister of Environment and Energy | |
| In office 12 December 1985 – 9 February 1987 | |
| Prime Minister | Holger Börner |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Armin Clauss(Acting) |
| In office 5 April 1991 – 5 October 1994 | |
| Prime Minister | Hans Eichel |
| Preceded by | Karlheinz Weimar |
| Succeeded by | Rupert von Plottnitz |
| Hessian Minister of Federal Affairs | |
| In office 5 April 1991 – 5 October 1994 | |
| Prime Minister | Hans Eichel |
| Preceded by | Wolfgang Gerhardt(Agent of Federal Affairs) |
| Succeeded by | Rupert von Plottnitz |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Joseph Martin Fischer (1948-04-12)12 April 1948 (age 77) |
| Political party | Alliance 90/The Greens |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
Joseph Martin "Joschka"Fischer (born 12 April 1948) is a German former politician of theAlliance 90/The Greens party. He served as theforeign minister and as thevice chancellor of Germany in the cabinet ofGerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. Fischer has been a leading figure in the German Greens since the 1970s, and according to opinion polls,[1] he was the most popular politician in Germany for most of the Schröder government's duration. Following theSeptember 2005 election, in which the Schröder government was defeated, he left office on 22 November 2005. In September 2010, he supported the creation of theSpinelli Group, a Europarliamentarian initiative founded with a view to reinvigorate efforts to federalise the European Union.
Joseph Martin Fischer was born inGerabronn inWürttemberg-Baden, 12 April 1948. He was the third child of a butcher, whose family had lived inBudakeszi,Hungary, for several generations. Fischer's family had to leave Hungary in 1946 after it was occupied by theSoviet Union, andethnic Germans were persecuted and expelled by the authorities. His nicknameJoschka is derived from the HungarianJóska, diminutive of Joseph (HungarianJózsef). He was brought up Catholic and served in his childhood as an altar boy in his parish inOeffingen.[2] Fischer dropped out of high school in 1965, and started an apprenticeship as a photographer, which he quit in 1966. Because Fischer never gained a school-leaving certificate, he never attended a university or a college. He neither did compulsory military service nor the alternative civilian service for conscientious objectors, because he failed his physical examination due to poor eyesight.[3]
In 1967, he became active in theWest German student movement andleft-wing movement (post-) 1968 (the so-calledSpontis), first inStuttgart and after 1968 inFrankfurt am Main. For his regular income, Fischer took several low-wage jobs, such as working in a left-wing bookstore in Frankfurt. During this period, he began attending university events, including lectures organized by left-wing revolutionary students byTheodor W. Adorno,Jürgen Habermas andOskar Negt.[4] He studied the works ofMarx,Mao andHegel and became a member of the militant groupRevolutionärer Kampf (Revolutionary Struggle). Fischer was a leader in several street battles involving the radicalPutzgruppe (literally "cleaning squad", with the first syllable being anacronym forProletarische Union für Terror und Zerstörung, "Proletarian Union for Terror and Destruction"), which attacked a number of police officers. Photos of one such brawl in March 1973, which were later to haunt Fischer, show him clubbing policeman Rainer Marx,[5] to whom he later publicly apologized.
Fischer is a close friend ofDaniel Cohn-Bendit, whom he met during that time. In 1969, Fischer was photographed in Algeria at a meeting of the PLO,[6] which remained a terrorist organization until 1988. In 1971, he began working for the car manufacturerOpel and attempted to organise his fellow workers for the coming communist revolution. (This was not organising on behalf of a regular labour union: the vast majority of Opel's workers had already been organised for decades byIG Metall, the German metalworkers' union.) This resulted in his dismissal from the company after six months. Fischer then continued making a living with unskilled work while continuing his activism. He worked as a taxi driver from 1976 to 1981 and later in a bookstore in Frankfurt.
In theDeutscher Herbst (German autumn) of 1977, West Germany was rattled by a series of left-wingterrorist attacks by theRed Army Faction (RAF) andRevolutionary Cells (RZ). According to Fischer's own account, witnessing these events, particularly the kidnapping and murder ofHanns-Martin Schleyer and theEntebbe hijacking,[7][8] made him renounce violence as a means for political change. Instead, he became involved in thenew social movements and later in the newly foundedGreen Party, mainly in the state ofHesse.
In May 1981, the Hessian Secretary of CommerceHeinz-Herbert Karry was murdered with a firearm that in 1973 had been transported in Fischer's car, along with other weapons stolen from an American army base.[9] Fischer maintained he had given the car to the later terroristHans-Joachim Klein solely for the purpose of having Klein fit it with a new engine. Only later had Fischer learned that his car had been used to transport stolen weapons.[citation needed]
As Foreign Minister, Fischer apologised for the violence of hisPutzgruppe days, without disassociating himself from the radical movement. Some critics continue to charge that Fischer was the leading figure of a 1976 discussion that led to the use ofMolotov cocktails in an upcoming demonstration in support of RAF memberUlrike Meinhof. Fischer was arrested on 14 May 1976 as a suspect in the Molotov cocktail attacks on police, but was released after two days. Fischer stated that he never used Molotov cocktails against the police. The firebombing of policemanJürgen Weber's police car left Weber with burns over 60% of his body.[5]
From 1983 to 1985, Fischer was a member of theBundestag for the Green party. His stint in federal parliament saw him frequently engage in a frank and confrontational debating style, exemplified by an incident on 18 October 1984, when he addressedRichard Stücklen, then vice president of the parliament, with the words: "If I may say so, Mr. President, you are an asshole" (German: "Mit Verlaub, Herr Präsident, Sie sind ein Arschloch."). In 1985, Fischer became Minister for the Environment in theLandtag of Hesse in the first governmentalRed-Green coalition between theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Greens. Fischer caused a stir when he appeared at his oath of office ceremony wearingtrainers. These trainers are now part of the shoe collection at theGerman Leather and Shoe Museum inOffenbach, Hesse.
Fischer also expressed his thoughts very frankly in the periodical of the Hessian Green party "Stichwort Grün". In the edition of October 1989—one month before the fall of the Berlin Wall—he penned an article with the heading: "Der Wiedervereinigung die Schnauze verbieten!" (Shutting up the re-unification!)[citation needed]
Fischer was again environment minister in Hessen from 1991 to 1994 and then became co-chairman of the Greens' parliamentary faction in the Bundestag. Fischer was respected for his oratory skills, as well as for his charisma on the political stage. For a large part of the 1990s, with the social democrats languishing in the opinion polls, Fischer's admirers referred to him as the "real" leader of the opposition.[citation needed] He parlayed his clout into political success, as he moved the Greens to the centre ground of German politics, paving the way for their first participation in the nation's federal government.
In September 1998, the Social Democratic Party of Germany, led by Gerhard Schröder, defeated theChristian Democratic Union government ofHelmut Kohl. The SPD's 41% and the Greens' 7% of the vote set the two parties on a possible path to government through a coalition. Schröder stated his preference for a red-green coalition, as did an overwhelming majority of SPD members.[citation needed] After several weeks of negotiations, a SPD-Green government took power on 27 October 1998, with Fischer appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs. By 2005, he was the second longest-serving foreign minister in German postwar history (afterHans-Dietrich Genscher).
In mid-April 1999, Germany came up with the first peace plan for the war in Kosovo, when Fischer produced a proposal, notably including Russia, that would have rewarded the beginning of a Yugoslav pullout from Kosovo with a bombing pause.[10] In May 1999, however, an antiwar protester flung a bag of red paint at Fischer during a party convention debatingNATO's airstrikes on Yugoslavia in the war over Kosovo; Fischer suffered a perforated eardrum.[11]
In an effort to make it easier for antiwar critics to back Schröder's decision to send GermanBundeswehr troops toAfghanistan in 2001, Fischer and Development MinisterHeidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul announced a 256 million marks ($115 million) humanitarian-aid package for Afghan refugees.[12] In late 2001, Fischer hosted – under the auspices of theUnited Nations – a ten-day conference at the Germangovernment guesthouse above the Rhine River, where delegates from four Afghan factions signed theBonn Agreement establishing a transitional government for the country to replace the deposedTaliban regime.[13] At the time, Germany's longstanding links to Afghanistan and its 2001 chairmanship of the Afghanistan Support Group (consisting of countries pledging humanitarian and reconstruction aid for Afghanistan) were the reasons it was picked to host the meeting.[14]
In September 2001, Fischer summoned Ahmad Azizi, the Iranian ambassador to Germany, for urgent talks after several reformist intellectuals – includingAkbar Ganji,Mehrangiz Kar andEzzatollah Sahabi – were given prison sentences of between four and 10 years for participating in a2000 academic and cultural conference sponsored by theHeinrich Böll Foundation inBerlin in late 2000.[15]
In 2005, critics charged that Fischer's relaxing of controls on visa regulations forUkraine, would allow illegal immigrants to enter Germany with fake identities.[16] A parliamentary committee was established to examine the case, and unlike in other such committee hearings, Fischer's statement (and that of other top officials) was shown live on public television. Fischer's appearance before the committee lasted twelve hours. (SeeGerman Visa Affair 2005).
Fischer represented the German government at the funeral services forForeign MinisterAnna Lindh ofSweden on 19 September 2003 inStockholm;PopeJohn Paul II on 8 April 2005 inRome; and formerUK Foreign SecretaryRobin Cook on 12 August 2005 inEdinburgh.[17]
After the defeat of the coalition government in the2005 election, Fischer announced that he would retire to the backbench. "After 20 years of power, now I want my freedom back", Fischer said.[18] On 13 October 2005, it was announced thatFrank-Walter Steinmeier of the SPD would succeed Fischer as foreign minister.
In 1999, Fischer supported German military participation in theKosovo War. This proved to be a highly controversial position since Fischer's plan not only clashed with the largelypacifist philosophy of The Greens, but because it also supported for the first time sinceWorld War II active participation of German soldiers in combat. Fischer justified this military involvement with allegations thatSerbia was planning to commitgenocide against the KosovoAlbanians.
Fischer represented the German government at the funeral services forPrime MinisterZoran Đinđić ofSerbia on 16 March 2003 (alongside Development MinisterHeidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul)[19] andPresidentBoris Trajkovski ofMacedonia on 5 March 2004 inSkopje.
On fundamental issues like theInternational Criminal Court, theKyoto Protocol, and the crisis in the Middle East, Fischer was openly differing with theBush administration.[20]
In 1999, both Fischer and Justice MinisterHerta Däubler-Gmelin appealed forclemency for theLaGrand brothers, two German citizens sentenced to death inArizona. According to the German government, the LaGrands had been denied their rights as German citizens because prosecutors did not inform the German consulate of the brothers' arrest in 1982 until a decade later. However, both were put to death, one in a cloud ofcyanide gas.[21] In response, the European Union submitted an anti-death-penalty resolution to theUnited Nations Commission on Human Rights.[22]
Although Fischer was in favour of stationing German troops inAfghanistan, he advised chancellor Schröder not to join the war inIraq. Fischer famously confrontedUnited States Defense SecretaryDonald Rumsfeld at the 39thMunich Security Conference in 2003 on the secretary's purported evidence for Iraq's possession ofweapons of mass destruction ("Excuse me, I am not convinced").
Fischer has been criticized for attending a 1969 conference of thePalestine Liberation Organization, wherePalestinian leaderYasser Arafat called for an all-out war onIsrael "until the end".[23]
During their time in government, both Fischer and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder were widely considered sincerely, if not uncritically, pro-Israeli.[24] In 1999, Fischer led a delegation includingEuropean CommissionerManuel Marín and the European Union's Special Envoy to the Middle EastMiguel Ángel Moratinos on a visit to Jerusalem and thePalestinian territories, but also to a range of other countries which have a crucial role in the peace process, including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.[25] By 2001, he emerged as a pivotal figure in the hopes for theIsraeli–Palestinian peace process, in part because he helped bring about a lull in the violence after theDolphinarium discotheque massacre in June 2001. His intervention led to an announced cease-fire arranged byGeorge Tenet, theUnited States Director of Central Intelligence; Fischer had been in Tel Aviv at the time of the blast.[26] Fischer later brokered a meeting between Arafat and the Israeli foreign minister,Shimon Peres, to discuss how to implement the cease-fire.[27]
In July 2002, Fischer presented a proposal that called for Arafat to appoint an interim prime minister. After the vote, the proposal said, elected officials could continue democratic reforms leading to a provisional Palestinian state by the end of 2003 and to final borders by 2005.[28] He represented the German government at the funeral services for Arafat on 12 November 2004 inCairo and at the inauguration of the new Holocaust Memorial Museum atYad Vashem in March 2005.[29]
In May 2000, Fischer proposed the creation of aEuropean federation with a directly elected president and parliament sharing real executive and legislative powers. Fischer proposed the eventual enactment of a constitutional treaty that would set out which powers were to be shifted to the new European executive and parliament, and those that remained at national level.[30] In response,PresidentJacques Chirac of France urged Germany in June 2000 to join France in spearheading a core group of European Union countries that would move faster than others toward political and economic union.[31]
In October 2002, Fischer was appointed by the German government to theConvention on the Future of Europe, replacingPeter Glotz. Fischer had expressed a keen interest in taking part in the convention during the coalition talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder following the2002 elections.[32] In a paper jointly signed by Fischer and French Foreign MinisterDominique de Villepin, in November 2002, Germany and France pushed for amutual defence commitment to be part of the constitution.[33] In 2004, he was one of thesignatories to the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.
Fischer has long been critical of Russia, especially on human rights.[34] However, during his time as foreign minister, Germany's relations with Russia were primarily guided by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. In 2004, Fischer called on Ukraine to hold a recount of thepresidential elections after Putin-backed candidateViktor Yanukovich was the first to declare his victory despite mass protests in Kyiv.[35]
From September 2006 until 2007, Fischer was a senior fellow at theLiechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, and as a visiting professor co-taught withWolfgang F. Danspeckgruber atWoodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, both atPrinceton University. He has also spoken at other American universities on various topics in foreign affairs and international relations.
In addition, Fischer joined various non-governmental organizations, including:
On 15 September 2010 Fischer supported the new initiativeSpinelli Group, which was founded to reinvigorate efforts towards federalisation of the European Union (EU). Other prominent supporters are:Jacques Delors,Daniel Cohn-Bendit,Guy Verhofstadt,Andrew Duff,Elmar Brok.
Since 2008, Fischer has been Senior Strategic Counsel atAlbright Stonebridge Group, Washington, DC, consulting firm led byMadeleine Albright.[41] In this capacity, he advisedSiemens,BMW andDeutsche Börse.[42][43]
In 2009, Fischer took a post as adviser to theNabucco pipeline project, which involved the German RWE company. According to media reports, the "six-digit salary" consultancy contract had already been signed.[44]
Other for-profit activities include:
Prior to theGerman Visa Affair 2005, Fischer was a popular politician, "loved by an entire nation." Writing inDer Spiegel, journalist Charles Hawley opined that since 1998, "Joschka Fischer's popularity has been virtually unassailable: The icon of the environmentally minded Green Party could, it seemed, do no wrong. Indeed, Fischer was so popular in 2002 that Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder largely based his early election campaign on the fact that Fischer would remain at his side at the helm of Germany's political leadership."[50] As Germany's Foreign Minister, Fischer's popularity soared when he opposed theIraq War, and his very public struggle with his weight endeared him to many Germans.
Up until 1996, Fischer was a bon vivant, and often spoke openly about his love for good wines and food despite his "chunky" figure.[50] As he ascended to the Foreign Ministry, Fischer decided to lose weight, transforming his body almost overnight by refraining from alcohol and becoming a vegetarian. In 2000, he covered the topic of his weight loss by writing the bookMy Long Race Towards Myself on his experience, which became an immediatebestseller in Germany.Half a year before becoming foreign minister, he had his marathon debut at the 1998Hamburg Marathon (clocking 3:41).[51] As minister, he finishedNew York in 1999 (3:55)[52] andBerlin in 2000 (3:55).[53]Afterwards, he reduced training and during the months preceding theIraq War, Fischer began putting on weight again.
Fischer was married toGerman-Iranian film producer and screenwriterMinu Barati in 2005. It is his fifth marriage. His two children with his previous partner and eventual wife, Inge Vogel (to whom he was married from 1984 to 1987), were born in 1979 and 1983, respectively. At the time of his wedding with Barati in 2005, she was mother to a six-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, while Fischer's children were 23 and 26 of age at the time. The couple lives with Barati's daughter.[54]
In 2004, he commissioned German heraldistDieter Krieger to produce acoat of arms, which was registered to the Rhein-MainWappenrolle.[55] The arms are a type of a "Canting arms";party per fesse silver and gules, in chief crossed axes with red blades and black handles, in base, a fish in the first.Crest of the red eagle's wings,mantling red doubled silver.[56][57]
He describes himself as Catholic, but not very religious.[58]
Joschka Fischer [...] During his time as German foreign minister, he even had to explain a photo showing him at a meeting of the PLO in Algiers in 1969
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Vice-Chancellor of Germany 1998–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs 1998–2005 | Succeeded by | |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Speaker at theCollege of Europe Opening Ceremony 2003 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
