Klaus Schütz | |
|---|---|
 Schütz in 1969 | |
| Governing Mayor of Berlin (West Berlin) | |
| In office 19 October 1967 – 2 May 1977 | |
| President | Heinrich Lübke Gustav Heinemann Walter Scheel |
| Chancellor | Kurt Georg Kiesinger Willy Brandt Helmut Schmidt |
| Preceded by | Heinrich Albertz |
| Succeeded by | Dietrich Stobbe |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Klaus Schütz (1926-09-17)17 September 1926 |
| Died | 29 November 2012(2012-11-29) (aged 86) |
| Resting place | Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf |
| Political party | SPD |
| Spouse | Adelheid |
Klaus Schütz (17 September 1926[1] – 29 November 2012[2]) was a German politician, who served as theMayor ofWest Berlin from 1967 to 1977, as a member of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD).
Klaus Schütz was born inHeidelberg on 17 September 1926. Schütz was the son of a lawyer, and he grew up inBerlin. After graduating from high school, he was drafted into the army as an anti-aircraft helper in 1944. During the last days of the war he was seriously wounded inItaly, as a result of his right arm remained paralyzed throughout his life.[3]
After the end of the war, Schütz began studying history and German at theHumboldt University in Berlin. He joined the working group of social democratic students and was a member of the student council from 1947. Soon afterwards he was a delegate of the Wilmersdorfer Young Socialists in the state committee of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD). When in June 1948 three fellow students were evicted by the administration of the Humboldt University, located in theSoviet occupation zone, Schütz resigned with other members of the student council and moved to theFree University in the American sector. In 1949 he completed an additional political science course at Harvard University in the United States.
He returned to Berlin, and Schütz took on an assistant position at the Institute for Political Science at the Free University. In 1951 the Berlin Young Socialists elected him as their chairman. Since then, he was mainly supported byWilly Brandt, whose successor he was in the office of the Wilmersdorfer SPD. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the Berlin House of Representatives and from 1958 to 1961 of theGerman Bundestag. In the1961 federal election campaign, he headed Willy Brandt's election office. When Willy Brandt became Foreign Minister, Schütz followed his mentor, who made him State Secretary in the Foreign Office. In 1967, Schütz was elected mayor by theAbgeordnetenhaus, after the resignation of Heinrich Albertz, after a student, named Benno Ohnesorg,was shot by a police officer during a demonstration.
As mayor, Schütz's term in office saw a phase of global political calming down of theCold War, in a period known asDétente. This was reflected in theFour-Power Agreement signed inBerlin, which reconfirmed the existence of the rights and responsibilities of the Four Powers for the future of Berlin andGermany, and improved travel and communications between the two parts of the city and brought numerous improvements for the residents of the Western Sectors. The agreement was followed six months later by theBasic Treaty, which saw bothWest andEast Germany recognize each other as sovereign states for the first time and the abandonment of West Germany'sHallstein Doctrine in favor ofOstpolitik.
Schütz's SPD suffered losses in the1971 West Berlin state election, but again defended the absolute majority with 50.4 percent. The SPD Party then terminated the coalition with theFree Democratic Party (FDP), governing alone from then on. However, internal party fights continued and in1975, the SPD finally lost its absolute majority in theAbgeordnetenhaus, with theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) becoming the largest party. Schütz then formed another coalition, with the FDP again. But scandals and affairs increasingly weakened his government. When Interior Senator Neubauer had to admit irregularities in connection with income from a supervisory board position, Schütz gave up. On 2 May 1977, he resigned from the office of mayor, and a little later he also resigned from the state chairmanship of the SPD.
After resigning from the mayoralty, he worked as German Ambassador to Israel from 1977 until 1981. Later, he took over the management of theDeutsche Welle broadcasting company, and became director of the State Broadcasting Corporation in North Rhine-Westphalia. After his retirement, Klaus Schütz returned to Berlin in 1992 to devote himself to journalistic tasks and the activity as president of the Berlin regional association of the German Red Cross.
Schütz died on 29 November 2012, aged 86, frompneumonia inBerlin.
Schütz married Adelheid (1924–2006), daughter of aparson in 1952.
Media related toKlaus Schütz at Wikimedia Commons
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Mayor of West Berlin 1967–1977 | Succeeded by |
| Berlin1 (1809–1948) |
|  |
|---|---|---|
.svg) East Berlin1(1948–90) | ||
 West Berlin3(1948–90) | ||
| Berlin3 (1990–present) | ||
| ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
   | Thisbiography article about a member of theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
