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Wolfgang Lüder (11 April 1937 – 19 August 2013) was a German lawyer and politician.[1] He was a member of theFree Democratic Party (German:Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP).[2]
He served as the chairman of theBerlin branch of the FDP from 1971 to 1981, becoming from 1975 onwards the Berlin Secretary of Commerce and in 1976 he became the deputy of theGoverning Mayor of Berlin. In 1987 he was elected to theBundestag, where he served until 1994.[2]
Lüder, the son of a landlord, was born inCelle in 1937.[2] He was educated at the Celle Ernestinum grammar school. In 1957, he began studying for the bar at theFree University of Berlin.[3] In 1961 he passed his first legal exam, becoming an intern at the BerlinKammergericht.[1] In 1970 he became the assistant to the State Attorney, and then a judge at theLandgericht Berlin.[1]
In 1981, he returned to law once again and was also anotary from 1991 to 2007.[1] Lüder was married three times and had one daughter. He remained active in politics in Berlin until his death at the age of 76 in 2013.[4]
In 1957, he became a member of theFDP students' branch, known as theLiberalen Studentenbund (LSD).[1] He rose quickly through the party's hierarchy, becoming the head of the Berlin branch by 1961, and then the national chairman in 1962. He was also active in student politics, becoming the leader of the Free University'sstudents' assembly in 1958. He took a leading role in those organisations in promoting theanti-nuclear movement, advocating for multilateral disarmament by bothNATO and theWarsaw Pact.[5]
Joining the FDP proper in 1962, by 1968 he had been put in charge of theDeutschen Jungdemokraten.[1]
In 1970 Lüder became a member of the FDP's national executive. In May 1971 the West Berlin FDP elected him as their leader as he was the most prominent representative of the left-leaning wing of the party who was eligible for the role. Until 1979 he was regularly re-elected to this role.[1]
In the1975 West Berlin Elections he was made a member of theBerlin Senate for the economy and transport as part of the rulingSPD/FDP coalition.[1] After the resignation of Berlin's deputy mayorHermann Oxfort, Lüder replaced him asKlaus Schütz's deputy in July 1976, continuing to serve in the Senate underDietrich Stobbe.[6][7]
On the 7th of January 1981 he resigned in the wake of theGarski Affair, a scandal involving fellow FDP memberDietrich Garski.
In 1987, he was elected to the11th German Bundestag by proportional representation, being re-elected in 1990 as a member of the FDP's national list.[8] FollowingGerman reunification, he was accused, without evidence, of working for theStasi.[9]
Throughout his life, Lüder was a committedHumanist and member of theHumanistischer Verband Deutschlands and eventually became the head of their Berlin-Brandenburg chapter.[10] He was also a member of the groupGegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie, theKarl Hamann trust and the German-Taiwanese Friendship Society.[11] In 1980 he was awarded theOrdre national du Mérite by the French government and in 2012 he was given the honorary title ofStadtältester by the Berlin senate.[12][1]