RICHARD VON WEIZSAECKER

President of Germany (1984 - 1994)

Richard von Weizsaecker was born in 1920 in the family of a German diplomat. He studied philosophy and history in Oxford and Grenoble. In 1938 he joined the army and participated in World War II. In 1945-1950, Weizsaecker continued his studies in Gottingen.

In 1966, Weizsaecker became a member of the CDU federal board and was elected to the Bundestag in 1969. Weizsaecker served as vice president of the Bundestag(1979-1981), but he resigned the office to become the governing mayor of West Berlin (1981 - 1984).

In 1984, Weizsaecker as the CDU/CSU candidate won the presidential election. On May 8, 1985 - the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe - he made a dramatic speech to the Bundestag that articulated the historic responsibility of Germany and Germans for the crimes of Nazism. Running unopposed for the first time in the history of presidential elections in Germany, Weizsaecker was re-elected in 1989. His second term witnessed the process of the unification of Germany and collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

He was Chairman of the Commission on Common Security and the Future of the German Armed Forces until May 2000. He was one of the "Three Wise Men" who were requested by the President of the European Union, Romano Prodi, to elaborate suggestions for institutional reform of the European Union in preparation for the integration of new member states (1999).

He married 1953 Marianne von Kretschmann, they have four children.